Executive Blockchain Journey

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?”