It was not so long ago that the technology revolution, despite its galloping speed, jaw-dropping amounts of money and envy-inducing utility was still very much tied to distinct places on Earth. A person in Eastern Europe couldn’t set up an Apple Store account; a Japanese resident couldn’t watch the same Netflix content as his Texas-based friend and developers based in China or India worked for hourly pay rates that were a fraction of those they could charge if they were based in the U.S. or the U.K.

Lots done, a long way to go

This state of affairs has changed dramatically in the past few years and as it continues to do so it is clear that a lot of new infrastructure has to be built to support the continued transcending of location and borders. This international infrastructure – tasked with facilitating business in a safe and compliant manner – will be built on transparent and transcending blockchain protocols. Only this technology provides for the visibility and security needed to support the international supply chains, transaction speeds and commerce security that enable what we all want.

Out in the wild

Now before we get into the details of what these international blockchain solutions do, let’s establish once and for all that trans-global business is here to stay by reviewing a couple of examples:

• Automattic, a company valued at north of $2bb and the maker of the largest content management system in the world, WordPress, which this blog also uses, has more than 800 employees, all remote and disbursed all over the world;
• The largest bookstore in the world, Amazon, transcends every single border in the world, be it through the delivery of physical goods, virtual products and services, its supply chain and much more;
• A request for an Uber made in Madison, Wisconsin goes on the books of Uber b.v. in the Netherlands in real time and automatically as part of the company’s accounting practices.

Use cases for international blockchain solutions

Needless to say, the future will continue to be more and more digital and information will be stored even more virtually. But as distances expand and velocity in business increases, we still have the same need for trust in both our strategic and transactional business dealings and international blockchain solutions will be the fabric that underpins all of that. These programmed decentralized and immutable business processes will form infrastructure that will soon allow for the following (and much, much more):

• A real-time immutable log of all business events and transactions entered into by everyone in a given company’s ecosystem in any jurisdiction. These events and transactions will be able to be transparent or private and will be able to automatically trigger another business event. For example, a freelancer in India will be able to submit a job that will then be signed off by 3 managers in 3 jurisdictions and payment will be sent to her automatically, by way of triggering a smart contract compliant in a given jurisdiction after the third sign-off, with a permanent account of the transaction made on a blockchain for everyone with access to see. No more chasing down accounts payable;
• Goods and services transactions will be logged in real time onto a blockchain and product loss will become a thing of the past. Supply chains will become much more efficient and faster. A client will know, once and for all, that the parts in her product were original and that they had all of the necessary certifications in each individual jurisdiction;
• Accounts receivable, accounts payable, taxes and everything in between is reconciled automatically without the need for vast numbers of bookkeepers and accountants as transactions are executed on smart contracts and logged onto blockchain platforms that adhere to various international accounting principles.

This is just the beginning for the internalization of blockchain technology

And as this becomes a reality and trust increases thanks to transparency and immutability, international blockchain solutions will further the diminish the importance of borders, while at the same time shoring up the need for businesses to get globally scalable blockchain solutions in place right from the start.

If you are looking to expand the geographic reach of your company or project and would like to explore the blockchain applications of this please contact MLG Blockchain to learn more.