- Vitalik Buterin says some organizations do not have the right use cases for blockchain technology
- Says degrees verification over the blockchain and DLT for facilitating cross-border payments are excellent innovations
At a time when there is a lot of hype surrounding distributed ledger technology (DLT), with many businesses (even those that have no use for blockchain technology) scampering to get onto the blockchain bandwagon, the co-founder of the Ethereum project Vitalik Buterin has said that most corporate organizations are still not making the right use of DLT, reported Quartz on November, 26, 2018
Wasteful Use of Blockchain Technology
Present at the recently concluded Ethereum developers conference, Devcon4, where a lot of pertinent issues were discussed, including scalability, the “non-giver” of ETH and co-founder of Ethereum smart contracts blockchain platform, Vitalik Buterin reportedly said that some organizations are misapplying the revolutionary technology, which in the long run “leads to a lot of wasted time.”
The highly reputed blockchain developer also noted that while it is true that the burgeoning technology has a lot of potential, a significant number of firms only use it for marketing hype while some others have genuine interest and excitement over DLT and find ways to align their businesses with it. In his words:
“Sometimes it’s just people who are very enthusiastic about blockchains trying to create an alignment between their business and DLT, which is a totally legitimate thing to do. [however] in some cases I think it leads to a lot of wasted time.”
DLT Has Best Use Cases In Finance
Of a truth, these days, there is hardly any sector of the economy that blockchain technology doesn’t get mentions, from finance to health down to education and even entertainment.
For instance, IBM is one of the corporations that occupies the front-line in the DLT movement, helping businesses develop and deploy all kinds of highly functional blockchain solutions, including the IBM Food Trust, which is aimed at improving food traceability, tracking, authenticity, and tracing.
Interestingly, Buterin noted that while IBM’s blockchain-based food traceability solution might pass as one of the innovative use cases of DLT. He, however, expressed doubts over the firm’s ability to correctly execute the task in a way that ensures the data entered into the distributed ledger is authentic right from the farm.
Specifically, Buterin stated categorically that the industries with the most viable use cases for DLT so far is the finance industry – for cross-border payments, as well as in the educational sector where blockchain technology is useful in degrees authentication.
Earlier in November, Blockchain Reporter informed that Virginia University had announced it would start issuing degrees via blockchain to foster frictionless degrees verification.
