亚太区区块链的未来（英文版）.pdf

December 2017COGNIZANT REPORTSThe Future of  Blockchain in Asia-PacificWith its dynamic socioeconomic landscape, solid interconnec-tivity, massive digitization of payment solutions and  consistent regulatory environment, Asia is poised to become a hotbed for blockchain innovation. Financial services organizations in the region see blockchain as a game-changer, according to our  recent research, and are working hard to develop strategies,  increase collaborative efforts and address security and latency concerns.DIGITAL SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY2 |   The Future of Blockchain in Asia-PacificDigital Systems & TechnologyEXECUTIVE SUMMARYTwo years ago, the World Economic Forum predicted that 10% of global GDP would be stored using blockchain by 2027 a proclamation that caught many by surprise.1Few companies at the time had conducted proofs of concept, much less participated in the many pilots that were beginning to percolate.Fast-forward to year-end 2017. Blockchain the emerging distributed ledger technology with the potential to automate not just key processes but entire industries is moving from conceptual buzz to mainstream business discussion, with a multiplicity of enterprise implications in play beyond Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency upon which blockchain is based.Innovation in and around blockchain is currently concentrated in the U.S. and Europe, primarily focused on financial services, but application of the new technology is quickly spreading over the Asia-Pacific region. For example, China has explicitly made blockchain a pillar of its economic development strategy. As a result, many observers believe Asia will become a crucial engine for venture capital investment and a hotbed for blockchain innovation perhaps sooner than most global economy pundits had imagined. Consider that fintech financing in Asia-Pacific doubled from $5.2 billion in 2015 to $11.2 billion in 3The Future of Blockchain in Asia-Pacific   |  Digital Systems & Technology2016, compared with $9.2 billion in the U.S. and $2.4 billion in Europe.2Similarly, the region leapfrogged the adoption of mobile banking and has surpassed other geographic areas for mobile finance application usage.3Blockchain adoption may follow a similar trajectory, as the region boasts the most favorable dynamics for distributed ledger technology adoption. Key drivers include a dynamic socioeconomic landscape, solid interconnectivity, massive digitization of payment solutions, a consistent regulatory environment and a large unbanked population. To find out more about blockchain in the Asia-Pacific region, we conducted a study of 482 banking and financial services senior executives across China, Australia, Japan and Singapore (see methodology, page 23). Although blockchain technology is on-course to change how every sector in the world economy does business, this report focuses primarily on financial services, including banks and insurance companies, in the Asia-Pacific. The objective of this report is to provide a glimpse into how financial institutions are readying themselves in the Asia-Pacific region for a future that pivots around blockchains distributed ledger technology to power enterprise-grade, transactional applications. Digital Systems & TechnologyKey FindingsOur research reveals the following trends, whose impact in some cases will soon ripple around the world: Blockchain embodies the new business value of “trust.” Multiple studies have found that consum-ers are less trusting of financial services organizations than other businesses.4Blockchain will federate the trust between businesses, regulators and consumers by making it “consensus-driven,” and it will increase transparency through its collaborative consumption model. In our study, 88% of Asia-Pacific respondents said they view blockchain as important or critical to the future of their industry. Institutions are banking on the huge perceived benefits of blockchain, such as cost savings through process efficiencies and the ability to create new business opportunities by reinforcing transactional trust between consumers and financial institutions. Go slow before you get fast. “Slow and steady” is the pace set for blockchain adoption, with nearly 75% of respondents saying they have adopted a prototype approach to blockchain and are piloting initiatives. While the future remains uncertain, the key is to latch onto the distributed ledger technology in its early phase to be well equipped to move forward as it moves toward the mainstream.Respondents said their organizations are busy setting up blockchain labs (59%) with dedicated resources and putting together a blockchain interdisciplinary task force (60%), in addition to investing in start-ups, forming alliances and leveraging accelerators. In addition, 51% of respon-dents said their firm had defined a blockchain strategy, and 45% said their organization was developing one. Companies must first grasp the