Bank of America research analysts have predicted that blockchain technology could represent a multi-billion dollar industry down the road, and be of particular benefit for leading companies like Amazon and Microsoft.
BoA: Many Can Benefit From Blockchain
The analysts predicted the total addressable blockchain market would eventually hit $7 billion, but there was not a particular timeline for the market growth since the technology is not yet widely used.
CNBC reported that the market estimate was predicated on the assumption that 2% of servers would one day be used to run blockchain.
In a note to clients on Tuesday, Bank of America research analyst Kash Rangan wrote that companies like Amazon could integrate blockchain to streamline retail operation and enhance cloud computing operations.
Rangan said specific parts of “software as a service” (SaaS) could be improved by blockchain technology, pointing out that “blockchain as a service” could be of particular interest to a company like Microsoft for their Azure platform, which already features Ethereum-based products.
Rangan also noted that there have been many use cases for blockchain that have been identified.
While Bank of America was clear to note that the money-making capabilities of blockchain are still relatively unproven, it did say companies like Oracle, IBM, Salesforce, VMware, Redfin, Zillow, and LendingTree all stand to reap benefits from incorporating distributed ledger technology (DLT).
Leading The Way Forward
The well-known financial institution has not been shy about making its name known in the digital asset space.
Bank of America currently sits alongside industry giants like IBM and Walmart as one of the most prolific investors into blockchain-related research projects.
In February, the bank wrote in their annual report that virtual currencies represent a threat to their model of business, one that could “require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our existing products and services.”
However, Bank of America has long been assembling a list of patents correlated with blockchain technology.
In May, the company won a patent that would see DLT used to create tags so a person could find a block by searching keywords associated with the tag.
Documents published by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in August revealed further details into a longstanding proposal by the company to develop an enterprise cryptocurrency online vault storage system.
Around the same time, the bank applied for a patent concerning a cold storage system and also filed a patent application for a system that would help facilitate digital currency payments and conversions in real time.
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