• By 2030, blockchain will have a value-add of over $3 trillion worldwide from cost reductions and revenue gains according to Gartner.
• The winning use cases will not only solve issues in the current system but also justify the benefits, costs, and risks associated with implementing the technology.
• As enterprise solutions develop the capabilities to scale and integrate both private and public blockchains, it is essential for investors to pay close attention to the technological development of enterprise solution and evaluate which solutions can satisfy the needs and requirements for enterprise adoption.

By 2030, blockchain will have a value-add of over $3 trillion worldwide from cost reductions and revenue gains according to Gartner. Contrary to popular belief, public blockchains won’t replace central authorities. The internet, the first de facto pseudoanarchic trustless system ever created, brought the illusion of disintermediation. The internet allows for the transfer of text, images, programs, and videos. On the other hand, blockchain allows for the transfer of money, contracts, patents, and assets. Services are delivered by central powerhouses like Google (Google Developers), Facebook (Facebook Research), Amazon (Amazon App Developer) and e-business platforms in general. However, central authorities are susceptible to abusing their power. In this case, while a public blockchain could be an interim solution, eventually humans will create a central authority with people who are accountable for safety and security in fulfilling their lowest-level basic needs.

Within the scope of enterprise blockchains, any public participants can join a public decentralized network and open, read and write in a permissionless mode. Under private decentralization, all the participants are known and part of internal business units or divisions from the same entity. Under consortium decentralization, this is a hybrid of public and private models. The network is maintained by trusted members from different organizations.

Enterprises should evaluate blockchain based on its costs, benefits, and risks.

Benefits:

• Digitization of assets
• Traceability
• Improved efficiency
• No central authority and point of failure
• Immutability
• New revenue opportunities

Costs:

• Technology, integration
• System duplication
• Implementation
• Ecosystem management
• Staff training

Risks:

• Missed expectations
• Legal and compliance
• Protection and privacy
• Immaturity of technology
• Lack of standards
• Lack of network.

Read 8 Decimal’s latest deck for a comprehensive overview of enterprise blockchain solutions and to learn about its past, present and future developments. The deck also covers numerous use-cases and case studies of blockchain enterprise implementation, including companies such as IBM (IBM Research), OpenBazaar, and TradeLens, as well as industry verticals such as e-commerce, retail, supply chain management, and energy management, among others.

For further reading on this topic, I recently published an article on blockchain enterprises’ past, present, and future evolution of global finance:

• Enterprise Blockchain: Past, Present and Future

Please let me know your comments, and feel free to reach me out at remi@8dcapital.com if you have any more questions about this topic.