The blockchain hype train has slowed down, but it hasn’t stopped

You may have heard talk of a supposedly revolutionary technology according to many, but with very little proven use cases as yet. I like to refer to this as blockchain hype. This hasn’t stopped conferences around the world focusing on blockchain technology and the possibilities it could provide. Indeed, some are making a career out of being blockchain evangelicals.

The ICO stage of 2017 ironically might have turned out to be a positive for the whole industry. With such vast sums of money being thrown at any project and with many of these projects going on to fail, severe and harsh lessons have been learnt.

Questions are now rightly being raised as to whether every project needs a blockchain or whether those attempting to incorporate one are doing so just to raise a little more money.

Conference attendances have fallen generally across the whole industry as the bear market has waned the interest of many. Whilst blockchain evangelicals often deride the cryptocurrency space as irrelevant, there is little doubt that the price of Bitcoin affects the industry as a whole. When Bitcoin was in a bull market, conference attendance was high. The current bear market has reduced that number significantly.

So whilst there is an interest in blockchain, the interest in cryptocurrency remains a lot higher. No doubt this is in part due to individuals being able to flip coins for a profit.

Blockchain is over 10 years old now. In that time, whilst there has been a lot of talk of its revolutionary properties, very little has actually been achieved other than a few pilot schemes here and there.

New technologies do suffer from the hype machine. 3D printing was supposed to revolutionise the industry of production, but has still yet to reach mainstream adoption (I am still waiting to print my own knives and forks like I was promised). Of course, technologies do need time to mature and to truly understand, which blockchain will get. However, despite all the hype, there are no guarantees that blockchain is the revolution that is here to stay.