Executive Blockchain Journey
Troy Norcross
![Troy Norcross]()
Troy Norcross
AI & Emerging Tech Strategist | AI Governance Professional | Fractional COO/CCO
Do you recognise any of this journey?
- Cycle to work and enjoy your coffee in blissful ignorance
- Overhear someone at the pub talk about making thousands trading bitcoin(?)
- Read a lot of articles about cryptocurrency and bitcoin and crime
- Read even more articles about how blockchain will change the world
- Overhear your IT department discuss how blockchain technology is useless
- Overhear your sales team talk about winning and losing thousands in crypto
- Read how bitcoin price has plummeted
- Read a few articles on Medium about blockchain and DLT
- Talk to a stranger at the pub about blockchain
- Listen to a podcast about how millions in bitcoin were stolen from an exchange (?)
- Move beyond reading Medium articles to watching YouTube videos
- Read how bitcoin price has soared
- Talk to your nephew about how bitcoin is supposed to be 100% transparent
- Notice dozens of new Blockchain conferences popping up everywhere
- Keep looking (and looking, and looking) for real-world use cases
- Wonder why you aren’t focused on AI and ML (you don’t understand them either)
- Sign off on an innovation project using AI to make something called a chatbot
- Get 12 different approaches from people claiming to have blockchain solutions
- Get invited to sit on a panel and discuss how blockchain is impacting your industry
- Read more Medium articles, watch more YouTube videos and look (again) for real-world examples
- Get tired of seeing Frank Yiannis from Walmart talk about food safety
- Put on sunglasses and a hat and go to a MeetUp just to see who else is there (JoAnn from finance)
- Alex from sales tells you that your competitor is “Doing blockchain” - What do we tell our clients?
- Call Sam from Innovation team and ask if they have any projects?
- Go to the basement and see that Skip is currently reading about Blockchain on Wikipedia
- Stephen - the board chairman - wants to know, “What’s our blockchain strategy?”
- The trade association conference next week now has a Blockchain Panel
- Read how bitcoin price has collapsed, but it is still outperforming gold
- Buy aspirin. Wonder if vodka would work better
- That gnawing feeling in your gut gets stronger. What if this blockchain stuff is important?
- Susan from (Insert expensive consulting firm here) shows up and starts talking about Blockchain
- You suggest that Sam and Susan run a workshop to explore opportunities
- The workshop is free on the basis that there will be a project that follows
- Start looking for budget to fund a blockchain project to keep the chairman happy and to give something for Alex to tell the clients.
- Everyone loves the workshop but still can’t explain what blockchain is, why it's needed, or how we can make money from implementing it.
- Susan presents a proposal for a ￡500K proof of concept project using Acme’s blockchain tech - which really isn’t blockchain because it is private and permissioned and more DLT than blockchain (???)
- Pull out your phone and pretend to check messages while searching Google, “What is DLT?”
- Realise that Susan just proposed spending ￡500K on a PoC - (What?!?)
- Nope. Still no new real-world use cases.
- JoAnn (from finance) has been approached by one of our suppliers asking about blockchain.
- Stephen (the chairman) calls to invite me out to play golf - so we can talk about our blockchain strategy
- Stuart over in IT announces that he has been quietly testing a blockchain that he set up using one of the Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) providers - (This “X”aaS trend is annoying)
- You suddenly realise that CityAM has had a dedicated CryptoInsider section since December.
- You send an email to Anita in legal to ask, “What do you know about Blockchain?”
- At the quarterly industry drinks you are quietly approached by Richard - head of strategy for your biggest competitor - “Would you like to talk about a new blockchain initiative?”
- Ok - can’t ignore this any more
“Where can I someone to talk sensibly and pragmatically about blockchain and give me the tools I need to participate in these discussions and make informed decisions?”