according to PwC ’ s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2020 , from 5,000 respondents across 99 territories globally , there was a reported $ 42bn deficit across the previous 24 months at the hands of fraudsters . Money laundering is , of course , one of the many popular forms of fraud .
Currently , financial institutions do have processes in place to mitigate the risk of potentially fraudulent moves . The most popular is probably the ‘ Know Your Customer ’ process — which involves in-depth background checks on all parties involved in a transaction to assess the legitimacy of the upcoming trade . The problem is , these are , as you might expect , highly regulated and can take days or even weeks to complete .
Blockchain technology can alleviate this delay whilst ensuring all standards and regulations are met . Due to the immutable ledger held in blocks , there will already be an accurate , indisputable history — available in real-time — of a company ’ s activity on the chain , publicly available on the network , in advance . Companies could either turn away from the traditional financial institutions ’ checks and do their own research on the blockchain , or the institutions could also join the network to hasten their services-offered .
Cybersecurity Cybersecurity is one of the hottest topics of the day — the advancement of global digitalisation has given rise to greater volumes of malicious activity across the digital world . Investing in the protection of a company ’ s confidential data has become an absolute necessity ; due to the nature of the blockchain ’ s duplication technique , companies can store data on the distributed ledger to entirely eradicate the vulnerabilities that come with centralised data storage .
So blockchain can prevent data theft or sabotage , and , as an aside , due to a network being distributed across a myriad of locations , it ’ s also borderline impossible for hackers to launch an attack on companies that use the system .
Proxy Voting In this COVID-19-adapted world , the prospect of heading outdoors is a bittersweet one — the office , our usual places of work , and social areas are now classed as dangerous places , while the snug safety of our own sofas is heralded as a saviour ’ s seat . With that in mind , proxy voting is an excellent addition to the company arsenal , and , of course , blockchain technology makes it better than what we already have .
66 April 2021