Strategic Intelligence: Blockchain

Expectations for blockchain adoption and its utility have significantly diminished now that the hype around the technology, which flourished between 2017 and 2020, has died down. The era of peak Web3 enthusiasm envisaged the decentralization of many applications, ranging from social media to finance, all operating on distributed ledgers (blockchains). However, this broad adoption did not materialize, and many early initiatives failed. The reality was that many issues and challenges in the enterprise market could be addressed more easily with existing technologies than with blockchain.

Key Highlights

• Cryptocurrencies remain the most prominent use case for blockchain and the only area where it has successfully scaled; crypto can today be classified as a mid-sized alternative asset class that is here to stay. Beyond cryptocurrencies, there are a few examples of scaled blockchain applications in the consumer market. The non-fungible token (NFT) craze peaked around 2021, and we remain firmly in the NFT winter. As the prices of many NFT collectibles continue to fall and trading volumes dry up, the key question is whether we are seeing the end of NFTs as a meaningful asset class.
• The most promising area for future blockchain adoption is finance, especially around the tokenization of financial assets and, potentially, the growth of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), though in the latter case, these do not need to use blockchain to record transactions. While many global banks support tokenization across a range of financial assets, progress over recent years has been slow, and the ability of many of these applications to scale remains uncertain.

Report Scope

• This report provides an overview of the blockchain theme.
• It identifies the key trends impacting the growth of the theme over the next 12 to 24 months, split into three categories: technology trends, macroeconomic trends, and regulatory trends.
• The detailed value chain comprises four layers: the infrastructure layer, the software layer, the application layer, and the services layer. Leading and challenging vendors are identified across each of these layers.

Reasons to Buy

• The adoption of blockchain has lagged behind that of other emerging technologies. The reason is that few understand blockchain. This report addresses that issue, providing a detailed, yet easy-to-follow overview of the technology that highlights its key characteristics and describes how blockchain works.
• Our comprehensive value chain includes details of the leading players in areas like blockchain services, helping companies decide which vendors they should partner with on blockchain implementation projects.