Is Blockchain set to define Australia's Future - A look at 3 Stocks

The first thing that comes to mind when a person thinks about blockchain technology is its features which allow them to securely transfer the digital asset by means of public-key encryption along with proof of work methods. Blockchain technology in simple terms refers to a chain of blocks, and these blocks contain pieces of digital information that is stored in the public database.

A block is made up of information related to a transaction such as date, time and amount of the latest purchase. It also has information related to the participants involved in the transaction and each block has certain unique information that distinguishes it from the other blocks. This unique information is called cryptographic hash.

Blockchain supports a decentralised form of record-keeping and has a high level of security.

Next question which comes in the mind is - how does the blockchain work and why is it so popular? To answer this, we can say that a blockchain is a public electronic ledger and its work is based on the P2P system (Peer to Peer) which can be shared among different individuals to make an unalterable record of transactions every time. Any transaction that takes place gives rise to a new block which gets linked to the previous block.

Blockchain can only be updated when the participants involved in the transaction agree and once updated, it cannot be erased.

Bitcoin is an example of Blockchain technology and is popular around the world. The reason behind the popularity of the bitcoin is that it supports payment transactions via the internet using the method of encryption and does not reveal the identity of the individual bitcoin owners.

Advantage of using Blockchain:

Blockchain has made it possible to think about a world where an asset related particular such as a transaction detail or any important document can be embedded via a digital code. It is stored in transparent, shared databases which are safeguarded from getting deleted, damaged or revised by any trespassers other than the concerned person involved in the transaction.

Blockchain Future in Australia:

In Australia over the last decade, Blockchain has gained popularity and usage, as it has already started disrupting the current Australian market and the world as a whole. Blockchain is called a disruptive technology as it is removing the need for the third parties. The opportunities related to the use of Blockchain technology is spread across all sectors of the economy. It has attracted huge investment public as well as private from other industries and has come up with new products and services that were not present earlier across various industries.

But when it comes to the future of Blockchain in Australia, there is still a certain level of uncertainty with respect to the adoption of this technology. The extent to which the public would accept this technology at this stage is still not sure.

As per one of the media releases of Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Ms Karen Andrews on 9 April 2019 delivered, that Blockchain technology is expanding rapidly, and the country would be able to seize the opportunities related to the blockchain using the national blockchain roadmap.

The percent of blockchain-related start-up companies in the country has grown up from 3.4% in 2016 to 8.1% by early 2019, with fourteen employment opportunities for each blockchain developer.

Australia is also known as the home to multiple prominent blockchain initiatives which comprised of industry-specific experiments for solutions in energy, agriculture as well as the public sector. An example of this is Australian National Blockchain (ANB). ANB represents a substantial part of infrastructure in Australia’s digital economy and is a new platform in the development phase. Through this platform, the companies across the nation would be able to connect the network and use digitised agreements, share data, as well as verify the genuineness and position of legal contracts.

The Liberal National Government’s prior investment in the blockchain technology was $700k to Digital Transformation Agency to examine the advantages of applying blockchain for government expenditures. Another $350k was provided to Standards Australia to take the responsibility of the creation of international blockchain guidelines via the International Organization for Standardization and another $100k to send start-up companies to premiere blockchain event Consensus in New York.

Let’s also have a look at three ASX listed companies into the blockchain business.

Security Matters (ASX: SMX)

Security Matters (ASX: SMX) is a product lifecycle, supply chain integrity and asset tracking blockchain technology company. The technology used by the company is capable of marking the product in any state of matter (solid, liquid or gas) via its chemical-based barcode, which is read using its unique proprietary reader. Thus, enabling the product to be tracked throughout the supply chain. All the information gets stored on the blockchain and thus ensuring a high level of security as well as transparency.

Kyckr Limited (ASX: KYK)

Kyckr (ASX:KYK) provides global company information from the most compliant and legally authoritative sources in the world. KYK connect to more than 200 company registries on a worldwide scale, across 120 nations and over 170M legal bodies.

The product and services of KYK use world-class technology that helps its customer’s with respect to the challenges faced related to regulatory, KYC and compliance.

The company takes a unique approach by connecting its customers to the registry at every search and making sure that the information provided by the company is of best quality and accurate.

Identitii Limited (ASX: ID8)

Identitii Limited (ASX: ID8) uses blockchain as well as tokenisation. This is used to reduce last mile hold ups by linking businesses and banks with the data they need to manage, reconcile and report on payments.

The company uses Overlay+, its existing technology with blockchain and tokenisation to create a direct way for data as well as documents to move along with the payment message.

Share prices after the market close on 25 November 2019

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