Why can't large companies win in the blockchain game?

Matthew Spoke is the founder and CEO of blockchain startup Nuco. He is a Bitcoin and ETH enthusiast who has worked with Deloitte to develop smart distributed protocols.

This article looks at the blockchain strategies of incumbents in the technology industry and identifies the reasons why they are failing to succeed.

Clearly, we are witnessing the convergence of two extremely important Internet technologies. This convergence makes online businesses more scalable and organizations more efficient (which is already a reality to a large extent); in addition, decentralization and disintermediation have become the ultimate goal (people have different opinions on this function). These two technologies are cloud computing and blockchain.

A few months ago, I wrote an article pointing out that the market and business model of traditional institutions doomed them to failure in decentralized systems . The traditional institutions mentioned here mainly refer to certain companies that play the role of middlemen in the financial services industry. As blockchain becomes more popular, it is difficult for them to reshape their value proposition.

However, that article is not comprehensive. It is not just traditional industries and businesses that are at risk in the process of blockchain popularization. Like financial services companies, many global technology giants are paying attention to the blockchain industry and have made heavy investments to prove their dominance in the technology market. For skeptics, they are just trying to centralize the industry.

Decentralization is key

Having said so much, I don’t mean to say that cloud computing and blockchain are completely unrelated.

On the contrary, in most cases, the combination of the two can bring a lot of advantages, such as higher efficiency, more robust node security, etc. However (this but is very important), if we throw the concept of decentralization out of the window, then these advantages will disappear .

However, it is not surprising that computer giants want to get a piece of the blockchain industry. In fact, such companies have already occupied an extremely important position in the blockchain market.

In general, I think the participation of large technology companies will also have a positive impact. They can provide reliability and certainty for emerging technologies. That is to say, as the market accepts emerging technologies more and more, we must start to rationally analyze which methods can make these technologies work best.

These large companies have long dominated the market. Although we have every reason to believe in their capabilities and the reliability of their systems, as the trustless nature of blockchain becomes more popular, we must abandon this idea.

This means that the architecture or security of a single enterprise cannot determine the development of blockchain .