As myLaminin gets more and more exposure, there is increased interest in what we are doing. I think it’s a unique and interesting application of Blockchain technology to a relatively mundane but necessary activity – document sharing. It is at the core of most eligibility determination functions for service delivery organizations in all industries – government, healthcare, education, financial and professional services. As a result of this increased exposure, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion at the IT Expo Tech Supershow in Ft. Lauderdale, FL earlier this week. The topic was “Blockchain in the Enterprise: The Time is Now”.
I was glad to participate and quite frankly, I saw it as an excellent opportunity to gauge from participants and audience questions what the state of blockchain adoption was in the enterprise.
As you can imagine, the conversation was interesting and covered a broad list of topics. I’ll try to summarize my key takeaways from the session here.
Organizations are still trying to understand the utility of blockchain and how to apply it to specific use cases in their organizational context. Not too unexpectedly, the conversation suggested that there was a broad range of comprehension of the implications of DLT and the capabilities of new Blockchain protocols, solutions, and consensus algorithms. This perhaps reflects the relative infancy of the technology and the perception of where it sits on the ‘hype curve’ at present. Clearly, the responsibility rests with those of us marketing these tools and services to clarify their’ utility and differentiation in a particular client context.
General awareness does not translate into comprehension. I may have misread this one…but it felt to me that while there was awareness of the many areas where this technology has been deployed ranging from CBDCs, NFTs, DeFi, and supply chain tracking of goods. There was a weaker understanding of disintermediation, NFTs, or the difference between security or utility tokens. Again, it seems to me that the burden should fall on consultants and service providers with an interest in engaging with an informed client.
Aren’t all blockchains open, transparent, and inefficient? A small part of the discussion was related to the difference between public and private Blockchains and concerns regarding the ‘visibility’ of all transactions. Clearly, the awareness of private/permissioned Blockchains and the existence of the many new consensus algorithms that are far more efficient than proof-of-work is not there. It’s my view that private/permissioned Blockchains offer businesses a platform to experiment with the new ‘ecosystem business models’ that can truly transform operations and client service delivery - opening the door to ‘coopetition’ with suppliers and service providers in the value chain with shared clients and/or interests.
While the conversation seemed to cover a broad and general scope, it was enlightening in that it clearly highlighted the need for more formal and structured methodologies that can help organizations to understand the technology as well as navigate the evaluation of options and decisions required to set the right path or roadmap for the organization.
