Fast forward

Rethinking enterprises, ecosystems and economies with blockchains

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Executive overview

Authors: Sarah Diamond, Global Managing Director, Jim Brill, Director, Marketing and Communications, Financial Services Sector, Jerry Cuomo, IBM Fellow, Vice President, Blockchain Technologies, Ramesh Gopinath, Vice President, Blockchain Solutions and Research, Peter J. Korsten, Partner and Vice President, Global Leader Thought Leadership and Eminence, Arvind Krishna, Senior Vice President, Cloud and Cognitive Software, IBM, Brigid McDermott, Vice President, Blockchain Business Development, John McLean, CTO Europe and Vice President, Blockchain Technologies, Veena Pureswaran, Global Blockchain Research Leader, IBM Institute for Business Value, Shanker Ramamurthy, Chief Technology Officer and General Manager, Strategy and Market Development, IBM Industry Platforms, James Wallis, Vice President, Global Payments Industry and Blockchain

For centuries, global trade has been the single greatest creator of wealth in human history and market friction the greatest obstacle to wealth. Blockchain technology –which creates a permanent and transparent record of transactions –has the potential to obviate intractable frictions across industries.

Following our June 2016 cross-industry report, “Fast forward,” the IBM Institute for Business Value, supported by the Economist Intelligence Unit, conducted a global survey of over 1,000 executives in banking, financial markets, healthcare, government, electronics, supply chain and IoT. Read insights below on how business networks in your industry will be transformed and how to approach blockchain solutions.

Download the infographic

Interact with the study infographic: Dig deeper into major study concepts with this interactive infographic. Learn about three types of frictions hampering businesses, understand the attributes of blockchains, and see the parts of the "transformation triad."

Developed in collaboration with the Blockchain Research Institute, this report explores how blockchain is transforming education with an emphasis on lifelong learning and reskilling the workforce.

Charting the evolution of programmable money

A new digital currency, called stable coins, has better price stability than other cryptocurrencies and is gaining interest among central banks

Building your blockchain advantage

See how blockchain pioneers anticipate entirely new paths to value and new business models that could countermand an era of depleting trust.

Enforcing accountability in media

Learn how blockchain can help M&E companies fight piracy and reduce fraud and intermediaries.