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A new report provides a relatively depressing perspective on the future of the blockchain, a technology touted by many as truly disruptive.
The McKinsey & Company study, entitled & # 39; Blockchain & # 39; s Occam problem & # 39;, examines the practicality of technology, with the title that refers to Occam's razor, the principle that states that the simplest solution is the most likely to be the best. "On this basis, the cases of use of the blockchain could be the wrong answer," says the report. In its early days, the industries had placed the blockchain on a pedestal, with starry eyes, perhaps a bit infatuated with possibilities. Car manufacturers, insurance companies, the public sector, banks – all had big and mostly complex ideas on how the blockchain could revolutionize the way they operated.
"It is clear that blockchain is a potential turning point," says the report. "However, there are also emerging doubts: a particular concern, given the amount of money and expense, is that little substance has been achieved".
The study states that the best value of the blockchain for 2019 is found in niche applications. Companies that are already oriented towards modernization and those that seek to demonstrate their ability to innovate could also find a use for technology.
The bitcoin cryptocurrency is a particularly well-defended aspect of blockchain technology. Although far from the only use of the blockchain, the Lebanese writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb, called bitcoin "an insurance policy against an Orwellian future". And in an article in December 2018, Time magazine defended blockchain, with Alex Gladstein writing: "For people who live under authoritarian governments, bitcoins can be a valuable tool as a means of exchange resistant to censorship." 
Despite the rather vocal support of bitcoin (and cryptocurrency as a whole), McKinsey & Company defined the life cycle of the blockchain based on market size. The perspective is not extraordinary. The graph shows that the blockchain is poised on the precipice of the "pioneering" phase, in which the prototype technology is introduced to the first users. Entering the next phase ("growth") the blockchain should begin to see success and the beginnings of widespread adoption. While some argue that the blockchain has indeed entered the "growth" phase, its obvious success has not yet happened.
"At the turning point of today, many prototypes have been built, but blockchain technology has not yet seen a large-scale application and the future remains uncertain," says the report.
The lack of confidence in the blockchain, however, is not stopping the traces of technology, with big moves and international partnerships that are constantly news. The CGI management and technology consulting firm, for example, recently announced a collaboration with the National Bank of Canada and Skuchain on a blockchain-based method to manage the often complex agreements used by banks to guarantee financial transactions, currently conducted by email.
The Inter-American Development Bank will also focus on promoting blockchain in Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, KoreConX, a blockchain-based business management platform, announced in December a partnership with Middle East SMEs consultants Metis Management Company.
