Fintech is not only one of the fastest growing industries at the moment, but also the one with the most obvious use cases for blockchain. Blockchain technology has the potential to solve issues in the financial sector by making both internal processes and processes involving multiple parties faster, cheaper and safer. Almost all major banks are experimenting with utilizing blockchain and countless startups are working on innovative solutions to inefficiencies as old as banking itself.
Not only will the implementation of blockchain in Fintech result in increased security for end users, but it will also reduce costs for the institutions, with expected savings between $15–20 million by 2022, according to a report from Santander. Blockchain can reduce a bank’s interaction with parties and intermediaries, reducing costs for maintaining and executing contracts, as well as reducing the cost of interbank (bank-to-bank) transactions for users.
Mastercard recently announced support for blockchain-based transactions, “Mastercard Blockchain facilitates new commerce opportunities for the digital transfer of value by allowing businesses and financial institutions to transact on a distributed ledger. Our technology can power multiple use cases and can help take time, cost and risk out of financial flows.”- Mastercard
The main focus of Mastercard’s blockchain experiments is to track the authenticity of things such as pharmaceuticals and luxury goods.