Decision time is here for blockchain, but are enterprises ready?

Blockchain — the purportedly immutable global database — has been in the headlines for several years now, and it’s looking like 2018 will be the year that IT and business leaders have to decide whether to move forward in a serious way with it. That means, of course, committing both budget dollars and peoples’ time building out capabilities.

It also means — and this is a huge part of it — getting organizational buy-in to the approach. The rise of blockchain-savvy disruptors may help push the issue, but until that happens, business and IT leaders may resist the idea of tearing up current processes embedded within current infrastructures.

Skills and knowledge is essential, of course, and it’s going to take time for these to be available. There are signs of a growing base of skills and expertise in the blockchain space. A recent report from Upwork, for example, indicates that blockchain is the second-fastest growing base of skillsets on its list of the top 20 skills now available from independent talent, right behind robotics. While it is still linked to Bitcoin, it’s worth noting that blockchain has potential well beyond the cyber-currencies, with the ability to assure smart contracts within supply chains, the Internet of Things, financial documents, and a range of other people-to-machines or machine-to-machine interactions.

Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, among the earliest and most forceful proponents of blockchain, say the time is now to make the move to this new, open architecture. Writing in MIT‘s Sloan Management Review, the Tapscotts say blockchain throws open the doors of innovation in a way not seen before. “We believe that blockchain will transform how businesses are organized and managed,” they write. “It allows companies to eliminate transaction costs and use resources on the outside as easily as resources on the inside. In most cases, we believe that networks based on blockchain will be better suited for creating products and services and for delivering value to stakeholders.”

In essence, blockchain has the potential to make open innovation truly “open.