Blockchain-Enabled Financial Technologies: A Survey of Digital Payment Systems and Inclusion Effects

Abstract

The blockchain technology is being quickly applied in the global financial industry to store and process transactions and information. The paper will also contain the broad summary of the financial systems on the blockchains with the focus on the digital payments and their contribution to the inclusive economic development. It investigates the design and functionality of blockchain technology and how it is being used in the most impactful sectors of the financial sector, including investment management, financial research, securities trading, and capital-raising. The paper also analyzes blockchain based payments systems in terms of security, privacy, transparency, efficiency of operation, and trust. Furthermore, the article also covers blockchain and its application to advance financial inclusion that saves the cost of a transaction, digital identity verification checks, smart contracts, and decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions. Scalability, regulatory uncertainty and privacy are also found as critical issues of adoption based on the comparative analysis of the above studies, industry reports, and case studies or through the research. The results obtained have demonstrated that blockchain that incorporates relevant regulatory frameworks and technological procurement can contribute to powerful and comprehensive digital financial ecosystems.