Blockchain: India is headed for a fintech revolution this year

By Bipin Preet Singh
JAN 13, 2018, 06.11 AM IST

After the explosive growth of digital payments in 2017, fintech companies are gearing up to ride on blockchain and expand their portfolio of app-based services ranging from consumer lending to insurance products to cross-border remittances. And blockchain will be the technology to lead this fintech revolution in 2018.

Blockchain — a protocol for exchanging value over the internet without an intermediary — has the potential to transform multiple industries and make processes more transparent, secure and efficient. Financial players are the first movers to capitalise on this technology infrastructure. 

Several industries and governments are waking up to the disruptive potential of this technology. As India moves towards a less-cash economy after the remonetising of high-value currency notes in November 2016, digital payments are estimated to grow 10 times: from $50 billion last year to $500 billion by 2020. 

Official figures show that prepaid payment instruments registered a spectacular volume growth of over 162% in 2016-17. The mobile wallet market is forecast to reach $4.4 billion by 2022 with a compound annual growth rate of more than 148%. As India's migration to digital platforms gathers pace, cutting-edge solutions will enable consumers to do much beyond payments for daily-use items like groceries, milk, fuel and medical supplies, and access top-end services like loans, investments, savings and crossborder remittances. 

The uptake can be largely credited to GoI's Aadhaar digital identification programme using biometrics like fingerprint and iris scans to record data of 1.3 billion Indians. Through the open data platform, private technology developers are building a range of personalised services on top of Aadhaar data, like stacks.   

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