Chapter 9

Conclusion and Thoughts about theFuture

§ 9:1 Summary of important points§ 9:2 Don’t panic, but start planning§ 9:3 Where does all this leave businesses and

professions

§ 9:1 Summary of important points

E There is no need to panic about implementing block-chain technology, but now is the time to begin under-standing what blockchain technology does well andwhat it doesn’t do well.

E For some industries, such as financial services and thesupply chain industry, blockchain based solutions willlikely appear sooner than many other industries.

E For blockchain technology to be fully utilized, it is nec-essary to educate people on the nature of the technology.

E Developers and companies working on blockchain solu-tions need to actively engage policy makers in order toensure proper regulation and useful legislation.

§ 9:2 Don’t panic, but start planning

When discussing blockchain technology with clients andothers, one of the most commonly asked questions is “whenwill the actual use of this technology become widespread?”It’s a good question because it gets to the real concern theperson asking has—when do I need to worry about this stuff.In some respects, the technology is already in widespreaduse. There is no denying that Bitcoin is a real force inpayments. With a market cap of several billion dollars andnumerous well-funded exchanges, the question of whetherBitcoin will be successful has already been answered. Evenif Bitcoin is ultimately replaced, it will have been a success.To conclude otherwise, is to suggest that Ford’s Model T wasa failure because they are no longer in production.

Of course, most businesses and industries can continue tobe successful without incorporating Bitcoin into their busi-

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ness model. Besides, much of this book is devoted to usecases that go beyond a payment service or digital currency.So when people ask the above question, they are reallyconcerned about those blockchain 2.0 implementations. Theirconcern is that competitors will implement these technolo-gies more rapidly and leave them at a competitivedisadvantage. On the other hand, no one wants to spend re-sources on something that turns out to be nothing more thanempty promises. In light of the companies now devoting sig-nificant resources to these technologies, such as IBM,Microsoft, and Intel, it’s hard to believe there “isn’t some-thing to this.”

The biggest question then is not if, but when, blockchainresources will move from the development and testing phaseto production ready, enterprise level solutions. Unfortu-nately, any predictions on that front on our part would bepure speculation. What we can provide are some predictionsabout which we have a higher level of confidence, all of whichwe think are useful to consider. First, blockchain solutionswill consist of more than one blockchain. This is not a racewhere one competitor or technology will prevail. Differentindustries need different tools, and it is all but certain thatthere will never be a one size fits all blockchain protocol. Assuch, certain solutions will need public and open blockchainsolutions based on protocols like Bitcoin and/or Ethereum.Other solutions will require permissioned ledgers likeHyperledger. In some industries, the solution will require apayment component and a corresponding digital currencylike Bitcoin. Other industries, however, will use blockchainsolutions as a secure way to maintain records in an im-mutable fashion. Many of these solutions don’t require anydigital currency, so they don’t require a Bitcoin like protocol.

Second, investment in research and development ofblockchain technologies will continue to grow in the comingyears. This is likely to speed up the pace of implementation.To date, most of this investment has come from privateinvestment, which should continue to grow. Hopefully,government investment in blockchain technology will alsoincrease over the coming years, which together with increas-ing private investment, will lead to even more innovationand use cases not even considered today.

§ 9:3 Where does all this leave businesses andprofessions

The most important steps businesses can take today is to

§ 9:2 THE BLOCKCHAIN: A GUIDE FOR PROFESSIONALS

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stay informed on the status and development of thistechnology. This includes the process of making sure ITpersonnel are not only aware of the technology, but begin tobecome conversant in the technology and truly understandit. This includes understanding what blockchain technologycan realistically do and what is not feasible. As with anynew technology, it can often be difficult to differentiate be-tween legitimate capabilities versus pie in the sky claims.Again, education is the key to staying informed about realis-tic capabilities.

Another important step for those who can benefit fromblockchain solutions is to lobby elected and government of-ficials for balanced and appropriate legislation and regula-tions as discussed in the previous chapter. The first step forgovernments is to identify what legislation is necessary inorder to permit businesses and individuals to take fulladvantage of the technology. The other task for governmentis to balance regulations that will add confidence to thetechnology versus those that will create barriers to entryand ultimately reduce innovation. A proper balance is notonly achievable, but vitally necessary for the future of thistechnology.

For academics, developers and practitioners, the burden ison us to continue to educate the public, including businessleaders, on the promise of blockchain technology. Thisrequires an honest assessment of those things that block-chain technology does well and candid disclosure when exist-ing, conventional solutions are more appropriate. We mustalso recognize that blockchain technology is an interdisciplin-ary study—implicating finance, microeconomics, game the-ory, and legal theory to name a few. These are in addition tothe more obvious fields of mathematics, cryptography,electrical engineering, and computer science. Ultimately, themost compelling case for the future of blockchain technologyis that many of the brightest and most entrepreneurialindividuals in each of these fields have converged on onetechnology—blockchain.

§ 9:3CONCLUSION AND THOUGHTS ABOUT THE FUTURE

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