Blockchain adoption in the Philippines is struggling because businesses are focused on survival, according to Dr. Donald Lim, lead convenor at Philippine Blockchain Week (PBW) in Manila.
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Fast facts
- “3% of all businesses [in the Philippines] are large companies and 97% are small-to-medium enterprises. So for them, their concern is their day-to-day operations,” Dr. Lim told Forkast in an interview at PBW.
- “If you look at the entire Philippines, most businesses are not investing for the future. They’re investing for survival,” he said, adding that adopting blockchain is of low priority for most SMEs.
- Lim believes that even the country’s large enterprises are focused on pandemic recovery, which discourages them from exploring blockchain technology. “When we invited them to blockchain week, [to] learn about the future, they will always tell you we have to survive the present.”
- The Phillippines is second on the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index published by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
- Play-to-earn adoption is also high in the country, with 40% of Axie Infinity’s player base reportedly based in the Philippines in 2022.
- “You will see security guards, drivers, and tricycle drivers just playing while waiting for passengers or even while driving because they want to play to earn,” said Lim, adding that the game “cuts across all socioeconomic classes.”
- See related article: Philippine central bank sees stablecoins as key to make payments more efficient