Blockchain holds the key to building an inclusive digital economy that is secure and transparent for the globe’s citizens, according to a new G20 report.

Published last week, but updated earlier this week, the report details how the blockchain can play a vital role in improving economic resilience as ‘governments fight to restore the public’s faith in cross-border economic cooperation.’

Julie Maupin, author of the report and a senior fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) said:

The G20 must take decisive steps to harness this technology in service of its policy goals across the core focus areas of economic resilience, financial inclusion, taxation, trade and investment, employment, climate, health, sustainable development, and women’s empowerment.

She adds that failure to do so ‘risks further fragmenting the global economy, undermining public trust in international economic institutions, and pushing the most cutting-edge blockchain developments into dark web deployments that are beyond the reach of government influence.’

However, she states that:

By acting now to embrace blockchains’ socially beneficial properties and minimize their potential downside risks, the G20 governments can lay the foundation for a just, prosperous, and truly shared global economy.

Banks Efforts to Implement Blockchain

While some don’t think the blockchain is going big anytime soon, despite investment being poured into researching and developing the technology, determined efforts are being undertaken within the financial sector to implement the blockchain to improve services for its customers.

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, realizes the potentials that the technology can provide.

In a report, he said that while the distributed ledger poses risks, it also creates new benefits for businesses and consumers, creating a new financial system for a new age.

In her report, Maupin is aware of these risks by saying:

Blockchains also introduce grave new risks to the global economy by displacing or bypassing some of the intermediaries upon whom governments have historically relied to implement important regulatory safeguards.

While she states it’s not clear how safeguards such as the Financial Action Task Force can combat tax evasion, money laundering, terrorist financing and other dark web activities, she says that the blockchain has already helped to replace failures within the financial industry.

They are helping to expand financial inclusion to previously unbanked populations. They stand poised to improve the oversight of international markets by supplying policymakers with real-time data on financial flows and asset class risks.

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