Blockchain in Business under a new prism
By: Kostas Kalogerakis
Tags: Blockchain Technology, Blockchain, Distributed Ledgers, Blockchain Application

When I had to prepare a very introductory talk on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies for TEDx Komotini in May 2019 one of the key points I wanted to make was the following:

We have experienced in the past technologies taking whole different directions and achieving value adding status many years after their initial inception.

One major example that is often mentioned is military-grade network ARPANET that evolved into the World Wide Web and we all know how that went in the following decades.

Users of a new tech (even the most experienced) do not grasp the full potential in the early years and fail to imagine all the different options in business model generation. Add to this mix that we are not in the seventies and some other exponential tech play out at the same time.

Then it is year 2020.

Just one year after the TEDx talk, the covid-19 impact on digitization of everything has been something more than profound.

The Ledger of Everything (aka Blockchain) could potentially take an upgraded role in a future tech stack based on cloud and artificial intelligence.

At the time that lots of voices were raising concerns about the actual value delivered by Blockchain investments in the past years, covid-19 shock treatment for digital skeptics created a new prism.

Focusing on solving real immediate problems of trust in enhanced digital value chains, particularly in supply chain, health, energy, smart cities and of course finance. DeFi (Decentralized Finance) is the new hotbed.

Data becoming the strongest asset class in our touchless economy. So probably we need to revise the way they are flowing in the system from creation to storage to distribution.

Consequently, there is no strong debate now on whether Blockchain is part of the new architecture.

Even Central Banks are heavily involved in digital money proof-of-concepts based on De-Centralization.

There are still many questions unanswered but the traction of adopting this technology is gaining new but more realistic momentum, as significant lessons were taken from previous inflated expectations back in 2015-2017. Some latest numbers:

· The global market for blockchain solutions is set to grow by $18 billion by 2024 (Hyperledger)

· 2020 alone has seen $4.4 billion spent on developing and integrating tailored enterprise blockchain solutions – up nearly four times from 2017 (IDC)

· Blockchain technologies could boost the global economy US$1.76 trillion by 2030 through raising levels of tracking, tracing and trust (PwC)

· On LinkedIn, blockchain is recognized as the number one in-demand skill in 2020, ahead of other areas such as artificial technology and cloud computing.

In this context the Hellenic Blockchain Hub is co-organizing with Boussias Communications a conference on Blockhain in Business on Wednesday 2/12/2020, gathering many prestigious speakers from Greece and abroad.

We envision to create a dialogue on the many different strategic issues involved in exploring use cases with meaningful value and measurable ROI.

We have structured the all-day schedule in two parts. In the first one, we will take the more high-level viewpoint of the impact in business, while in the second we will examine practical examples of implementations and their lessons learned.

Checking out again the final agenda here I could not anticipate more for the insights that will be shared. Very happy to coordinate the discussion, knowing personally many of the speakers as key HBH members.

If you are interested to join us all details are here.