Blockchain Distributed Ledger Technology
It may not be particularly ground-breaking to report that adoption is critical right now. Still, it must be noted that inertia is often the biggest hindrance from a technical standpoint. There is a dire need to pay heed to decorum for the sake of survival.
Some say that Blockchain, once seen as a corporate cure-all, is receding and that for most titans of industry, blockchain technology remains, perhaps pungently, an “exotic fruit”.
However, many companies are already making inroads into applying blockchain technology with various patents filed. Their approach has less to do with adoption and more to do with owning the fast lane when the time is right. Thus, forcing competitors who are wise enough to gently slide to the left.
And yet, it’s a cringing tutting-and-huffing exhibition to have one’s portfolio be assaulted by way too many “failures to launch”.
Why is this so? Simple. It takes time.
Granted, risks are taken, and the prerogative of many projects is to get their MVPs off the ground.
Other reasons suggested include the need for compatible software, upper management’s general indifference, and scalability issues. Also, some firms prefer that others play the role of guinea pigs or radioactive lab rats themselves. It seems doubtful to think that a working product requires that others test the water first.
There’s no DIY adoption instructional guide for those looking to get their implementation first to market. Nevertheless, a slew of new, widely acceptable protocols can improve the outlook immeasurably and painlessly.
For example, Nasdaq Inc wanted to use Blockchain for voting during shareholder meetings but couldn’t deploy it on an industrial scale. On the other hand, Australia’s stock exchange ASX ‘settled’ for a clearing and settlement structure using Blockchain by a more realistic timeframe. There are also rumblings that The Intercontinental Exchange, owners of the New York Stock Exchange and many other exchanges and marketplaces, is looking into a federally regulated market for cryptocurrencies.
IBM allocated some 1,500 employees dedicated to permissioned blockchain R&D, and Microsoft also wants to lead the pack. Both aim to “make billions on cloud services that run supply chain…” and not miss the boat on sizeable revenue streams soon. Microsoft also wants a leadership role in the “quantum revolution,” but that’s another story for another day. The bigger picture is that bigger conglomerates believe that they can develop the tech more effectively.
Time was, all this barely figured into the equation. So, many cowered at such rude wake-up calls in angry investors and inverted market caps in terms of valuation. Some projectshave decided to detokenise their business model for equity in the company. Other short-neck giraffes are also considering buy-backs and refunds.
What’s next? But even as delicate sensibilities are offended, many have a very different attitude towards new-fangled public ledgers – even if it means emotionally scarring children until early adulthood.
Many projects based on the distributed ledger technology will experience growing pains, and managing expectations is crucial as many good-natured ‘experiments’ will not see the light of day as real-world use cases.
And that’s fine because, as an acquired taste, it’s still more tangible than a scalable quantum pipedream.
