How Digital Technology is Transforming Industries

The digital revolution is showing no signs of slowing. Today, more and more industries, including real estate, music, healthcare, banking, and even gold and silver are adopting digitization to meet user needs.

In modern society, the transition to a fully-digital world is well underway. In the next year, it’s forecasted that 93 percent of people will consider using digital payments. Whether digital assets, contactless, or even biometric identification, that leaves a mere seven percent of the population committed to solely relying on traditional cash. To keep up with this rapidly expanding transformation, businesses must pivot to provide sustainable, digital services that complement existing solutions.

With over 100 countries now exploring a formal CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency), including most G20 nations, we’re now seeing specific industries take the lead by launching digital products. That’s exactly the innovative approach used by firms in the commodities, music, and real estate sectors, to feature just a few.

Old Gold, New Solutions

To transform the gold industry, Gold247, an initiative supported by the World Gold Council, is striving to digitise the buying and selling of gold. By offering modern and ethical ways to invest, it’s hoped that a younger generation of gold owners will emerge to drive the industry forward. 

A key objective of this project, and similarly applied in the timber industry, is to highlight gold-related ESG (environmental, social, and governance) issues, through the digitisation of provenance. When trading gold, investors can consult a ledger that irrefutably proves where and when the gold was mined—shining a spotlight on child labour and businesses operating with poor environmental standards. The WGC is also pushing for a complete ecosystem fractionalisation, with all gold converted into a token based system—each digital token representing its physical equivalent worldwide. 

Digitising Royalty Payments for Music Artists

With over 500,000 registered users and having distributed more than $9 billion in royalty fees, SoundExchange is dedicated to providing fairer, simpler, and more efficient means of managing the music industry. Like Spotify, Pandora, and iTunes in recent years, SoundExchange provides new, revolutionary digital solutions, such as the ability to spend, transfer, and even invest in digital assets through a mobile app. 

It’s a huge step forward in digitising customer convenience for music creators, reducing the reliance on traditional payment services and replacing it with an accessible service that’s immediately accessible and always available—and another example of how we’re moving towards a fully-digital society.

High Street to High Tech

For some businesses, the overheads associated with rent, gas, electricity, and maintenance of a physical premises are astronomical. As a result, digital services are on the rise—with over 28 percent of all UK retail transactions in 2021 taking place online. Additionally, with the online global learning market anticipated to be worth an estimated $325 billion by 2025, the building blocks of a virtual tomorrow are well and truly fitting into place.

Playing a major role within this digital transition, and driving us towards Web3, is blockchain technology. Responding to market opportunity, Archax is the first ever security exchange to be regulated by the FCA, providing investment and digital asset trading solutions in one single platform. Similarly, global players JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Fundbridge, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton are among the many financial service businesses rolling out blockchain and digital technology to buy, sell, hold, and transfer digital assets.

Unlocking these new opportunities with customisable digital-first services, will be essential for businesses to consider as the transformation continues to evolve.