Blockchain Foundry Inc. (CSE: BCFN)
Develops and commercializes blockchain-based business solutions and provides consulting services to corporate clients seeking to leverage blockchain technology in their businesses.
Blockchain is shaking up the finance sector, and some enthusiasts believe that it may one day even replace banks altogether.
While doing away with banks might be a little far-fetched, one can’t argue against all the ways Blockchain is disrupting traditional financial services.
Leaving no room for ambiguity in its name, Blockchain is exactly what it sounds like – a system of recording digital information in blocks that are then stored in a chain. Much like an accountant would store financial information in a general ledger, blockchain is simply another type of ledger, but in this case, it’s a decentralized ledger recording digital information. However, the most significant difference between Blockchain and an accountant’s ledger is that once information has been added to the Blockchain, it is there forever. It can not be deleted, altered, or otherwise manipulated in any way.
This inability to change information stored on the Blockchain is just one reason this technology is set to transform the way we bank, and companies like Blockchain Foundry Inc. (CSE: BCFN) are helping enterprise level clients get on board with the revolution.
Blockchain is helping take out-dated banking processes and update them for the needs of today’s users. By employing Blockchain, financial institutions can improve security, reduce transactional risk, and increase processing speeds while benefiting from significant cost-savings.
While many big-name banks have been slow to transition fully to Blockchain technology, early successes have now prompted some in the industry to explore more ways to utilize this technology in various financial services.
What is clear, however, is that Blockchain has emerged from infancy and matured into enterprise grade technology. Here are five ways Blockchain is already showing promising evidence of its potential.
Financial intermediaries have become as synonymous with banking transactions as the money being exchanged. Core banking transactions, like loans, mortgages, and payment services, depend on a legacy execution process that can add unnecessary time delays to otherwise straightforward applications. Between verification, approval, processing, and distribution of funds, it can take over 30 days for an individual to secure a mortgage and up to 90 days for small or medium enterprises to secure a business loan.
Blockchain can enable banking and lending transactions to be completed within a fraction of the time. Authenticated user data provides increased security and allows real-time verification of financial documents. At the same time, a cryptographic secured, decentralized record of payments can assess the creditworthiness of loan applicants nearly instantaneously.
Global payments and remittances accounted for over $690 billion in 2019, and this amount is expected to approach a trillion dollars by 2026. Currently, financial intermediaries are the only way to transfer large sums of money between countries. Not only is this process slow, taking between 2-7 business days for funds to settle, but these intermediaries also charge a hefty fee for their services. With average fees nearing 7%, over $48 billion in payments were lost service charges in 2019 alone.
Blockchain can make global payment and remittance faster, more cost-effective, and more secure. With automatically executing smart contracts and no third-party interface, the time and cost associated with transferring funds is significantly reduced.
In response to the growing demand from both national and federal savings banks, the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently issued a statement affirming these institutions have the authority to provide cryptocurrency custodial services to their clients.
Many financial institutions welcomed the news, with several big-name banks now allowing clients to hold digital assets in their accounts. Clients of these institutions can now complete cryptocurrency transactions as simply as they would fiat transfers.
“[B]anks have custodial services for different assets,” said Saket Sinha, global vice president of Blockchain solutions at IBM, “Blockchain allows for the creation of custodial services for digital assets like Bitcoin and tokens.”
Many banks have started using Blockchain finance platforms to execute smart contracts between participants. We’ve seen how this has led to increased efficiency, transparency, and the potential for new revenue streams. But the potential benefits of Blockchain technology don’t stop at the finance sector.
Digitalized smart contracts could revolutionize legal agreements, supply chain management, and healthcare even more than it has currency transactions. Blockchain can be created for marriage vows, divorce proceedings, home sales, and insurance claims; anything that involves digital proof can be added to a Blockchain.
KYC and AML compliance is one of the financial services sector’s most costly policies to implement and maintain, costing banks and other financial institutions hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
With authenticated user data and Blockchain-enabled identification, Blockchain makes it easier for institutions to identify and verify users on both ends of a transaction. This increases both the trust in these financial institutions and banks, and customer security, providing users protection against fraud while significantly speeding up the verification process and transaction times.
Blockchain Foundry Inc., a Canadian publicly listed company focused on the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries, is at the forefront of developing blockchain solutions for the finance sector.
While Blockchain Foundry Inc. has a focus on developing Blockchain assets like NFTs and DeFi applications, the company is also engaged in Blockchain development initiatives along several verticals for large enterprises.
In 2020, Blockchain Foundry Inc. announced it had entered into a Blockchain development agreement with a large Canadian financial institution and more recently released a press release outlining its current strategy.
“BCF has been actively evaluating blockchain-enabled product opportunities in several industry
verticals, including remittances, loyalty applications and digital identities.”
The company then went on to say it “has recently engaged in two solution design projects, one for a carbon exchange product using a digital asset to represent sequestered carbon, and another project building an NFT platform to track the popularity of music, movies and TV shows and produce a corresponding payout.”
With Blockchain only just beginning to unleash its influence over the financial services and other digital assets, Blockchain Foundry (CSE:BCFN) is a stock that investors should keep on their watch list.
