Hype Cycle For Blockchain Business, 2019

Hype Cycle for Blockchain Business, 2019
Published 30 July 2019 - ID G00390391

Business leaders and CIOs are continuing to investigate blockchain technologies via proof of concepts
and consortia initiatives. Prepare for blockchain-led changes by looking at how the five core elements
of blockchain will impact the structure, opportunity and threats of digital business.
Analysis
What You Need to Know
This document was revised on 19 August 2019. The document you are viewing is the corrected version.
For more information, see the Corrections page on gartner.com.
CIOs tell Gartner that blockchain is a technology they want to deploy. Sixty percent (according to the
2019 Gartner CIO survey) expect some kind of blockchain deployment within the next three years. But
many of them do not see blockchain as a game-changer technology. This is not surprising, given that
Gartner research shows that most enterprise efforts are limited scope blockchain initiatives and
preserve current centralized operating models. Blockchain’s five core elements are:
 Record immutability
 Encryption
 Widescale peer-to-peer (P2P) distribution
 Decentralized and autonomous trust verification and execution
 Tokenization and current enterprise efforts lack decentralization and tokenization.
Certain top performers are taking a more expansive view and seeking ways to explore blockchain in
combination with other technologies such as IoT and AI. These early entrants are also conscious of how
and how much the implementation of smart contracts, tokenization and decentralized self-sovereign
identity can shake up existing commercial and technology structures. It is therefore important that CIOs
understand the current state of the market, the three phases of blockchain solution development
(inspired, complete and enhanced), and what each phase means for them. In the short-term, CIOs need
to improve efficiencies using blockchain when they can in areas such as supply chain. Also, CIOs must
look beyond it because it can offer the chance to combat and compete against the digital giants,
disruptive startups and transnational corporations (TNCs).
The Hype Cycle

This Hype Cycle is aimed at CIOs, and innovation and digital business leaders pursuing blockchain
initiatives. The Hype Cycle provides an overview of how blockchain capabilities are evolving from a
business perspective and maturity across and among different industries. With a huge array of
blockchain activity, it is important to focus holistically on industry context as well as the underlying
technologies. We recommend that you view this Hype Cycle as a companion to “Hype Cycle for
Blockchain Technologies, 2019.” Both Hype Cycles frame a global perspective and take a broad
industry view. There are significant differences in adoption, maturity, regulation, customer awareness
etc. that impact specific geographies and types of enterprise differently. Such nuances can be addressed
using the Gartner’s My Hype Cycle Toolkit and/or client enquiry. Also consider the adoption level and
business impact of other technologies — especially security, data management, identity, IoT and AI, as
well as the risks and regulatory considerations, standards initiatives and underlying commercial
interests that will impact wider industry adoption.
CIOs across all industries and government perceive blockchain as a technology relevant to them and
have invested in experimentation. But, they struggle to translate these early efforts into viable and
sustainable projects. Aspects of blockchain that promise the most impact also demand the most change,
at enterprise and industry levels. This issue, combined with the fact that digital capabilities remain
immature in many enterprises, causes business leaders to pause. Established business models also
struggle to accommodate radical redesign, especially when profitable. This creates hesitancy.
Nevertheless, pioneers exhibit certain characteristics when developing enterprise blockchain initiatives:
 Projects tend to be “blockchain inspired,” i.e., they explicitly avoid the use of tokens and
decentralized architectures. “Blockchain complete” projects, that use all five key aspects of
blockchain are lacking.
 Deployments preserve existing business models and participants, rather than radical new
designs. These are either by individual firms, alliances among a few or industrywide
consortiums. At times, these span related industries (such as grocery retailers and food
producers).
 CIOs aim to improve efficiencies (focusing on reducing or removing transaction cost, reducing
error rates, reducing data reconciliations, improving tracking provenance and auditability, etc.).
 They involve intercompany processes in areas that require heavy customized development (as
opposed to easy use of commercial applications).
 Development in Asia (e.g., China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore) is more prevalent than
other regions in the world. However, extrapolation across regions is problematic due in part to
local regulation and customer requirements.
 Consortia involvement helps start and maintain conversations around industry shared problems.
For 2019, we have included some additional technologies that are worthy of mention:
 Blockchain in gaming
 Cryptocurrency custody services
 Strategic tokenization
 Blockchain and IoT
 Blockchain in 3D printing
 Blockchain society
 Blockchain data exchanges
 Blockchain lead generation platforms
All of the profiles should be viewed through both their individual lens as well as in combination with
other interdependent profiles to better frame strategic responses (e.g., smart contracts, supply chain and
blockchain and IoT). These interdependencies influence transitional speed through the Hype Cycle
beyond the immediate context or absolute maturity of any one profile.
