Blockchain Revolution

4. Lending Value: From household mortgages to T-bills, financial institutions
facilitate the issuance of credit such as credit card debt, mortgages, corporate
bonds, municipal bonds, government bonds, and asset-backed securities. The
lending business has spawned a number of ancillary industries that perform
credit checks, credit scores, and credit ratings. For the individual, it’s a credit
score. For an institution, it’s a credit rating—from investment grade to junk.
On the blockchain, anyone will be able to issue, trade, and settle traditional
debt instruments directly, thereby reducing friction and risk by increasing
speed and transparency. Consumers will be able to access loans from peers.
This is particularly significant for the world’s unbanked and for entrepreneurs
everywhere.
5. Exchanging Value: Daily, markets globally facilitate the exchange of
trillions of dollars of financial assets. Trading is the buying and selling of
assets and financial instruments for the purpose of investing, speculating,
hedging, and arbitraging and includes the posttrade life cycle of clearing,
settling, and storing value. Blockchain cuts settlement times on all
transactions from days and weeks to minutes and seconds. This speed and
efficiency creates opportunities for unbanked and underbanked people to