A study by Stanford University's Center for Social Innovation and non-profit foundation Rippleworks analysed 193 social impact organisations and initiatives that are leveraging blockchain, exploring how much is hype and how much reality.
Key findings include:
It's early days, but social impact is close
- 55% of social-good blockchain initiatives are estimated to impact beneficiaries by the end of 2018.
Blockchain enables solutions not previously possible
- 20% of solutions would not otherwise have been possible without blockchain.
- 86% are material imptovements over existing solutions.
The health sector has attracted more initiatives than any other
- 25% of initiatives are in the health sector, 13% in financial inclusion.
- Philanthropy and aid, and democracy and governance were the next most active sectors (11% each).
Blockchain most often used to facilitate payments and verify records.
- Leading use cases are records and verification (26%) and payments and money transfers (25%).
- Most popular primary benefits are reducing risk and fraud (38%) and increasing efficiency (25%).
I wonder how organisations are managing the fluctuations in value between crypto and fiat currencies? 