Mingis on Tech: As blockchain hype cools, a 'trough of disillusionment' for 2019?
Credit to Author: Ken Mingis| Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2019 03:00:00 -0800
Ok, so maybe blockchain isn’t ready yet to become the biggest new technology since the internet.
But the distributed ledger technology clearly made strides in 2018, when it was embraced by companies from Walmart to shipping bigwig Maersk to top tech venders like IBM, SAP, Oracle and Microsoft who see potential in blockchain-as-a-service. (Walmart’s vice president in charge of food safety, Frank Yiannas, compared his embrace of blockchain to a “religious conversaion.”)
So while it might have been overhyped early on, and may now be in what Gartner describes as the “trough of disillusionment,” it still clearly has a wide variety of uses across a number of industries, according to Computerworld senior reporter Lucas Mearian.
In fact, as he explains to Executive Editor Ken Mingis in this episode, blockchain could underpin everything from real estate transactions, new crypto-currencies (including one from Facebook?) to voting in elections and even personal identities. That last one could prove particularly useful to people if it actually eliminates the need for passwords in the years ahead.
All of which is to say that while blockchain hasn’t upended the technology ecosystem – yet – it’s well on the way to worming itself into a lot of places.
For an audio-only version of this episode, click play (or catch up on all earlier episodes) below. Or you can find us on iTunes or Pocket Casts, where you can download each episode and listen at your leisure.
Happy listening, and please, send feedback or suggestions for future topics to us. We’d love to hear from you.