
Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2019. Read them in this 11th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Srinivas Kamadi, VP and Head of Enterprise Integration Services & Cloud Apps, Infosys
Trends in Global Blockchain Adoption
Since the emergence of Bitcoin from the dark days after the
2008 financial crisis, the technology has gained much prominence and notoriety
owing to the rise and fall of numerous cryptocurrencies and ICOs. In the
enterprise world, blockchain led by speculation turned into the holy grail and
promised to solve all problems and open novel business opportunities. It is my
opinion that in 2018, blockchain is coming out of the hype cycle globally
across industries. Several initiatives that started early on have either paused
or stopped. Networks are slow in gaining additional participants. Plethora of
startups fuel the confusion blurring lines between the core technology and
cryptocurrencies/ICOs.
While the technology is promising, its application to
business needs to be approached with a holistic mindset. Projects that are
rooted in the true business value delivered by Blockchain are bearing fruits,
while others moving from FOMO-effect (fear of missing out) are caught in
adoption, value, and scalability challenges.
As the awareness of the technology and its maturity
increases, we are bound to see a steady rise in the adoption of blockchain to
optimize inter-company business processes and lend into new business models. A
tell-tale sign for the coming adoption is the increasing RFPs in this field. In
the last several quarters, we have seen a spike in the RFPs driven by numerous
companies, in some cases as a group, working towards identifying specific use
case for blockchain. Such initiatives focus on the business value and have a
very rigorous gating process to filter out the force-fitted use cases. Through
such initiatives, industry leaders are beginning to see the value of a shared
ledger and a future where collaboration trumps competition.
We believe that in 2019, as efforts across industries and
geographies coalesce around specific use cases, the adoption of blockchain will
increase. When companies establish that a centralized utility across
enterprises is the answer for a cheaper, faster and more efficient system, they
will feel more comfortable collaborating with their industry rivals. Also, all
the players are better informed from the past successes and failures. The
theory of disintermediation through blockchain is yet to be proven in a large
scale, but the winds are blowing in this direction and the threat for
incumbents is becoming more real.
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