A new report published by Allied Market Research says the market for the blockchain distributed ledger technology will reach $5.43 billion by 2023.

The report, entitled “Blockchain Distributed Ledger Market by Type and End User: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023,” shows the global blockchain market reached $228 million during 2016.

According to the report, major players such as Chain Inc., IBM Corp., Accenture PLC, Eris Industries, Intel Corp., Deloitte, Blockchain Tech Ltd., Microsoft Corp., Digital Asset Holdings, and Earthport are shaping the market with early strategies for market growth.

Many of the companies above have been working on blockchain-as-a-service solutions for a multitude of markets. In March, IBM released its enterprise blockchain solution based on the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric, joined shipping operator A.P. Moller–Maersk Group in March to track seagoing shipments and teamed up with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in November for supply chain tracking. Accenture patented an editable version of permissioned blockchains in September. Throughout 2016, Microsoft added more features to its a blockchain-as-a-service solution on its Azure cloud from new middleware to Project Bletchley.

Private and permissioned blockchains currently hold the leading segment in the global market and are expected to maintain that trend for the foreseeable future. Private blockchains operate in closed environments with write permission centralized to one organization, which may be interesting to companies who want to run their own blockchain infrastructure. Most enterprise and corporate blockchain infrastructure fall into this category.

Public blockchains, or “fully decentralized” blockchains, are open to the world that anyone can read and attach transactions as long as they are valid. Blockchains running major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum fall into this category and can be used as a foundation for applications. Although behind in corporate adoption, the report concludes, public blockchains will see significant growth in the coming years.

“The blockchain distributed ledger market is in its early stage of growth,” said Himal Srivastava, research analyst in semiconductor and electronics at Allied Market Research. “Blockchain-based solutions are projected to be adopted earlier in some industries such as financial services and the supply chain industry as compared to many other industries.”

Allied Market Research notes that emerging economies, where business and technology are connected together with digital currency, will find blockchain technology create a whole new paradigm. In recent years the financial technology industry has shown a tremendous interest in blockchains, including governments, central banks, private banks and online banks.

This can be singularly seen in the creation of R3CEV LLC, a financial technology startup aimed at bringing blockchain technology to major financial institutions. More recently, seven European banks have begun work on a blockchain solution for cross-border intrabank transactions and the Reserve Bank of India has trialed a blockchain for financial products.

As for other industry segments — law, security, supply tracking — Srivastava believes that the blockchain technology industry will also begin to pick up in the near future.

“The blockchain technology addresses security in areas including insurance, law, and data security by validation of the information in the blockchain ledger,” said Srivastava. “Exponential increase in data is expected to facilitate more research and development activities leading to increased competition in the market.”

North America dominated the blockchain market in 2016, representing 40 percent of the global market by revenue. It’s expected to maintain its lead owing to key companies in the region. In the rest of the world, advancements in Internet and mobile payments will most likely boost growth, especially in Asian countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and India.

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