Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 3rd Edition

Clearing The Hurdles 102

Photo courtesy Bitt Inc.

exist and can be utilized for the benefit of individuals and businesses in the Caribbean. A deeper examination of healthcare systems in the region uncovers clear examples where Blockchain Technology solves some of the pains associated with centralized data storage and a lack of interoperability among legacy systems. Blockchain allows individuals to effectively take possession of their digital assets like medical records, sharing them with only the doctors or organizations they choose. This solves existing challenges where patients can experience lengthy delays to acquire their medical records from medical practitioners before transferring them to another healthcare facility. Similarly, digital identities andpersonalKYCdata, caneasily be shared with financial service providers with restrictions set in place by the individual. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is piloting a national KYC utility for financial services based on the MyInfo Digital Identity Service which enables residents to provide their personal data just once to the government and retrieve their personal details for all subsequent online transactions with the

government. Chief Fintech Officer of MAS acknowledges that “because KYC and identity authentication are involved in so many financial services processes, from opening a bank account to making a payment to making an insurance claim it is a problem worth solving.” Examining progress in the Caribbean region, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) in March 2018 has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Bitt Inc., a Barbados based Financial Technology (“FinTech”) firm, to develop, deploy and test Blockchain Technology for a secure, resilient digital payment and settlement platform with embedded regional and global compliance; and the issuance of a digital EC currency which will operate alongside physical EC currency. Perfecting Blockchain Solutions in the Caribbean Legal barriers throughout the Caribbean, in many cases, due to complex and/or dated regulatory frameworks and a general lack of legislative clarity for innovative companies

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