Leveraging Blockchain Technology …

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Fig. 1 Milestones in digital payments

Consulting Group (BCG) [6] 82% of global enterprises have expressed their interest

in adopting IoT solutions for their payment with an expected market reach of USD

267 billion by 2020. Currently there are IoT streamlining payments such as GPay,

Amazon Pay being connected at home with various smart devices. Evidence traced

from Visa study [7] hints that though 83% of global consumers are willing to use

connected devices for transactions, 75% of people step back due to security issues.

Digital payments can be referred to as monetary transactions that take place using

any smart device which is seamlessly connected with a bank account. Research from

Statista [8] expects a six-fold increase in global digital payments from $532 billion to

$3100 billion in next six years. Figure1 depicts the timeline of milestones achieved

in digital payments. Such tremendous growth is an outcome of business models

developed by tech companies in collaboration with banks, payment companies, and

social networking platforms [9].

Industry 4.0 propelled technologies such as IoT, AI, ML is not only confined to

the manufacturing sector but equally benefits the service sector contributing to a high

share of GDP in advanced economies [10]. Banking sector, being the lifeline of digital

society, robust technology needs to be initiated to ensure transparency. Decentraliza-

tion being a key feature in blockchain enhances transparency, removes intermediaries

by not emphasizing on third-party validation [11] and augments the business pro-

cess [12]. Blockchain embedded with IoT gives a cognitive sense to objects which

bridges the gap between the digital and physical world thereby enhancing automa-

tion through interconnected devices. IoT when amalgamated with Blockchain can