The positioning of the blockchain and distributed ledger profiles around the trough should not be
viewed as a negative. All profiles face this transition before the Plateau of Productivity can be reached.
More significant is the speed at which specific industry’s processes, regulations and business
capabilities maintain or narrow the gap to the underlying technical foundations.
Figure 1. Hype Cycle for Blockchain Business, 2019
The Priority Matrix
 Blockchain impact spans all industries and public services, regardless of type. As an example,
blockchain is not a technology that is only applicable in financial services.
 Impact on most industries will be high or transformational. This includes all aspects of
blockchain projects — disruptive decentralized ones that threaten incumbents as well as
efficiency improvement projects that preserve today’s centralized actors and may increase
control (e.g., over supply chains, technologies and markets).
 Investment time frames vary, largely from five to 10 years due to a combination of technology,
business and ecosystem complexities. The time frame for nonenterprise (startup) initiatives
should not be seen in the same context due to scale and regulatory challenges that many of those
initiatives avoid.
 Blockchain’s use impacts business and operational functions in the organization and it is vital
for the IT executives to work with other functions such as supply chain and operational
executives to craft their strategy.
 Projects that utilize tokenization, decentralization and complex smart contracts will appear in
enterprises in two years and beyond.
Figure 2. Priority Matrix for Blockchain Business, 2019
Off the Hype Cycle
The following profiles have been removed due to lack of applicability, momentum and or profile
consolidation:
 Ricardian contracts
 Green money
 Complementary currency
 Programmable economy
A few profiles have been renamed to align better with the market definition and any changes in scope:
 Digital commodity exchanges to digital asset exchanges
 Blockchain reward models to blockchain rewards/loyalty models
 Stable cryptocurrency to stablecoin
 IoT and things as customers to blockchain and IoT
On the Rise
Blockchain for Lead Generation

Analysis By: Adnan Zijadic
Definition: Blockchain for lead generation delivers the ability to source leads and share information
using a decentralized platform in a peer-to-peer network. It offers the ability to provide users with the
most current and highest-quality leads via the exchange of personal and business information based on
crowdsourcing data collection methods while monetizing and controlling data sharing and protecting
privacy. Leads can be sourced via a freemium model, via tokens on the blockchain exchange to the
highest bidder using smart contract processes and automation.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Blockchain for lead generation has just hit the Innovation
Trigger, with limited use cases and very few production implementations across the SMB or enterprise
landscape. It will take time for organizations to take notice due to its embryonic stage; however, the
technology offers a potential alternative to typical lead and contact generation methods, via data
intelligence solutions (DIS) or any other third-party databases. Blockchain for lead generation offers a
single version of the truth, supported by immutable data and audit trails, and no single entity is in
control. This leads to a transparent and trustworthy bidding process for information and/or leads that
can be bought with tokens. Blockchain for lead generation faces many obstacles inherent with
blockchain technology in that blockchain for lead generation is still immature and do not yet
interoperate using mainstream blockchain technology standards. In addition, financial services are
leading the planning and experimentation activity for this blockchain technology outside of lead
generation, while some others such as transportation, telecom, government, and utilities sectors are
increasingly becoming engaged. The obstacles to adoption can be overcome once current forms of
blockchain technology enter mainstream.
User Advice: Sales technology leaders will not find many vendors in this market currently offering
blockchain for lead generation such as Snovio (Snovian.Space). In the meantime, organizations can
learn more about its potential use cases throughout the organization and prepare for an increase in the
vendor landscape. Moreover, it is a good opportunity to experiment with blockchain as a service
offered by some CRM vendors and their ecosystem of partners. It offers the potential to optimize costs
from procuring data through third parties or eliminate a central authority, such as data intelligence
solutions in which sometimes the data is considered stale and unreliable, while also monetizing data
shared across blockchain ledgers and networks in a peer-to-peer network, offering an additional
revenue stream, and giving users back the control of their data and identities. Today, in the data
intelligence solutions market, vendors like Radius have a centralized network model that verifies data
across B2B companies; however, it does not have the ability to provide and share leads among network
constituents, nor does it allow them to monetize the data.
