Where is blockchain a potentially good business fit?

End July 2017, Juniper Research released some other findings from the report showing that (as you can also check in the infographic below) 57 percent of organizations with over 20,000 employees is either ‘actively considering’ or in the process of deploying blockchain technology.

34 percent doesn’t know and 9 percent is not actively considering or deploying. That picture completely changes when looking at all companies, including those with over 200,000 employees where we see that the majority of respondents is still saying ‘yes’ but instead of 57 percent that number considerably drops to 39 percent (play with the interactive infographic below).

That brings us to the question for which kind of companies, industries and use cases blockchain is a good fit. And that’s also what Juniper Research wanted to know. The result is a white paper with the apt name ‘Which Industries are the Best Fit for Blockchain?

From the press release we remember a few things. According to the research, companies which would benefit most from blockchain include those with:

● a need for transparency and clarity in transactions

● a current dependence on paper-based legacy storage systems

● and/or a high volume of transmitted information.

So, indeed transactions, trust, transparency and a lot of data with the need for speed in a decentralizing technology landscape. With regards to the paper aspect don’t think that tomorrow we’ll live in a paperless society with blockchain, trust us. On the other hand, in various applications blockchain can indeed speed up a higher independence from paper-based legacy storage systems (especially when powered by a consortium and a private blockchain that is de facto changing the game in areas where those who want to remain relevant simply have no choice).

Disruption and underestimation of the blockchain challenge as risks

When we talk about changing the game there are also the human, cultural and other contextual transformation parameters. And here Juniper research really hits the nail when saying that, despite growing awareness of (the benefits of) blockchain and more initiatives, it 24 might be dangerous to leverage blockchain without first looking at other options as there is an element of disruption as the survey shows.

And that might also slow down the current enthusiasm a bit as, quoting the press release “the research found that companies may have underestimated the scale of the blockchain challenge”. Without interoperability, clients and partner ecosystems wanting to collaborate and so forth you might indeed get in trouble and underestimating the scale and complexity of internal and external disruption through the adoption of blockchain might be your blockchain party pooper. That is the very reason why big names put their shoulders under blockchain and blockchain associations across various use cases and industries and why you’ll see more and more client cases coming, ideally within an ecosystem context. If you have a feeling of déjà-vu: indeed, it feels a lot like the early days of IoT and so many other technologies. But this time it seems that the stakeholders are moving way faster. After all, history has a tendency to repeat itself but companies like the leading ones above now and then also learn from history.

Additional resources on blockchain in business

Blockchain enterprise survey

Below is a screenshot of the interactive infographic from the blockchain enterprise survey of Juniper Research, presented in the Summer of 2017 and tackled in this blockchain overview.

Jupiter Blockchain survey: Blockchain Awareness and Usefulness

Jupiter Blockchain survey: Enterprise Disruption

Blockchain technology report for IT managers

End January 2018 the US National Institute of Standards and Technology published a draft report regarding blockchain technology as covered in our NIST blockchain technology report article.

The report gives a great overview of blockchain technologies and more. Although it aims to target IT managers who want to take decisions with regards to blockchain in business applications it does offer a great introduction to blockchain in a somewhat more technical context but also with ample use cases and more.

Blockchain Global Benchmarking Study

Last but not least, below is the previously mentioned SlideShare of the Global Blockchain Benchmarking Study by the University of Cambridge Judge Business School (Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance).