The reason I was initially interested in blockchain was the promise, I had been told, of this revolutionary technology to bring “the disinfectant sunlight” of transparency to supply chains, and allow companies and consumers to understand the provenance of the products they are purchasing.
I could see how this tech could be a gamechanger. Having studied ‘Blockchain as a Business Strategy’ at a top business school, I was convinced and started to describe myself as a blockchain evangelist – the world needed to wake up to this technology and step into this new trusted future, etc.
Roll forwards 18 months, and thousands of hours of deeper understanding of DLT and Blockchain, and I am no longer convinced that an “Excel spreadsheet in the clouds” is going to really make the kind of impact so many blockchain evangelists might think – but why?
Well, first off, let’s get clear that enterprise blockchain just isn’t blockchain; it’s neither public nor permissionless, and because of that it doesn’t give the level of transparency or openness that we associate with blockchain. But let’s ignore that as it’s not worth getting het up on what some may perceive as me splitting hairs (I’m not). The insurmountable challenge that blockchain for enterprise has can be summed up by the following sentence:
If the asset you’re tracking is not native to that chain, then it’s not feasible to accept the data recorded as “truth”.
Let’s break that down….
The only asset that is native to a given chain is the coins built on top. Bitcoins are “born” on chain, and we can track each one from its birth, and all the wallets that have held them and for how long – this data is available to view through the explorer.