Business Impact: Blockchain for lead generation can have a transformational impact on the business
and how sales organizations have typically sourced leads and contact information. Rather than source
from many unreliable third-party databases, users can instead partake in a network sharing mechanism
to source leads and contacts that may fit a particular organization, while passing on leads that do not
conform to the ideal customer profile, and in the process monetizing the sharing of information among
constituents participating in the blockchain network. In addition, this will open opportunities to lower
costs allocated to DIS and master data management solutions by removing the “middle man” while also
addressing data residency concerns due to the immutability of blockchain technology, particularly for
companies that have to maintain GDPR compliance in their sales CRM systems. Blockchain allows
untrusted parties to work together and in real time know if a lead is going to a competitor, which saves
time and money pursuing a lost lead, while providing contextual insights.
Benefit Rating: Transformational
Market Penetration: Less than 1% of target audience
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Datafund; LeadCoin; LeadRex; Snovio
Blockchain for Advertising

Analysis By: Andrew Frank
Definition: Blockchain for advertising covers a range of applications of blockchain technology to
elements in the advertising supply chain that currently suffer from fraud, lack of transparency, privacy
issues and barriers to open competition. Many are speculative, but collectively they represent a
common innovation theme aimed at securing and decentralizing digital ad markets.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Opportunities for blockchain-based solutions in the
digital advertising market include applications such as:
 Mediation of contracts between advertisers, agencies and publishers (eliminating unnecessary
intermediaries)
 Registration of consumer consent for use of personal data
 Independent verification of content, ad impressions and conversions
 New forms of currency to represent attention as a basis for media economics
Over the past three years, dozens of companies have launched experimental blockchain platforms for
advertising, but none has achieved scale suitable to demonstrate ongoing viability.
While blockchain capabilities provide a theoretical solution to many problems facing digital
advertising, significant problems of scalability, performance and adoption must be surmounted before
blockchain can alter the status quo. While, skepticism is warranted, support from organizations such as
the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and innovations from technology companies such as IBM,
Comcast and Amazon that are working with industry leaders on the buy and sell side of media are
gaining momentum. A number of disruptive challengers from outside the industry is also adding
urgency.
Beyond technical challenges, the complexity of advertising value chain and the variety of approaches
make the ultimate form of blockchain solutions for advertising unpredictable. But, barring large-scale
retreat from blockchain architecture in general, its eventual impact on ad markets is unavoidable.
User Advice: Marketing leaders responsible for advertising should:
 Familiarize yourself with blockchain-related innovations in advertising and seek opportunities
to participate in trials and pilots.
 Ask martech providers and agencies about plans and support for blockchain and blockchain-
inspired implementations and how you can participate.
 Evaluate with skepticism claims of blockchain’s suitability for applications that require large-
scale, low-latency transactions with skepticism.
 Distinguish between public and permissioned blockchain infrastructure, and recognize the
limitations and benefits of both. Public blockchains have the advantages of being open and
accessible, which come at the cost of latency, computational needs, and weaker privacy and
security features. Implementations and trade-offs depend on use case.
 Assign a resource to track and report periodically on the efforts of standards bodies such as the
IAB, AdLedger and the Blockchain Advertising Alliance.
Business Impact: The stakes for blockchain-based disruption in digital advertising are extremely high.
A May 2019 AdAge report says the Association of National Advertisers and cybersecurity outfit White
Ops estimate that advertisers across the globe will lose $5.8 billion in 2019 due to fraud; this alone
represents a significant market opportunity for investors and innovators promoting blockchain as a
solution to fraud. But fraud prevention is not a given: some solutions may expose new vulnerabilities to
large-scale exploits. If successful, however, blockchain-based ad markets could do more than eliminate
fraud: they could substantially streamline a programmatic ad supply chain infamous for its opaque
inefficiencies that skim off around 65% of each transaction between buyer and seller.
Another substantial target is concentration of digital ad revenue in centralized platforms such as
Google, Facebook and Amazon. Blockchain could level the field with decentralized markets that offer
benefits currently only available from “walled gardens.” In turn, this could redistribute revenue to
media, and especially news outlets suffering under contracting digital ad revenue streams.
Privacy concerns point to new mechanisms for consumers to manage access to their personal data,
upending the way they deal with advertisers, publishers and data brokers. Although personal data can’t
be stored on a blockchain in a way that complies with GDPR’s right to erasure, it could provide more
useful ways for consumers and marketers to manage access to data stored privately. This would
improve both ad efficiency and consumer acceptance of targeted ads.
Last, but significantly, blockchain-based proof-of-authenticity applications could benefit advertisers,
publishers, and the public by providing ways to assure the provenance of content and goods, reducing
the threat of association with fake news, counterfeit products and the ads that promote them.
