The Australian Government has described Blockchain as “transformative” technology, which is already revolutionising the financial services industry.
The glowing endorsement came in a media release from the Trade Minister, Simon Birmingham in September.
“Blockchain is an exciting technology presenting strong opportunities for Australian firms,” the press release said.
“By making possible efficient and secure real-time transactions across a range of sectors, it has the potential to be transformative.
“The technology has already begun to revolutionise the financial services industry particularly in data storage and its practical application continues to increase in other industries such as health and agriculture.”
The Government has previously revealed it is investing $700,000 over the next financial year to investigate the benefits of using blockchain for government payments.
“It is vital Australia stays ahead of the game and … continue to support Australian tech companies to grow their expertise and showcase their product offerings on the world stage,” the Minister’s press release said.
Last week, leading Australian blockchain companies and investors travelled to China as part of a mission to explore growth opportunities within one of the world’s fastest growing technology sectors.
Representatives of top tier start-ups, scale-ups, incubators, and financial institutions were among the 37 delegates who visited Austrade’s Shanghai Landing Pad before going on to the Wanxiang 4th Global Blockchain Summit.
The Australian delegates to visit China included:
- AgriDigital, the world’s first cloud-based, multi-participant commodity management platform;
- Capital Markets CRC, Australia’s leading translational research hub and a technology solutions provider;
- ArtChain Global, a platform that synchronises digital and offline assets for anyone involved in trading, collecting or producing works of art;
- Beam, a global payment platform that supports smart contracts;
- Beefledger, which streamlines payments and improves credentials in the beef supply chain;
- Civic Ledger, which helps governments digitalise operations;
- and Standards Australia, which is leading the development of international standards which will facilitate the adoption of (distributed ledger technology (DLT).