Blockchain’s $7bn potential will benefit Amazon and Microsoft

Bank of America believes that blockchain will become a $7bn market, providing a major boost to technology incumbents such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Amazon will benefit from incremental cloud services demand

Speaking on CNBC on Tuesday night, BoA analyst Kash Rangan said that although it was not putting a time stamp on its prediction, it was based on estimates that 2% of corporate computer servers would be used to run blockchain.

Cloud services

Rangan noted that those companies delivering cloud services, such as Amazon and Microsoft, would benefit from wider blockchain implementation.

“Amazon will benefit from incremental cloud services demand from blockchain implementation, while improved supply chain tracking should make Amazon’s retail operations more efficient,” Rangan added.

The analyst also noted that innovative new applications would result so-called software-as-a-service models being implemented into blockchain-as-a-service.

“Microsoft’s Azure offers services such as smart contracts and third-party solutions and should benefit as use of blockchain on Azure increases,” Rangan said.

Potential not proven

He also noted the work being done by tech giant IBM, which has already made major strides into the blockchain space with its own platform.

The bank was cautious, however, in declaring blockchain to be as important a nascent technology as the internet was in the late 1990s.

Rangan concluded: “Many blockchain use cases have been identified, but full products and services have not yet been built out and are not used in production.