PwC is catching up with the trend and will enter the blockchain industry

It seems that the pace at which businesses and governments intend to move into blockchain technology is accelerating. In the past few days, we have seen the Chinese government announce its intention to issue a digital currency based on blockchain technology, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia set up an innovative blockchain lab in Hong Kong, and will do the same in London next quarter. We have also seen Deutsche Bank predict that cash will become redundant within the next decade. It seems that many institutions have finally acknowledged that both domestic and global finance may revolve around this point for an undetermined period of time, and blockchain technology is the foundation of this future. As a result, they are all rushing to understand the basic mechanisms and potential applications of blockchain.

Today, we saw another household name in financial services group announce its entry into the blockchain technology industry. The company is PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). If you are not familiar with this company, it means you need to at least catch up. PwC is a global group with more than 200,000 employees, mainly concentrated in the United States, Europe and Asia. It had revenue of $35 billion last year. It is considered one of the four largest accounting firms in the world and the sixth largest private company in the United States. 35% of the Fortune 500 companies are audited by it, and last year, it attracted 43% of the audit fees of the Fortune 100. And now, it has set its sights on blockchain.

So what do we know about the progress now? Admittedly, not much has been revealed yet, but it is enough to make us excited. PwC has begun to build its blockchain technology team. The team is located in Belfast, UK, and PwC expects that by the end of this year, the team will expand from the current core of 15 people to more than 40 people. These groups will investigate PwC clients' potential applications of blockchain technology and promote the financial industry's understanding of the technology.

Let's see what the folks at PwC have to say.

Steve Davies, Partner and EMEA FinTech Leader at PwC, said:

There is clear evidence that banks, institutions and governments are looking to blockchain technology as a secure storage and distribution solution - and as the huge potential of blockchain becomes apparent, PwC is well-positioned to provide world-class services to our clients.

Ashley Unwin, member of PwC UK’s executive committee, said:

Blockchain technology is worrying some major players in the financial services industry because they don’t know how it will develop and how much potential it has to transform current business models... We are convinced that this disruptive financial technology will lead to a significant increase in the demand for blockchain expertise across the financial industry, and we will try to be a leader in exploring these disruptive new technologies.
This is not the first time that PwC has shown interest in the potential of blockchain technology. Last year, the company published a report titled "Currency is not an object: Understanding the changing digital currency market", which mainly explores how to understand digital currency, especially Bitcoin, and how it will affect the future development of the financial industry. From this report, we can see how much PwC recognizes the potential of digital currency.

Original article: http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/01/22/pwc-announces-entry-into-bitcoin-and-blockchain/
By Samuel Rae
Translator: Prince Gong