Chain reactions
Blockchain offers a way to process safe and quick digital payments, but it also has much potential for the future
U
nless you have occupied a cave in the Sierra Juárez mountains for the past couple of years, the chances are you will have
“Blockchain is not The Matrix. It’s a design solution for the back end of processes”
heard the word ‘blockchain’ by now. Unless you are a tech or finance geek, however, the chances also are that you will only have the foggiest notion of what blockchain is, or is likely to mean for you professionally. That is entirely forgivable, because while blockchain has some simple principles at its core, the technology around it can be ferociously compli- cated. What is also unclear is just how momentous blockchain will prove to be. Mooted potential applications relevant to business travel include everything from completely replacing existing payment processes to automated con- tract fulfilment to eliminating physical passports.
Such predictions explain why one recent headline in Fortune magazine screamed: ‘Here’s why blockchains will change the world’. But some payment professionals want to turn the hyperbole knob well down from its current level of 11. “Everyone is waiting for some killer app that will change the world,” says Simon Barker, chief executive of Conferma. “I don’t think that is going to happen. Instead there will be lots of small, in- cremental improvements. Blockchain is great for a
In association with
lot of unglamorous stuff for which today we are using workarounds.” Airplus International UK manag-
ing director Carrie Haywood agrees. “Blockchain won’t affect travel manag- ers directly, only the systems they use,” she says. “It’s not The Matrix. It’s a design solution for the back end of processes, not what travel managers or travellers will experience.”
LEDGER OF EVERYTHING To help the reader formulate their own opinion, some explanation is needed. Blockchain has been described as the ‘Ledger of Everything’, the ultimate, in- disputable source of record. “Blockchain is distributed ledger technology,” says Alexandra Fitzpatrick, vice-president of global travel payment solutions at Trav- elport. “It is like having a digital data ledger sitting in the cloud, with debit on one side and credit on the other, all synchronised.” Whenever any transaction is made between parties in a network, most simply between a buyer and a seller, the transaction is configured into what is known as a block, and is shared by all parties within the network, containing crucial information such as buyer and seller identities, transaction details, the value of the buyer’s digital wallet from which the payment is taken and the unused balance returned to the buyer. The transaction is instant and the record of it unchangeable. The block is then added to a chain, which records the entire non-reversible history of transactions in a public ledger. “When I update my ledger, you update yours and we both trust it,” says Barker. “It’s a low-cost way to keep
BBT CORPORATE CARDS SUPPLEMENT 2017 25
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36