The Great Backlash Against Blockchain Hype

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The world is falling in love with blockchain. USD 945 million was spent globally by organisations on "blockchain solutions" in 2017, while this annual figure is forecast to rise to USD 2.1 billion in 2018 and USD 9.2 billion 2021.

But as much as the wider world is enamored with blockchain tech, there's an emerging dialogue among crypto figures and outside observers on whether blockchain tech is really applicable to anything other than cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, monero and ethereum.

However, while it’s becoming increasingly likely that blockchains won’t be applicable to all of the world’s problems, the immutability of the records they provide means they’re still likely to bring benefits in certain focused areas.

Too expensive, unscalable and slow

On May 12, noted "bitcoin advocate" Andreas Antonopoulos took to the stage at the Polish Bitcoin Congress, where he argued that blockchains without crypto lose much of the decentralisation that makes them radical. "The reason Bitcoin is interesting is because it’s not controlled, because it can't be censored" he explained.

"If you take all of that out, what you’re left with – this blockchain – is […] a corporate plaything that has been sanitised of everything interesting."