Australia releases blockchain roadmap

The 52-page roadmap released last week signposts the changes to regulation, education, and investment that are needed to make Australia an international blockchain leader.

By getting ahead of this emerging technology, the government aims to boost the economy and generate an estimated US$175 billion in value for Australian businesses by 2025, and more than US$3 trillion by 2030.

Wine on the blockchain

At present, blockchain tech is used in the Australian financial and insurance industries.

Current projects include the development of a blockchain-based post-trade infrastructure for Australia’s equity market. This will replace the 25-year-old system currently being used to perform clearing, settlement, and other post-trade services.

Elsewhere, Perth Mint, the world’s largest refiner of newly-mined gold, is working with precious metals digitization company Infinigold to establish the blockchain-based Perth Mint Gold Token (PMGT).

Beyond these use cases, the strategy points to several industries outside the financial sector that are primed to benefit from integrating blockchain.

Agricultural supply chains in the wine industry, which suffered from AU$1.68 billion of counterfeiting losses in 2017, are poised to take advantage of the transparency and data-sharing efficiencies of blockchain.

By using blockchain to track inventory and facilitate automated payments between supply chain members, the wine industry could potentially save money and improve overall productivity.

Other industries, including credentials and higher education, are also set to benefit from being able to prove authenticity. But while the potential growth opportunities from blockchain are said to be numerous, little is said about cryptocurrency.

The report only briefly mentions the 30 businesses in the Queensland towns of Agnes Water and 1770 that accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment and doesn’t suggest how this might be built on.

It does acknowledge, however, the erosion of trust in social media, banks, and governments that means that "blockchain and other decentralized technologies are increasingly preferred to traditional intermediaries."