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: AdEx; AdLedger; ADconity; Brave; Comcast; Faktor; IBM; Kochava; MetaX;
NYIAX
Recommended Reading:
“Innovation Insight for Blockchain in Marketing: Ad Contracts and Reconciliation”
“Innovation Insight for Blockchain in Marketing: Identity and Consent”
“Innovation Insight for Blockchain in Marketing: Proof of Authenticity”
“What’s Next for Programmatic Advertising?”
Blockchain Data Exchanges

Analysis By: David Furlonger; Christophe Uzureau; Lydia Clougherty Jones
Definition: A blockchain data exchange is a mechanism enabling the P2P decentralized exchange of
selected information. A protocol provides for tokenizarion of data assets to enable exchange and
monetization of pieces of data among consumers and companies.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Blockchain data exchanges have been increasing in
number since 2016. They try to improve the cost, security, reliability of data and promote transparency
and data stewardship fairness. In promoting a new form of economic value the intent is to directly
compete with the digital giants and break apart silos of information. One of the core business
currencies in use by digital giants is data. It is used to influence and control commercial interactions.
Data exchanges put that control back into the hands of the participants. In order for such exchanges to
gain more traction there needs to be a greater awareness in practical (monetary) terms of the value of
information and a means to trade that value. There will also need to be a willingness on the part of data
creators to self-determine where how and with whom that data is shared and used, including by
downstream acquirers. This is not a given as digital giants offer significant incentives (such as product
pricing, convenience, access etc.) to maintain the status quo. A class of data exchanges can also enable
data sharing in anonymized fashion — for instance, health information (see Oasis Labs) and that data
exchanges can be specific to purpose — such as consumers or healthcare companies sharing data (like
in the above reference), trading data, geological data, etc.
It is likely data exchanges will evolve at the same speed as blockchain complete solutions (see
“Understanding the Gartner Blockchain Spectrum and the Evolution of Technology Solutions”) due to
the inherent capabilities of decentralization and tokenization. Exchange startups may also struggle to
compete in the face of existing data brokers and providers who maintain substantial centralized
positions in the market.
User Advice: Create an inventory of the data you steward, collect, buy, use and share. Measure your
data key quality attributes, its relevancy to key business processes, and actual impact on business KPIs
to better prioritize and support your data strategy. Seek the guidance of your C-level stakeholders to
establish a standard methodology for measuring the financial value of your organization’s information
assets, as if they were a balance sheet asset (see the Infonomics Innovation Profile). Evaluate the
capabilities of blockchain data exchanges in the context of your data and blockchain strategies. Assess
the impact on your business processes as the decentralized ownership, management and monetization
takes hold.
Business Impact: Blockchain data exchanges can radically change the way we manage and leverage
information in today’s digital world. They do this by changing the control points over information and
by enabling actors to create and distribute value from its use. They hold the promise to break the lock
that digital giants have on data and thereby significantly change economic power while increasing
market participation. The accuracy and auditability of information flows will be more apparent and a
new economic model involving multiple digital asset types will develop between all commercial and
governmental actors (including machines), returns from which can be captured and distributed with less
friction. Once data becomes available through such decentralized platforms market power shifts from
the digital giants to the customer.
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Airbloc Protocol; Bluzelle; Datax; Datum; DX Network; Ocean Protocol
Foundation; Quadrant Protocol
“Five Strategies for the CIO Building a Business Case for Data Monetization in Asset Management”
“Applied Infonomics: Why and How to Measure the Value of Your Information Assets”
“Applied Infonomics: Seven Steps to Monetize Available Information Assets”
Blockchain Society
Analysis By: David Furlonger; Christophe Uzureau; Rajesh Kandaswamy
Definition: The blockchain society is the global-scale aggregation of algorithmic businesses and
decentralized autonomous organizations enabled by blockchain platforms. It is a natively “intelligent”
and autonomous economic and societal system that supports and/or manages the production and
consumption of goods and services, enabling diverse scenarios of exchange of value (monetary and
nonmonetary) across businesses and societal interactions.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The blockchain society encapsulates concepts that rely on
the application of distributed computational resources — specifically, decentralized applications built
on scalable blockchain platforms. These capabilities will enable diverse scenarios of value exchange,
where the value is created and exchanged in both monetary and nonmonetary forms. This paradigm
transforms the operation and governance of society, as well as the nature of business and commercial
activity. A fundamental tenet of the blockchain society is the evolution toward a new form of social
contract. This new social contract will enable individuals and organizations to choose to exchange data,
digital resource access, related contracts and technology for deeper engagement and an ability to
defend and build on their core values.
