Blockchain is in a slump, with almost half its 2018 market value wiped out in 2020. But the silver lining in that downfall has been the resiliency of industrial applications, not least in the Agri-Food market, which has dominated blockchain success stories. ABI Research expects industrial blockchain revenues to grow six-fold in the next five years, reaching $2.1 billion globally by 2025.
“Supply chain implementations have been particularly successful and are having the greatest impact on the agri-food industry,” explains Michela Menting, Digital Security Research Director at ABI Research. “Combined with digital transformation efforts and IoT technologies, numerous blockchain-based platforms are moving into the production phase, paving the way for adoption into manufacturing, retail, and utilities markets. Transportation, shipping, distribution, and storage are key verticals for blockchain, and especially as they concern supply chain management, logistics, location and tracking, asset and inventory management.”
The blockchain market is still fairly young, with global revenues rather low, standing at $374 million by the end of 2020. Industrial applications are only just emerging out of R&D and into production.
“However, the opportunities are significant for distributed ledger technology, whether sharing a broad range of data and information or trade finance platforms and product marketplaces where industrial stakeholders can come together transparently and securely,” Menting adds, “But there is no doubt that blockchain can offer real added-value to industrial markets, in line with the Industry 4.0 movement and associated technologies.”
These findings are from ABI Research’s Blockchain in Industrial Applications application analysis report.