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Blockchain is dead- Around 2016 the energy world was abuzz with the possibilities that blockchain could bring to the energy sector. The promise of safe, secure, traceable transactions that didn’t require a middle man to enable them… Peer-to-peer trading seemed within every man’s grasp and we were months away from a new energy dynamic.
And then blockchain seemed to fade into the background, to be replaced by a new buzzword and the promise of a new Holy Grail. Has blockchain had its moment in the sun, or is there still a bit of life left in the buzz from a few years ago?
It depends on who you ask, but we decided to explore the landscape and give some perspectives for consideration.
A recent Bloomberg article reported that at the Invest: NYC conference: “Blockchain, the underlying technology that powers cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, is getting its last rites read.”
According to Meltem Demirors, chief investment offi cer of CoinShares Group: “Blockchain is dead. After two, three years of spending a lot of money on this and a lot of investment dollars going into this, I think the bigger question as an investor is: what’s the scalable revenue model and is there equity value that’s created in these businesses? And arguably the answer is: not yet.”
“Most of the companies that raised massive amounts of capital in 2016, 2017 to build blockchain, they don’t exist anymore or they’ve pivoted into cryptocurrency and tokenisation,” she said.
CB Insights shares that the decline of blockchain has been evident for a few years, claiming that investments into blockchain in 2020 will likely be around $1.6 billion this year, down from a record $4.1 billion in 2018.
However, not everyone agrees with the assessment that blockchain has seen its day.
Digital Assets Data’s Mike Alfred, co-founder and chief executive officer: “Enterprise blockchain, this idea that every company is going to want to have a blockchain, that idea might be temporarily on the ropes, but blockchain is the foundation of what makes the entire ecosystem work. Bitcoin’s blockchain has been running for more than 10 years without interruption. In no way is that dead,” he said.
BLOCKCHAIN, THE UNDERLYING TECHNOLOGY THAT POWERS CRYPTOCURRENCIES INCLUDING BITCOIN, IS GETTING ITS LAST RITES READ…
“… it feels like a lot of people are tired because we’ve been in this space and everybody is waiting for the space to grow up and for good things to happen. And it’s just taking longer than most people expected but in no way does that mean the space is dead.”
