Blockchain entrepreneurs react to Bloomberg’s report on slowdown in blockchain space

In an article published earlier this week, Bloomberg said that blockchain-based projects may be suffering a slowdown.

The article referred to a recent report from Forrester Research that estimated that in 90 percent of the cases, the blockchain experiments will never become a part of company’s operations and expects several blockchain projects to wound down this year. Bloomberg also cited a number of instances where the companies are scaling back their timelines with regard to blockchain adoption.

The article has attracted reactions from the blockchain industry incumbents.

Philip Young, Marketing Director at the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange, believes that blockchain adoption is growing. He said that the hype and “wild west” noise surrounding the technology has “certainly died down, but that’s a good thing.”

“Solid projects are busy working on development and implementation, whilst bad projects are no longer taking off due to a higher level of scrutiny from potential participants. The market is maturing and that’s a good thing,” Young said.

Thomas Schouten, Head of Marketing at Lisk, said that blockchain technology is becoming more responsive, agile and gradually catching up with traditional, centralised competitors. He also explained why the process of blockchain adoption can feel like a drawn-out process:

“Unlike the startup model of releasing a beta app and making improvements over time, many blockchain networks hold vast sums of value and data in a never before seen decentralized manner, so every release needs to be of the highest quality and carefully thought out. There have been some recent incidents that demonstrate what can happen when blockchain networks are carelessly designed, further underlining the need for a gradual, methodical approach to development.”

“While global blockchain disruption might not take place this year, the future version of blockchain that has gone through this extensive research and development process will not only be a no brainer for the majority of businesses to implement, but will also open up whole new business models and perhaps even new industries,” Schouten added.

Nicolas Gilot, Co-CEO of blockchain-powered gaming distribution platform Ultra, echoed Schouten’s views and said that adoption of any new technology takes time.

“Historically, we have seen the switch from physical to digital purchase and the move from landline phones to mobile phones take years and, even today, companies are still adapting to the internet. With each of these new technologies, we have seen adoption become increasingly faster but it still takes time. The same can be said for blockchain, and businesses and people simply need more time to understand and adopt this new technology,” Gilot said.

Carlos Grenoir, CEO of Olyseum – a collaborative and specialized, blockchain-based, social network created by sport leaders for sport lovers, noted that a number of blockchain-based projects are being developed at a speed three to four times faster than that of traditional industries.

“All of these companies are trying to build powerful platforms at high-speed and while some will succeed and go on to found incredible businesses, others will crash and burn. This is no different to what happens in traditional industries, however all eyes are on blockchain as it is still very much in its nascent stages,” Grenoir said. “With this in mind, I think it is fair to suggest that there can be a disconnect between hype and reality within the blockchain space, but as more and more real-life use cases and proof-of-concepts begin to emerge, I believe blockchain’s ability to transform various industries will ultimately prevail.”

According to Joseph Thompson, CEO and Co-founder of digital identity provider AID:Tech, one can now see a clear separation of winners and losers in the blockchain space.

“A lot of people put bets on blockchain technology that was either immature, or didn’t suit the needs of the use case involved. For example, large amounts of firms invested in public ledger technology when private ledgers were more applicable, and in most cases, a traditional database would have been suitable,” Thompson said. “We believe that trust and transparency are the key use cases for the future of blockchain. Applications which take advantage of the permanency, immutability and traceability that blockchain affords will emerge as the winners.”