Scanning blockchain ecosystems

• Author: Bellia, M.; Kounelis, I.; Anderberg, A.; Calès, L.; Andonova, E.; Pólvora, A.; Petracco Giudici, M.; Nascimento, S.; Inamorato dos Santos, A.; Rossetti, F.; Papanagiotou, E.; Nai Fovino, I.; Spirito, L.; Sobolewski, M.
• Pages: 29-38

29 2. Scanning blockchain ecosystems

SCANNING

BLOCKCHAIN

ECOSYSTEMS

2.1. Anticipatory scoping

To a certain degree, since 2014, the hype around

blockchain technology was in f‌luenced or shaped

by a spike in interest from f‌inancial institu tions.

Projections over its impact q uickly populated

a closely watched space, ranging from est imations

that DLTs could reduce banks’ infrastructure costs

by USD 15-20 billion per year by 2022 (Santander,

2015), to their ability to deliver USD 5-10 billion of

savings for the reinsurance industr y (PwC, 2016a),

or store 10 % of global gross domestic produc ts

(GDP) by 2027 (WEF, 2015). Some of this hype

was translated into pilots aimed at cross-border

payments and settlements, securities t rading,

capital lending, or ident ity management, a mong

other use cases.

But while more well-known applic ations in

the f‌inancial sect or were under development,

blockchain’s broader potential for other sec tors

increasingly came to th e fore (Forbes, 2015;

The Economist, 2014). A new set of players,

from industry to acad emia, governments and

supranational organisations, bega n ref‌lecting on

how blockchain could transform signif‌i cant

parts of industry, the economy and society in

the future (Davidson et al ., 2016; UK Government

Chief Scientif‌ic Adviser, 2016).

The focus is now on how to leverage blockchain

within other f‌ields as par t of the broader family

of DLTs. This is now one of the technologies

expected to have a profoun d impact over

the next 10 to 15 years (OECD, 2016), backed

in the short term by upward forecasts, such as

the expect ation that worldwide spending on

blockchain solutions will reach USD 2.9 billion

in 2019, an 88.7 % increase from the

USD 1.5 billion spent in 2018 (IDC, 2019).

Blockchain could be connec ted to new production

trends or the ‘fourth industrial revolution’,

which include other emerging tec hnologies,

from IoT to artif‌icial intelligence and robotics,

and new materials or additive manufac turing

(OECD, 2017; Schwab, 2017; Craglia et al., 2018).

Future scenarios powered by blockchain are

also marked out by potentially profoun d

changes in economic and governance models

towards decentralised exchan ges of value, or

even more inclusive, transparent and accountable

The rise of blockchain

technology is

witnessed by both

the sharp growth of

blockchain start-ups

and the volume

of their funding.