complexities of blockchain, and then identify and implant it to start building their blockchain future. Heed the trust trade-off: Permissioned vs. permissionless blockchain. As Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin once noted, “Neither companies nor individuals are particularly keen on publish-ing all of their information onto a public database that can be arbitrarily read without any restrictions by ones own government, foreign governments, family members, coworkers and business competitors.”5Permissioned networks can help allay concerns about data privacy by limiting the number of par-ties that can access a ledger, although they can only go so far. Forty-five percent of our respondents expressed greater interest in permissioned blockchain, while 37% favored permissionless block-chain. Looking forward, 61% of respondents said their firms expect participation in blockchain networks to span multiple divisions or subsidiaries within their own organization or to include one or two outside organizations (i.e., a micro-consortium), leading to greater adoption of permis-sioned and private blockchains. IT infrastructure readiness will make or break the future of blockchain. A lack of IT infrastruc-ture readiness poses a bigger competitive threat to blockchain adoption than any ingenious start-up or disruptive market force. While the legacy IT industry of servers, databases and cables is still important, it has essentially become a utility, taking a backseat to the need for an agile, |   The Future of Blockchain in Asia-Pacific45The Future of Blockchain in Asia-Pacific   |  Digital Systems & Technologyflexible and quickly scalable technology foundation to drive business. Companies with legacy tech-nology architectures, therefore, face a dilemma: striking a balance between the present and future state of IT infrastructure with blockchain. Only 27% of respondents said they were highly confident in their organizations ability to integrate blockchain thinking and technology into existing enterprise processes and systems. While 36% of respondents said their firms plan to replace parts of their legacy system to enable blockchain adoption, 24% said they are still looking for a hybrid approach to ensure that legacy infrastructure and distributed ledger models coexist. IT departments need to be brutally honest in accepting which parts of the IT infrastructure are the major bottlenecks in becoming a digital business and address them to boost blockchain adoption. A flexible strategy will help overcome security, privacy, scalability and interoperability challenges. As with other new technologies, it will take time for businesses to become comfort-able with blockchain. This could be the reason privacy and security emerged as the number one external barrier (71%) to blockchain adoption. The concerns over blockchain security can be compared to the early days of cloud computing, before businesses realized that the infrastruc-ture provided by cloud providers is typically more secure than their own. We believe blockchain will follow a similar trajectory, with companies concerned about security and privacy first adopt-ing private and permissioned platforms. Ultimately, privacy and security concerns will not blunt blockchain adoption. Collaboration is the basis for blockchain innovation. Blockchain innovation cannot happen in isolation. This means companies need internal and external collaboration. Notably, 66% of our respondents said they had commitments from top management to explore blockchain, which will encourage buy-in from key stakeholders across the organization. It is only when individual func-tion heads are engaged, committed and willing to fund blockchain initiatives that true transformation will happen. Industry-wide collaboration among participants, exchanges and regulators is also critical to block-chain adoption. Forty-six percent of respondents said they believe an industry consortium will govern their blockchain network of choice, whereas 22% believe a third-party will do so. This could be the reason 45% of our Asia-Pacific respondents believe they are well prepared to deal with current regulatory implications of blockchain; in fact, 54% claimed to be well prepared to accom-modate future regulations. While 36% of respondents said their firms plan to replace parts of their legacy system to enable blockchain adoption, 24% said they are still looking for a hybrid approach to ensure that legacy infrastructure and distributed ledger models coexist. |   The Future of Blockchain in Asia-Pacific6BLOCKCHAINING ASIAS DIGITAL FUTUREAsia-Pac faces a serious problem: Like elsewhere in the world, established brands are increasingly losing consumer trust. In a study conducted by the Cognizant Center for the Future of Work, only 43% of respondents in the Asia-Pacific said they had a high level of trust in institutions across industries when it came to the use of their data.6Moreover, over two billion adults (almost one-third of the earths population) have