Why the rapid growth of blockchain in Asia Pacific region

by Lumai Mubanga

The Asian Pacific region is one unique region in the world that has witnessed the rapid growth of blockchain application. Perhaps only next to Europe and the US, it has surpassed Latin America and Africa combined. What has brought about this surge in growth and what is the most in-demand aspects of blockchain that have appealed so much to this region?

Why Asia Pacific Region

One report published in 2017 revealed the reasons why this is the case. For example, it has now become an established fact that regional governments in this region have taken the driving seat of the blockchain ecosystem evolution. Unlike Africa and Latin American governments, in this region government have taken an active role to promote the technology and its adaptation in trade, finance, banking and governance. For example, between November 2016 and April 2017, nearly seven different countries in this region alone either published, announced, committed or developed systems to implement or support the adoption of blockchain.

The Blockchain race in Asia

In November of 2016, Singapore created a partnership for interbank using blockchain. A month later, china included blockchain in its national information plan. The following year between January and April 2017, Thailand, Australia and India introduced a legal amendment to support the technology, committed $350, 000 to support the development of blockchain standards and India announced the creation of an academy for blockchain research and consultancy respectively. South Korea and Japan also developed the blockchain code and published methodologies to assess blockchain systems.

Because of these deliberate efforts by government’s, there has immerged three categories of blockchain technology providers namely; blockchain providers, blockchain infrastructure providers and blockchain service providers.

Blockchain applications on demand

The increase in population and business expansions is one reason why Asian pacific has turned to blockchain for solutions. In an effort to meet industry demand in the Asia Pacific, Blockchain applications are evolving from pilots to real-world platforms, and there is a lot of interest and development in Asia Pacific markets and especially in China.

Projects are going into production and bringing benefits including cost reductions, dramatic increases in efficiency, transparency, and security, and the development of new business models and opportunities.

Hyperledger, in particular, has seen its huge adoption in this region because it has proved to be a greenhouse for blockchain projects. It is providing expertise, infrastructure, and support to developers and companies to collaborate in an open-source environment on blockchain technologies for business.

The specific tools

Available tools in hyper ledger driving this explosion include distributed ledgers such as fabric, Sawtooth, Iroha, Indy, Besu and Burrow. In addition, there are software libraries such as Quilt, Ursa, Aries and Transact. Innovative hyper ledger tools like Caliper, Cello and Explorer have also found fertile ground in the region.

This region is definitely in the driving seat for blockchain development through its various sectors. We are witnessing the direct effects of governmental support to technological development as opposed to seating on the fence. When governments and businesses adopt any tech breakthroughs, the whole region tends to benefit. Asian Pacific region will remain a good example of blockchains rapid growth for many years to come.