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Blockchain is a record-keeping technology designed to make it impossible to hack the system or forge the data stored on it, thereby making it secure and immutable. It is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT), a digital system for recording transactions and related data in multiple places at the same time. Industry experts share Blockchain insights for CIOs, examples and use cases, and how it differs substantially from conventional databases in how it stores and manages information.

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Research firm IDC expects Blockchain spending in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) to reach US$307 million in 2021, which represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 77.4% for the 2016 to 2021 period. While various industries are evaluating the use of Blockchain, IDC research suggests the region’s public sector (including government, education and healthcare) will spend an estimated US$120.8 million in this space in 2021, accounting for 39.2% share.

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Blockchain Challenges

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Kirsten Roy-Reid, Co-Founder, Levels Ventures, said a lot of challenges will face CIOs in the region especially if they have the same challenge of not being able to think of what is working for their IT infrastructure.

 

“Most of the challenges would be in getting the right Blockchain engineers to help in implementing projects, budget to get a third party to help them to implement it,” she said. “Like any other IT project challenges, the integration capabilities and ability to run a public Blockchain or private Blockchain as part of the organisation infrastructure can be a key challenge as well. One can summarise the key challenges that face CIOs in general when it comes to adopting Blockchain in their organisations to the five points that include: a lack of adoption, skills gap, trust among users, financial resources and  Blockchain interoperability.”

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Blockchain Types

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Maury G, Managing Partner, Levels Ventures, said Blockchain can easily be implemented in literally any industry and the benefits that come with that are huge. “Globally, there are key industries that are leading the adoption of the Blockchain like banking, real estate, supply chain, healthcare and government. The banking sector, supply chain and healthcare seem to be the leading sectors to adopt the technology in Africa, plus few governments have started to pilot it. For example, Ethiopian schools plan to use the Cardano Blockchain to track student performance,” Maury said. “South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are leading the Blockchain revolution in Africa with implementations in key business areas in these markets.”

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According to a recent PwC global survey, 32% of enterprises surveyed are already having one or two Blockchain projects in their organisation, while 20% of organisations are still researching the technology.

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Read The Rest Of The Interview Here Intelligent CIO Magazine

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