10% of total GDP to be stored on blockchain by 2027 — WEF report

Around 10% of global gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to be stored on the blockchain by 2027, pointing to the predicted future popularisation of the technology by traditional markets, an early survey-based report by the World Economic Forum shows.

The report, dubbed “Deep Shift Technology: Tipping Points and Societal Impact” provides a snapshot of expectations from a community of over 800 executives and experts from the information and communications technology sector.

Aggregating results from interviews, the WEF revealed that the uptake of blockchain — which the WEF describes as a distributed trust mechanism used to keep track of transactions in a distributed fashion — could have considerable knock-on benefits.

Among these, blockchain penetration could facilitate increased financial inclusion in emerging markets, as financial services on the blockchain gain critical mass. It could also drive the disintermediation of financial institutions, as new services and value exchanges are created directly on the blockchain.

The WEF lists additional potential positive impacts as “an explosion in tradable assets, as all kinds of value exchange can be hosted on the blockchain; better property records in emerging markets, and the ability to make everything a tradable asset.”

Don Tapscott, co-author of Blockchain Revolution told professional services firm McKinsey in a recent interview that the blockchain is “nothing less than the second generation of the Internet”.

“It will change every institution, in some ways more so than the first generation did… What if there were not just an Internet of information? What if there were an Internet of value, some kind of global distributed ledger or database where anything of value, from money to music to votes, could be managed, transacted, and exchanged in a private and secure way?

“Well, that’s essentially what blockchain is,” he told McKinsey.
TrustBar COO Bheka Mchunu agrees with Tapscott’s transformative evaluation of blockchain, adding that the most critical gain of blockchain technology lies in its ability to provide enhanced transparency through its decentralised global ledger structure.

“It is exactly this feature that has allowed TrustBar to develop its unique exchange offering, where users are able to swop tokens from one chain to another while retaining full custody of their keys and tokens.

“The power of the blockchain also opens up the possibility of one-click two-factor authentication, which we are currently investigating as a further security measure for TrustBar exchange users,” he says.

When launched in December 2018, TrustBar will become the first global decentralised exchange that will allow cross-chain and cross-token trading through a single transaction. Details of the user funds will remain protected by individual keys and not stored on the platform, while dynamic pairing will allow each user to select the buy/sell pairs. This speeds up token exchange and reduces costs for the user.