Deloitte Blockchain Chief: Bad Crypto Headlines Making Clients 'Nervous'

That's how Linda Pawczuk, leader of Deloitte Consulting's financial services industry blockchain group, describes the conversations she often has these days with executives and board members of client companies.

She said, these clients have been asking about the wilder side of blockchain they've read about in the news: the initial coin offerings that have incurred the wrath of the Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, or the illicit uses of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

"The boards are asking us about it because it's in the news for bad actors, and boards are nervous that blockchain is affiliated with bitcoin and altcoins and ICOs, and what do boards do to protect their investors? So it hasn't helped us, the association with the bad actors."

That Olympic champion, in her analogy, is DLT. In a wide-ranging interview, Pawczuk, who took over her team at Deloitte in April after predecessor Eric Piscini left to form a blockchain startup, shared her perspectives on what kind of consortiums work best in getting enterprises to adopt this tech; why she's queasy about vendors offering free proofs-of-concept; why Deloitte isn't pursuing any work in the hot stablecoin sector; and whether she sees public chains playing any role at enterprises.

She has an example ready: The Institutes RickBlock Alliance, whose formation Pawczuk oversaw in her previous job, when she led Deloitte's blockchain efforts in the insurance sector for three years.

The blockchain is in production and now the alliance is eyeing expanding beyond North America.

For similar reasons, Pawczuk is skeptical about the practice among some enterprise blockchain vendors of building proofs of concept for free.

"Another thing that makes me nervous is proofs-of-concepts being built by students that have never had to coexist in the environment where large high volume transaction systems do exist. Blockchain does not replace all core systems."

Further, while Deloitte's blockchain consulting mostly involves permissioned blockchains, rather than the open kind that power cryptocurrencies, Pawczuk believes in the end, industries will need a hybrid of both.

Deloitte has staked out its own blockchain interoperability claim, connecting trade finance blockchain data, as demoed in May at Consensus 2018.