Mukesh Ambani believes blockchain will revolutionize the financial sector; calls the data “new oil”

Mukesh Ambani, president and CEO of Reliance Industries and Asia’s richest man, said he believes blockchain technology will revolutionize the financial industry. The business mogul pointed out that India is witnessing a first digital transformation and is set to establish a digital society during a virtual interview at the Infinity Forum, hosted by the International Financial Services Authority (IFSCA) of the city GIFT.

Ambani added, “Blockchain is a technology I believe in and it’s different from crypto. I think a smart token ensures that you create transactions that can never be changed. It is a very important framework for fair and trust-based transactions and a society based on trust, which is a prerequisite for all of us. He believes such a development will occur over the next ten years and will be a “precondition for great economic growth”.

A bill is being drafted to regulate cryptocurrencies as a financial asset while protecting small investors. Legislation can impose a minimum level of investment in digital currencies while prohibiting their adoption as legal tender. Although the government is considering taxing cryptocurrency gains, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) wants an absolute ban because it considers it could threaten the country’s macroeconomic and financial stability.

“We are witnessing the fourth revolution, which is the digital revolution first, in which digital will be the lives of billions of people – who will be used in all technologies – five or six types of technologies will mix, and they will revolutionize the whole world, “ Ambani added.

The data is again called the new oil. According to Ambani, the new oil is fundamentally different from the previous oil as the traditional oil was only extracted in a few sites and therefore only benefited a few countries. The new oil, on the other hand, Data, can be created and consumed anywhere and by anyone. “It has the potential to create value in an equitable way, in all sectors, in all geographic areas, in all economic classes” he said.

Ambani’s telecommunications company, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., has increased Internet adoption in India since its inception in 2016. According to Ambani, India is on track to have one of the most modern technology to the world, with the introduction of 5G next year.

“The next step will be the connectivity of machines, devices and vehicles, which is the Internet of Things” he said, adding that the interconnectivity of distributed ledger and real-time blockchain technologies, smart tokens and the coexistence of physical and digital via IoT will enable and reshape the decentralized financial sector from a way we could never have imagined.

He further said, “I think that will happen in the next 10 years, and again, it will be a prerequisite for great economic growth. Today there is more money to run after people and we are running out of ideas, and I am sure all our young people will find more and more ideas because there are still a lot of problems to solve in the world.

With the widespread use of digital payments, the Indian fintech industry has made remarkable progress. Even after the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic have worn off, digital contactless payments such as mobile wallets and UPIs continue to gain adoption. India’s digital payments industry is expected to reach Rs.7092 trillion by 2025. Meanwhile, the existing 160 million unique mobile payments users are expected to quintuple to nearly 800 million by 2025. By India is among the fastest growing compared to the rest of the world. The country has the highest percentage of fintech adoption (87 percent) compared to the global average of 64 percent).