never banked in their lives, many of whom live in developing nations.7What if we could ensure financial access as a basic human right? What if we could build better mech-anisms to trust each other? What if we could enable people and machines to cooperate in a myriad of unimaginable ways? We now have the opportunity to address big industry and societal issues with blockchain technology, as transparency can bridge the ”trust deficit” that governments and institu-tions face.8The postulation that “banking is essential, but banks are not”9is especially true for blockchain, whose emerging ecosystem pivots around distributed shared infrastructure, powerful cryptography and immutable records that threaten to marginalize central authorities, such as banks, brokerage houses or insurance firms. (For a more thorough definition of blockchain, see the Quick Take, next page, or our e-book “Demystifying Blockchain.10) We now have the opportunity to address big industry and societal issues with blockchain technology, as transparency can bridge the “trust deficit” that governments  and institutions face.Digital Systems & TechnologyQuick TakeA Blockchain PrimerBlockchain is a decentralized software mechanism that enables a public distributed ledger system. The technology allows the tracking and recording of assets and transactions without the presence of a central trust authority such as a bank. Blockchain networks create proof of ownership by using unique digital signatures that rely on public encryption keys known to everyone on the network and private keys known only to the owner. Complex algorithms drive consensus among users, ensuring that transaction data cannot be tampered with after verification, reducing the risk of fraud.These networks also enable peer-to-peer exchange of data, assets and currencies through rules-based smart contracts in a more efficient, transparent and cost-effective manner. Once created, smart contracts execute automatically once their terms are met, without the need for human intervention. Smart contracts are not unique to blockchain, but they are greatly enhanced by blockchain networks.Blockchain platforms can be public (i.e., permissionless) like Bitcoin, with anyone allowed to submit a transaction and take part in validating other transactions. They can also be private (i.e., permissioned), where only authorized parties participate in sharing and validating information.7The Future of Blockchain in Asia-Pacific   |  Digital Systems & TechnologyDigital Systems & Technology|   The Future of Blockchain in Asia-Pacific8Asia could become a dynamic testing ground for the new business models promised by blockchain, as the region has high demand for financial inclusion and the need for more efficient, convenient and affordable products and services. Moreover, by 2020, more than half of the worlds middle class could be in Asia-Pa-cific, accounting for over 40% of global middle-class consumption, and leading to a larger market for financial services in the region.11For instance, MicroMoney, a global blockchain-based lending services company, aims to serve at least one million unbanked people in Asia with first-time loans by 2020.12Another factor driving blockchain adoption is that many individuals across Asia working outside of their home country are increasingly demanding a more efficient and affordable system to send money home. The current average fee for sending money ranges from 5% to 20%. Blockchain has the poten-tial to cut current cross-border settlement costs significantly.13Maybank Singapore plans to leverage blockchain technology to allow 19,000 migrants to transact without banking access.14The real-time, cost-effective, international payments could become the norm in Asia-Pacific. Innovation is often spurred by changing or unrecognized market needs. Blockchain start-ups are springing up across many segments, such as payments, cross-border remittances, loans, digital wal-lets and post-trade clearances and settlements. Their aim is simple: Gain advantage by providing an alternative to traditional financial services that effectively solves sticky business problems associated with payments and makes financial facilities available where none exist. Regulators in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore are providing the necessary thrust for blockchain innovation by establishing regulatory sandboxes to ease testing and piloting of blockchain projects.15Asia-Pacific is also home to a forward-looking regulatory environment. Japan and South Korea have regulated cryptocurrency environments, and their central banks are in the process of licensing exchanges; in fact, the U.S. may follow Japan to license Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges.16The Monetary Authority of Singapore has adopted a proactive approach toward blockchain,17and Chinas Central Bank is piloting a sovereign blockchain digital currency to provide a flexible regulatory envi-ronment.18Despite this supportive regulatory environm