China Overtakes U.S. Economy With Larger GDP. America’s days as the world’s most powerful economy are numbered, and when that torch is finally passed, it’ll be tough to get back, according to a recent report.
Read: China’s trade surplus with U.S. hits record in 2018 In our call of the day, Standard Chartered predicts that China’s GDP will overtake the U.S. next year. What’s more, within another decade, India is pegged to push the U.S. even further down the list: “The global middle class is at a tipping point,” writes Standard Chartered researcher Madhur Jha in the report.
Blockchain Saving Banks $20bn a Year on Back Office. Blockchain technologies could reduce banks' infrastructural costs by $15-20bn a year by 2022, a new report from Santander InnoVentures claims.
The FinTech 2.0 Paper, produced in collaboration with Oliver Wyman and Anthemis Group, says distributed ledger technology could save banks money by eliminating central authorities and bypassing slow, expensive payment networks. Beyond payments, its authors identify other areas of potential for distributed ledgers, noting: "In time, distributed ledgers will support 'smart contracts' – computer protocols that verify or enforce contracts. This will lead to a wide variety of potential uses in securities, syndicated lending, trade finance, swaps, derivatives or wherever counterparty risk arises.
" Blockchain technology could also increase investor confidence in products whose underlying assets are opaque or where property rights are made uncertain by the role of central authorities, the report says. Cryptocurrencies Worth $5tn. Investment legend Michael Novogratz, the $3.2 bln investor and former manager of the multi-billion dollar investment firm Fortress, recently stated that the cryptocurrency market will be worth $5 trillion by 2022.
Preaching crypto optimism Over the past two years, Novogratz has expressed his optimism towards cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum that have been leading the $100 bln cryptocurrency market. Previously, Novogratz revealed that 10 percent of his net worth, at least hundreds of millions of dollars, are invested in a diverse portfolio of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. Bitcoin has transformed into a global phenomenon within a period of years due to its decentralized and transparent nature that have made Bitcoin an efficient store of value, digital currency and safe haven asset for the vast majority of users, traders and investors.
OECD Formally Phase-Out Cash. Cash could become history within a decade, thanks to new financial instruments, including virtual currencies, some of the world’s leading bankers said during the World Economic Forum on Wednesday (20 January).
The impact of technology, the overarching theme of this year’s meeting, will be very significant. The evolution would be so significant that John Cryan, co-CEO of Deutsche Bank AG, predicted that, in ten years’ time, “probably” we would not see cash anymore. It is “terribly inefficient”, he added. “Cash should be dematerialized,” he said in a panel on the future of finance- and governments “should be interested” in this process because it would make transitions “more traceable” and would help to combat illegal financing or money laundry. Echoing his prediction, Dan Schulman, the CEO of PayPal, stated that “money is digitizing in front of us”. Insuring Autonomous Vehicles Generates $81bn US Market. Chinese GDP Passes the US. The Bank of America global analyst predicts that China will sustain an average 4.7% annual GDP growth from now to 2035 which will result in a doubling of China’s GDP.
Qiao predicts that China’s GDP will pass the US GDP in 2027-2028. China’s GDP is currently 30% less than the USA. China (including HK and Macua) has an exchange rate GDP of $16 trillion while the US has $21 trillion. 10% of Global GDP Stored with Blockchain Technology. The Global Agenda Council of World Economic Forum conducted a survey among 800 executives and experts.
The majority of them believe in the bright future of bitcoin. According to the Survey, 58% of the respondents expect that the role of bitcoin and blockchain in the global GDP will increase significantly in ten years’ time. The Survey states, that “the total worth of bitcoin in the blockchain is around $20 billion, or about 0.025% of global GDP of around $80 trillion”. Auto Insurance Sector Down 75% Due To Driverless Cars.