EKMH Innovators Interview Series: 2020 Blockchain Predictions Week
An interview series spotlighting global tech influencers, disruptors, visionaries, and of course, innovators.
‘Tis the season for reflections and looking ahead to the new year. To celebrate the holidays, during this week the Innovators Series focuses on the Blockchain, Crypto and Fintech predictions of mavericks and mavens in the sector.
It’s been an exciting week so far as leaders in the crypto and blockchain spheres share their predictions! Today Charles Phan, CTO of the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Interdax, looks into the future and shares his vision for 2020:
*The only proven application of blockchain technology to this day has been sound money - i.e. Bitcoin. While the technology is promising, I do not see anyone finding another legitimate use case in 2020. The ‘blockchain’ narrative became popular in 2014-2015 as a way for businesses to sound sophisticated and advanced without associating themselves with Bitcoin, which had garnered a bad reputation in its early years as a currency for criminals.
*The principal innovative property of blockchain technology is decentralisation. However, most businesses are instead opting to use permissioned ledgers and have not yet progressed past the proof of concept stage. For a robust system, a wide network of distributed nodes are required which is what public, permissionless blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum achieve. Permissioned blockchains are lacking in this regard.
*If blockchain technology needs a central organisation’s brand rather than the actual cryptography, then there is no use case. Instead of backing a blockchain with the reputation of a company, it is easier to simply build a database.
*Big businesses do not have the incentive to implement blockchain technology in a truly transformative way, as the perceived risks - especially regulatory - are still quite high. These companies want to see solid examples of successful use cases, which are still many years away.
*While 2020 may see more industrial applications of blockchain technology go into production mode, the tech is still a long away from delivering something as ground-breaking as Bitcoin.
*I would expect more big financial players to enter the alt finance market, either by launching their own fintechs or by collaborating with existing players.
*Originally published 20 December 2020.
*Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this series are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
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