It has been interesting to see the way in which cryptocurrencies and blockchain have grown and become more and more popular over the last few years. The two related technological innovations are slowly becoming part of mainstream conversations, but there are still many who do not know about them, or, have only heard of it without knowing how they work and why they could be the future of finance and financial markets. At the same time, it is also important for developers to keep working on ways to improve them, and look for new ways in which they can be utilised. This is especially true for blockchain, which has many potential uses outside of cryptocurrencies and arguably has much more potential than crypto to truly transform various sectors and industries. For example, the online casino industry has seen adoption of both cryptocurrencies and blockchain taking place at a large scale. This year more operators have launched new platforms by its nature casino bitcoin online, where customers can use cryptocurrencies to make payments and receive winnings and withdrawal. Most of these online casinos are also using blockchain to process their transactions, as well as store customers’ financial and personal data. The use of blockchain means that transactions are secure and safe from potential fraud, while data storage is also safe for similar reasons. This has made such online casinos quite popular, and show just one way in which blockchain technology can be used to make everyday transactions much easier and safer. Therefore, it is interesting and encouraging that the Singapore government is funding research in blockchain through a new innovation program.
The program is being launched by a group of Singaporean government agencies, with $12 million SGD in funding. It is being called the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Programme (SBIP), and it is a partnership between the Infocomm Media Development Authority, Enterprise Singapore and the National Research Foundation Singapore. It has also received support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which is the country’s central bank and financial regulator, while the funding is coming from the National Research Foundation. The money will be used to develop, encourage and commercialize the use and adoption of blockchain by companies in Singapore, with the first focus of the programme being on the implementation of blockchain in trade, logistics and supply chain firms.
Singapore has one of the busiest ports in the world, being situated at the southern tip of the Malay peninsula, which puts it in a crucial spot for world shipping and trade. This means that logistics and supply chain firms have huge operations in the city-state, and the potential for blockchain to transform this industry is large, making it a natural objective to focus on for the program. It is already working with Dimuto, a global supply chain management firm, to use blockchain in order to track perishable goods and therefore improve farmers’ creditworthiness. The program aims to work with 75 companies over the next three years, and it is also looking to help set up blockchain networks in Singapore which can then work and collaborate with one another, and also growing the sector’s talent pool. The COVID-19 pandemic has made global supply chains even more vulnerable to disruptions than earlier, which is why the use of blockchain to create transparent and cohesive networks is even more important in the current scenario.
The Singapore government has positioned itself as a pioneer for supporting blockchain for a while now, and one of its goals is to become a crypto hub for the region over the next few years. The government had also launched Project Ubin in 2016 with the aim of providing a crypto payment platform with support for multiple currencies, and it was announced in July that its commercial potential had now been proven after tests with over 40 companies.
