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Blockchain thought leadership is one of the best ways tech executives can establish themselves within a niche but growing field.
It can lead to investment, partnerships, contracts, and promising talent to beat your competition.
That said, with blockchain being such a complex field, it can be tough to know which thought leadership topics to focus on and why they are so important.
This is exactly why we’ve produced this handy article outlining five essential blockchain thought leadership topics you should keep in mind this year.
When the concept of a blockchain first rose to prominence, it rightly had many sceptics.
Blockchain wasn’t disruptive like the internet was. It simply allows for new ways of doing the same thing, such as by transferring value like banks already do or automating business contracts.
So, it's understandable that its complexity led many industries to avoid Blockchain and others who did understand it to pigeonhole it as a gimmick.
However, if we fast forward to today, 80% of the world’s best companies now use blockchain.
Here’s exactly why:
Since blockchain essentially creates a live record that can’t be altered, the likes of insurance businesses are preventing fraud and unauthorised activity much better.
Experimental healthcare firms are sharing and tracking data in real-time, providing full traceability and accountability for actions.
Financial institutions are benefitting by processing transactions faster without the need for paper documentation and added costs.
Vital sectors, such as logistics, are using smart contracts to automate actions when certain conditions are met, such as mitigating the risk of supply chain bottlenecks.
Much of this progress has been led by tech executives who have championed blockchain, onboarded key stakeholders, and thrust innovation.
It’s time we see more leaders initiate new discussions regarding other left-field applications for the technology.
Most people, aware of how blockchain mining works, will know how incredibly energy-intensive it is to ensure that all computers on a blockchain network come to calculate that transactions are correct.
Powerful computer chips and software are required, plus a strong internet connection and air conditioning to keep CPUs cool and running 24/7.
Hence, for most media outlets, exploring solutions to make blockchain more energy-efficient continues to be a focus that more leaders must take advantage of.
For instance, many developers such as Intel are designing chips optimised to specifically use less energy for mining, while some mining farms are leveraging solar panel power, wind energy, and hydropower to reduce their carbon footprint.
Though these solutions remain in their infancy, spotlighting them will be essential for leaders to support blockchain’s continued uptake.
Of all the topics to focus on, sustainability will be front of mind for most audiences over the coming year.
The tech sector, in particular, is under huge pressure to find solutions to our greatest problems. So, why not speak about the relevance of blockchain to actively improve sustainability for businesses?
Though the connection between blockchain and sustainability may stop at its own impact, the technology can improve sustainability in a huge number of ways.
For instance, blockchains' already prominent role within the supply chain can take advantage of its traceability to bring factory workers, logistics, retailers, consumers, investors, NGOs, and regulators all under one platform to ensure companies act as ethically as possible.
Alternatively, blockchain can allow the public to track where non-profit donations are going to eradicate bureaucracy in charities or encourage recycling through tokenised rewards.
If these ideas seem dystopian, it's only because there’s a lack of leaders engaging stakeholders to make them possible.
When asked about their most important stakeholder, it’s quite common for leaders to say their customers.
This is why companies spend billions on CX technology every year to map customer pain points, respond to feedback, and offer personalised services.
But while customer satisfaction is a priority for the modern-day business, it wasn’t always in the past.
The advent of globalisation has only recently forced companies to shift from product-centric to customer-centric models to beat their competition.
In fact, customer-centricity is such a recent trend that there’s still huge potential for experimentation and innovation within CX technology, particularly concerning blockchain.
In an ideal future, access to blockchain could assure customers that the services or products they buy are always fair-priced, legitimate, and responsibly sourced.
Businesses, meanwhile, would benefit from expanding their customer base through the seamless, global transaction blockchain could process.
This would inevitably solidify customer trust and open new revenue streams in ways not possible before.
So, while many businesses continue to oppose blockchain, it's likely because they haven't grasped how transformative it could be to their bottom line.
While blockchain technology can bring transformative benefits to customers and businesses, it needs to be made scalable.
For instance, blockchain isn’t designed to cope with mass transactions at scale at any one time.
Global, concurrent use would inevitably lead to slower transaction times and higher transaction fees for the end user.
To solve this problem, leaders would need to give more visibility to tools such as the Lightning Network, which prevents network congestion by processing user transactions off-chain and settling them on-chain.
Without such solutions and the visible leadership to market them, blockchain within a highly commercial and normalised setting may never become viable.
So, it's crucial that thought leaders start to set the pace.