Many of us looking at the cryptocurrency markets have an intuitive sense that government agencies and offices are leading the charge in the sea change toward blockchain adoption.
Now, however, a report from IDC Government Insights makes that official – dropped today, the study shows that state and local government spending on blockchain is projected to go from around $4 million in 2017 to $48 million by 2022.
At the same time, the report suggests federal government adoption and spending is going to increase up to $123 million, which is also an increase greater than 1000%.
According to reporting by Marie Huillet in Cointelegraph today, IDC leaders expect that asset management, identity management and smart contracts will be big focus points for blockchain adoption in the coming years.
“IDC also notes that blockchain is likely to become a cornerstone technology for trade legislation, and is likely ‘to be implemented as a standard feature for some types of authorized international trade and also as a standard for many types of government procurement,’” Huillet writes. “In terms of specific implementations of the technology, the report argues that a hybrid blockchain approach — combining aspects of private and public networks — is likely to prove the most popular among government agencies.”
Blockchain adoption may also be a bipartisan movement – as Huillet points out, U.S. House of Representatives Republicans have argued for blockchain adoption in order to increase legislative transparency, security and accountability, and Democratic members have also expressed similar sentiments.
With this in mind, look for blockchain to be “decided on” at some point in the United States. As some analysts point out, the SEC another regulators have dragged their feet quite a bit, but there’s only so far you can kick the can down the road. With the coalescing of regulatory goals, it seems likely that regulators intend to accommodate and tolerate blockchain technologies, and we’re likely to see fintech blockchain initiatives blossom this year and in the years to come.
