Use of Blockchain in Major Industries by Numbers: Retail, Manufacturing, Finance, and Others

The exponential increase in demand and interest in blockchain technology has enabled multi-billion dollar markets for the blockchain in major sectors including manufacturing, agriculture, retail, supply chain, IoT, and payments.

While the report cited the increase in demand for blockchain-as-a-service provided by technology conglomerates such as Microsoft and Intel as a major catalyst for the growth of the blockchain in manufacturing market, it cautiously suggested that the lack of regulatory clarity in the U.S. could limit the growth of the market.

Depending on the stance of the Chinese government towards blockchain technology, the blockchain in manufacturing market of China could surpass $1 billion, given the current size of the smart manufacturing market of the nation.

"Blockchain is the second era of the Internet. The value of blockchain is 10 times that of the Internet. Blockchain is the machine that produces trust."

Hyperledger, a major blockchain consortium operated by the Linux Foundation, officially launched Sawtooth under the Hyperledger banner in January, to cooperate with its member conglomerates to test the blockchain.

In June, MarketsandMarkets published a new market research report "Blockchain in Retail Market by Provider, Application, Organization Size, and Region - Global Forecast to 2023," disclosing that the blockchain in retail market is currently valued at $80 million.

The study suggested that the U.S. will lead the blockchain in retail market in the years to come, as the government has acknowledged blockchain technology as an important component of its innovation economy.

"Retailers have recognized the blockchain technology's potential for the efficiency of supply chain systems and started adopting the technology to develop business applications. Moreover, the US government is exploring the blockchain technology to boost the innovation economy."

The researchers said that major blockchain vendors including IBM, SAP, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Bitfury, Auxesis Group, Cegeka, BTL, Guardtime, Loyyal, and BigchainDB are actively developing business applications of the blockchain.

If some public blockchain networks can secure a fraction of the market share of the offshore banking sector and traditional stores of value like gold, then a multi-trillion blockchain market in finance could be achieved.