Blockchain or Bust: Businesses Need to Seek a Middle Ground Posted on : Jan 18 - 2019

In today’s world, when a business says they are using blockchain in their operation, the mind goes to one of two places: This is a blockchain business that wants the entire process to run on the nascent technology, or it is a business that has some blockchain element, more as a gimmick than an attempt to innovate.

There in lies a problem that faces blockchain in general right now. It is this battle between blockchain adoption, and blockchain integration, which has a chicken-and-egg feel to it. Are businesses not adopting blockchain because they are not sure how to integrate it effectively? Or, are they struggling to incorporate it because the adoption (and thus understanding) is not up to scratch.

Businesses caught on either side of this polarised blockchain incorporation will neither benefit themselves, or the technology. There needs to be a middle ground of blockchain integration, which naturally links up with current business application and processes. The finding of a middle ground, between extreme and mild blockchain integration in business is similar to the mindset shift that has happened with cryptocurrencies recently.

From the ‘Cypherpunk’ and Dark Web days of Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and their communities have come to realise that “if they can’t beat ‘em, they need to join ‘em” - concerning regulators. The idea of cryptocurrency replacing fiat has all but disappeared as people instead seek legal clarity as to how it can fit into regulatory and legal frameworks.

For blockchain and its integration in companies, there also needs to be a similar shift in mindset. Where the technology currently is does not lend itself to totally revolutionise normal business technology, much like the early dot com boom. Instead, companies should be looking to integrate the blockchain with current business technology.

At the same time, running a blockchain alongside business processes, purely for window dressing, is not going to help grow the company, or the technology, in the long run.

Blockchain adoption vs integration

Like many revolutionary technologies that have come to the fore in the last decade or so, blockchain - on paper - has so much potential and promise. But when it comes to integrating and using it, a lot of problems suddenly become clear because the technology is still very new and needs to go through a lot more ‘testing’ globally.

Blockchain as a technology is still very rough around the edges, it is trying to fix innate issues, like scaling, and although its theoretical potential is almost endless, the practical application limit is holding it back. View More