Falling Crypto Prices Aren't Stopping Real Blockchain Progress

Paul Brody is EY's global innovation leader for blockchain.

Plunging cryptocurrency values in 2018 and the collapse of the money-for-nothing white paper market in initial coin offerings took much of the focus last year for many people when it came to blockchain mindshare.

All of that marketplace drama concealed an enormous amount of real progress for the technology that will, slowly but surely, lay the foundation for a robust revival of the blockchain markets in the future.

Not only did the bulk of the money raised go to a very small number of the ICOs, but nearly every aspect of the world of blockchain also became more consolidated and, dare I say, centralized, in 2018 - rather counterintuitive for blockchain, since decentralization is at its core.

While public exchanges have been consolidating their hold on the market, private blockchains are getting to work by delivering real business value for enterprises.

Looking at the enterprise space, there are three key learnings from the work with blockchain in 2018.

First and foremost, the biggest rule in blockchain seems to be: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Over and over again, when companies are working on projects where blockchain seemed to be an excellent fit, they did not move forward because they already found a solution to their problem.

Despite the fact that blockchain in nearly every case would be better, that isn't necessarily enough to justify replacing already existing processes, given the cost and risk.

While chief innovation officers sometimes love to do blockchain proofs of concept, the technology is far past that.

It's all about the focus on productizing and solving solutions for line-of-business executives - with real ROI. If one can, with confidence, point to an ROI from a solution, then there's no need to worry about which blockchain platform or future comes to pass.