Although Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) show great potential to embrace blockchain and reap its benefits, there are challenges to be overcome for blockchain to become drive economic growth and prosperity throughout the region.
To overcome these constraints, the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB Lab) in 2019 launched the LACChain global alliance to accelerate the development of blockchain in the LAC region. With the contributions and investments of more than 60 partners, LACChain’s objective is to accelerate the use and development of blockchain in the LAC region through the proliferation and scaling of blockchain-enabled applications. It has built the world’s largest permissioned public blockchain infrastructure, a scalable and sustainable network that uses Hyperledger Besu as an enterprise Ethereum client.
LACChain offers a reliable blockchain infrastructure compliant with regulations for data security, scalability, and privacy. Several entities, including startups, corporations, banks, schools at all levels, governments, and multilateral institutions, use it for identity, credentials, tokenization, interoperability, and supply chains.
LACChain has been effective. Its activities have improved the lives of over 8 million people by implementing more than 80 digital solutions on LACChain blockchain networks. These solutions have been deployed in a total of 17 countries, including Argentina, the United States, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and the Caribbean. These digital solutions promote economic, financial, and social inclusion, with a particular focus on leveraging digital tools to facilitate development, growth, and access to services for the most disadvantaged populations.
To provide a comprehensive overview of the diverse applications of blockchain in the region, this report provides an overview of 10 LACChain projects that demonstrate the potential of blockchain to transform the region.
- Digital Asset Management: These projects have had a positive impact on society and the economy by using new technologies to enable faster, more secure, and more transparent transactions, reduce fraud, improve regulatory compliance, and increase financial inclusion.
- Supply Chain Management: These projects have enabled better coordination and communication between suppliers, producers, and consumers, assuring quality standards and more efficient and transparent supply chains.
- Digital Identity: These projects have helped to bridge the digital divide and provide digital literacy training and identity to underserved populations, empowering them with new skills and opportunities.
We conclude by outlining further steps needed for these projects and others like them to achieve full success. These include economic enablers, such as low transaction fees, platform enablers, such as scalability and a positive user experience, and ecosystem enablers, such as partnerships with like-minded organizations worldwide and developer tools and resources.
To sum it up, LACChain has been rendering the enablers to accelerate blockchain adoption in the region to contribute to social and economic improvement in Latin America and the Caribbean region. With that LACChain will continue to revolutionize the LAC region and catalyze innovation for a better future.
