The Asia Pacific (APAC) region is one of the world’s most dynamic digital landscapes. Over 60 percent of the world’s population aged between 15 and 24 years lives in APAC countries, providing enormous untapped potential to increase the role of the digital in the economic growth.

Asia-Pacific region is characterized by resourcefulness and immense determination. Deloitte credits regional business benefits to the innovative ways for connecting buyers and sellers, increasing competition and choice, and facilitating trust between parties.

Why the Asia-Pacific is Prime for dApp Development

Blockchain technology and dApp development are important drivers for growth in the APAC, placing the region on the third position in terms of smart contract market growth that will be achieved worldwide by 2022. It is right behind North America and Europe. Within Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, blockchain growth will keep pace with the world growth rate at 72.6% CAGR.

Blockchain developers are working in 669 startups in the Asia-Pacific, with successful examples of smart contracts being implemented in fruit supply chains, logistics, renting free disk space, identity verification in the finance industry, and “banking for the underbanked” or innovative payment solutions for micropreneurs.

Why are Asia-Pacific (APAC) countries among the global leaders in dApp development?

Drivers for dApps in APAC Countries

Apart from being massively populated with young people, the booming economy sorely needs solutions to business issues with supply chain frauds, identity verification, cross-business collaboration, asset tracking and management, as well as to simplify cross-border payments and settlements, enforce regulatory compliance, and support trade finance.

Next, rather than veering on the side of caution like more conservative economies, for example, Europe, APAC countries have a more forward-thinking approach to adopting revolutionary digital technologies. This means that they establish dApp development with less restrictive regulatory frameworks. Such easements enable experimentation and testing for a software solution like smart contracts that are still wrapped in a lot of uncertainty.

Additionally, the growing population and economy need immediate access to financial services and without financial infrastructures based on blockchains, it would be challenging to implement changes and integrate all participants into the system.

Another reason for dApp development in APAC is workforce mobility. Many people work away from home and need practical solutions to manage cross-border payments.

Finally, the Asia-Pacific marks effective examples of combining blockchain applications with other emerging technologies. For example, the City of Taipei has introduced a smart citizen ID card, combining blockchain and IoT. IBM and Walmart collaborate with one of China’s largest food distributors to overcome food safety problems. 

Have you read? More on blockchain in Taiwan and the greater China region:
♦ Red Blockchain Rolling in Taiwan
♦ Crypto Is Libertarian, A.I. Is Communist
♦ From Hip Hop Icon to Tech Entrepreneur

While it is important to recognize the potential of dApp development in the Asia-Pacific, businesses must also understand that blockchain is a solution to some but not to all business problems they currently face.

Therefore, although imperfect in execution and scalability, decentralized applications built on the blockchain still have the potential to automate many business transactions via distributed ledger technology. Acknowledging their limitations is a good strategy to silence critics who are pointing out its imperfections, forgetting that no software ever solved all problems.

Considering that the Asia-Pacific economy is on the rise, with a constantly growing middle class and an affinity for technological innovation, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if we witness the countries in the regions being the first ones that will implement smart contracts for businesses on a wider level and create the first in the world economies massively driven by blockchain.

Edited by Sharon Tseng

About the Author
Michael Kelley, Content Strategist at Fueled, is a professional tech writer and content strategist with an app development background. He specializes in Android & iOS app design, as well as blockchain & dapp technology. He spends most of his time exploring and writing about captivating new technologies. His work has been published on various technology blogs across the web.

This article presents the opinion or perspective of the original author / organization, which does not represent the standpoint of CommonWealth magazine.