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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