Singapore government invests $8.9m to support blockchain research

Enterprise Singapore, the Infocomm Media Development Authority, and the National Research Foundation Singapore, has launched a S$12 million (US$8.9 million) program to further strengthen the city-state’s blockchain ecosystem.

Photo credit: siraphol / 123RF

Supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Program (SBIP) will engage close to 75 companies including multinational corporations, large local enterprises, and information and communications technology (ICT) firms.

These companies will conceptualize 17 blockchain-related projects in various sectors within the next three years, starting with trade and logistics and supply chain, according to a statement.

SBIP will team up with DiMuto, a supply chain-focused agritech venture, to work on using blockchain to track and trace high-valued perishables for improving farmers’ credit worthiness.

Beyond this, SBIP will look into blockchain scalability to enable the adoption of the tech in environments with high transaction rates. It aims to support interoperability to enable value exchange across systems and address the current challenges of blockchain networks.

SBIP will also be looking at growing the blockchain talent pool to enable ICT firms to further tap into the technology, according to the statement.

“As the first major industry-driven blockchain research program, our intent is to proliferate blockchain adoption to a much broader set of industries, beyond just finance,” said IMDA chief executive Lew Chuen Hong. “These efforts allow Singapore to build a strong blockchain ecosystem and establish our role as a Trust Hub.”

At present, Singapore’s blockchain ecosystem has a total of 234 entities. Of that number, 91 were launched this year.

Currency converted from Singapore dollar to US dollar: US$1 = S$1.33.