This Week in Web3: Understanding Blockchain Solutions for Business Challenges

At its core, blockchain is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that records transactions across multiple computers in a secure, immutable and transparent manner.

Unlike traditional databases, where data is stored in a centralized system, blockchain distributes data across a network, ensuring no single point of failure and enhancing security.

The technology’s proponents believe this makes the blockchain uniquely suited to address long-standing inefficiencies in business processes, particularly as the world transitions to digital-first operations.

Still, blockchain is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Businesses must identify specific pain points where blockchain’s unique attributes can offer a tangible benefit while solving current challenges in business.

Against a backdrop where the new U.S. administration is expected to play a positive role in shaping the cryptocurrency sector, some of the most promising blockchain opportunity areas are proving to be within cross-border payments, supply chain management and treasury operations.

Crypto-Focused Regulatory and Political Shifts

The cryptocurrency market’s value has surpassed $3 trillion in anticipation of an industry-friendly United States president.

PYMNTS covered Friday (Nov. 15) how the U.S. government and state-level agencies are expected to scale back enforcement of the cryptocurrency sector under the new administration. President-Elect Donald Trump reportedly is meeting with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong to discuss the incoming administration’s personnel appointments. Trump said during the campaign that if elected, he would form a presidential advisory commission focused on bitcoin and crypto and with developing transparent regulatory guidance in the sector.

News also broke Monday (Nov. 18) that Donald Trump’s Trump Media & Technology (TMTG) is reportedly in advanced talks to buy cryptocurrency trading venue Bakkt. Bakkt was created by and is owned by Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange. TMTG operates social media platform Truth Social, and an acquisition of Bakkt would move the company into new areas.

Trump’s victory earlier this month has been viewed as a win for the crypto sector. As Trump has promised to turn the U.S. into a crypto haven, Great Britain wants to seem more inviting to digital asset companies. And as covered here last week, it has led the British government to develop new crypto legislation dealing with stablecoins, with plans to exclude staking services from existing financial regulation.

Blockchain at Center of Borderless Commerce

Consensus is slowly but steadily building among industry experts that blockchain technology and new infrastructures could transform the future of cross-border payments.

PayPal will begin letting its disbursement partners use PayPal USD to settle cross-border money transfers. The new service will be offered through PayPal’s Xoom cross-border payments business, according to a Tuesday (Nov. 19) press release. Philippines-based financial services firm Cebuana Lhuillier and Africa’s Yellow Card are the first users.

“The main barrier to widespread stablecoin adoption outside of the crypto ecosystem is the lack of regulatory frameworks,” Tony McLaughlin, emerging payments at Citi Services, told PYMNTS.

Looking ahead, McLaughlin said he envisions a future where blockchain plays a complementary role to existing financial messaging systems, offering a new level of coordination and efficiency. Using an analogy, he compared today’s financial transactions to organizing a dinner party via email, where multiple threads of communication make coordination difficult. By contrast, blockchain could act like a messaging app, where all parties have a shared understanding of the transaction’s status — a “common state” that allows for better orchestration of balance sheet updates.

“In five years, we might have a blockchain or state-machine capability where financial institutions involved in a transaction can look at that common state and use it as a source of truth to update their own balance sheets,” McLaughlin said. “If we can achieve that, it could unlock real-time, 24/7 cross-border payments.”

PYMNTS covered how, as technologies like cryptocurrency re-emerge from the shadows of skepticism, compliance professionals find themselves at the epicenter of this transformation as regulatory expertise becomes a high-demand skillset.

Corporate Applications of Blockchain and Crypto

Companies are leveraging blockchain to enhance operational workflows and capitalize on new business opportunities.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase last Wednesday (Nov. 13) acquired the Utopia Labs team to accelerate its onchain payments roadmap within Coinbase Wallet.

Goldman Sachs plans to spin out GS DAP, its blockchain-based platform for participants in digital capital markets, from its Digital Assets business. “Delivering a distributed technology solution to a wide cross-section of financial market participants has the potential to redefine market connectivity, infrastructure composability, and to deliver a new suite of commercial opportunities for the buy- and sell-side,” Matthew McDermott, global head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, said in the company’s Monday release.

PYMNTS covered on Wednesday (Nov. 20) how blockchain could transform treasury operations by streamlining corporate finance workflows and optimizing legacy processes. For corporate treasurers navigating a global economy defined by uncertainty and complexity, blockchain technology offers a compelling promise: a transformation of the treasury function from a cost center to a strategic enabler.

Plus, we looked into how blockchain-based innovations are streamlining holiday logistics and supporting peak supply chain volumes.