With the rapid growth of international trade and cross border capital flows, traditional payment systems such as SWIFT are increasingly challenged by inefficiencies, high fees, and a lack of transparency. As a response, blockchain technology, characterized by decentralization, immutability, and traceability, has emerged as a potential solution for modernizing cross border payments. This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the current state of blockchain technology in this domain, reviewing its applications, key advantages, and limitations. By examining how distributed ledgers and smart contracts can streamline payment processes, reduce intermediary costs, and enhance transparency and compliance, the study highlights blockchains transformative potential. However, challenges such as regulatory fragmentation, limited technological maturity, and accessibility barriers remain significant obstacles to large scale adoption. Relying on secondary data and existing literature, this study also emphasizes the need for future empirical research and case based analysis to evaluate performance, security, and scalability of blockchain based systems in real world cross border payment scenarios.
Xiaojun Qin (Wed,) studied this question.