🌍 Executive Summary

Increased digitization of the global economy changes the ways products and services are produced, marketed, distributed, and purchased across the world. SuchMany new technologies aslike artificial intelligence, cloud computing, the introduction of “smart devices” and the use of autonomous systems are creating new industries and are changing existing ones. The speed of digitization has its benefits but also imposes difficult governance challenges, within and across borders. The correct use of digital technology is crucial for offering additional value in today’s global economy.

Global rules, which are embedded in different multilateral, regional trade, and investment agreements, are challenged by new processes that digitization is introducing. Some countries manage to take advantage of the current regulatory environment and some face the risk of being left behind. The same thing applies to businesses as well. For many companies in the world, the digitization of their core business processes is crucial for their business survival. Many people think that B2C companies are the ones that lead the digital transformation, but instead, B2B companies are the ones that tend to invest most in the digital transformation.

One of the major business processes that companies need to digitize is the long, paper-based, and intensive processes. For B2B oriented companies, documents are the main tool for conducting business. Digital Transaction Management is the key way to begin this process. While working with papers, especially with confidential documents, it is very important to have those documents kept in secured places and to know at any time who has access to them. When dealing with this kind of documents, proof of ownership, proof of identity, proof of authentication, and proof of integrity are of utmost importance.

Within the digital and automated processes, where security, access transparency, and confidentiality are a must, digital identity plays a significant role.

“Digital identity is the technological link between a real entity such as a person and its digital equivalent entities. It includes a collection of electronically captured and stored identity attributes including biographic and biometric data and something the person has like a smartphone—that can uniquely describe a person within a given context.”

The importance of the digital identity in today’s world is seen by many as new regulatory environments take shape, and closer collaboration between the financial sector, central/local public authorities, and digital communications operators will give support for providing good solutions and implementation of best practices.

One of the biggest technological trends in the world that will redefine how businesses work, how people collaborate and transact, and identify themselves is the use of blockchain technology. A blockchain represents a distributed ledger of transaction records that are encrypted and securely saved across a network of computers so that the records cannot be altered retroactively without the modification of all successive blocks and the consensus of the network.

The main advantages of blockchain technology can significantly improve and guide the innovation and acceptance process of this technology in many industries. The main benefits of implementing blockchain technology that will be most significant and evident are decentralization; transparency and trust, immutability; high availability and secure and simplification and automation of processes.