As artificial intelligence evolves and smart agents or machines become more prevalent in an Internet of
Things context, autonomous digital entities and connected smart machines will gain legal and financial
provenance equivalent to today’s corporations and individuals. Artificial intelligence capabilities will
enable decision rights to be delegated from consumers to digital entities, with those entities forming
their own interconnected economic networks enacted using smart contracts.
The development of blockchain platforms and smart agents is evolving. However, the blockchain
society will take many years to develop, due to the required broad-scope changes in ethical, legal and
societal frameworks. The shifts, underway as a result of digitalization (including blockchain business
models, IoT and AI), have not yet sufficiently penetrated nontechnological mechanisms. Economic
systems are not evenly distributed. Cultural inhibitors, vested interests (e.g., digital giants and MNCs),
and the relative intractability of established major institutions and companies will slow (or even want)
adoption.
Look for signposts within controlled, defined geographies (e.g., Estonia, Malta, the United Arab
Emirates and Singapore) or, more likely, within commercial ecosystems (such as those being developed
around conversational commerce). These may initially manifest within a particular organization or
supply chain, where many of the legal issues that will constrain global deployment can be more easily
addressed. The early stages of the blockchain society will likely exacerbate schisms and disparities
among participants before potentially ushering in new economic and societal constructs.
User Advice:
 Sketch out a 10-year scenario for your industry, as well as a readiness assessment for your
enterprise, that accounts for the impact blockchain will have on society, values and laws. Ensure
every senior executive knows these scenarios and the timeline for realization. Develop detailed
two- to five-year plans that will highlight the capabilities needed to prosper in a blockchain
society.
 Create a map for the CEO that highlights the trust gaps and weak spots in your systems and
processes. Evaluate the system’s ability (or inability) to cope in a trustless environment and the
impact on the enterprise’s standing or brand.
 Research what new kinds of economic assets will be created and exchanged. Centralized control
of fiat-based assets cannot support or totally prevent the emergence of decentralized, multiasset
digital ecosystems. Ensure your enterprise can accept, manage, transfer and secure non-fiat-
based assets.
Business Impact: The impact of blockchain on economic and social behaviors will revolutionize your
enterprise interactions with society. The ramifications of these changes are considerable, including the:
 Removal of centralized control points (e.g., government control over money supply)
 Microcomponentization, creation, transfer and acceptance of any kind of value
 Transfer of risk into a more self-defined/regulated construct
 Enfranchisement of populations to determine, store and transfer value in individual contexts
 Changes in fee and pricing structures that promote economy of access
 Monetization of things to act as customers
 Real-time redefinition and reconstitution of processes, KPIs and assets (physical and digital)
 Delegation of economic authority and decision making to smart agents
 Mass exposure and analysis of behaviors, information and contexts
 Reformatting of moral, ethical and cultural norms
The blockchain society represents the economic future of digital business, fostering new geopolitical,
legal and societal structures. Decentralized programmable platforms will enable a value graph or
ecosystem of agents to participate in value exchange, allowing the rapid, on-demand and at-scale
creation of highly personalized transactions. Not only will the information that flows across new
ecosystems be active and monetizable (equivalent to cash), but it will also encapsulate its own
programmable rules.
Maturity: Embryonic
“Maverick* Research: In a Post-Bitcoin World, Metacoin Platforms Enable the Programmable
Economy”
“The Future of Money Is the Programmable Economy, Not Just Bitcoin”
“Introducing Digital Connectivism: A New Philosophy for the Digital Society”
“Get Ready for Blockchain to Reshape Society”
“Last Call for #DigitalSociety … Boarding Now!”
Digital/Cryptocurrency Fiat
Analysis By: Christophe Uzureau; Ali Merji; David Furlonger
Definition: Digital/Cryptocurrency fiat is currency issued by a central bank on a distributed ledger as
an enhancement to, and eventual replacement of, traditional fiat currency (including M-zero [M0]) and
existing settlement systems.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Following initial negative reactions to the emergence of
cryptographic currencies, the late 2018 price crash and ongoing concerns about ICOs, central banks and
governments continue to explore the potential as mechanisms to improve financial inclusion and
introduce market efficiencies and better controls. A recent BIS report however noted that mainstream
issuance and usage was highly unlikely within the short-term i.e., three years. The opportunity for
tracking ownership and usage, better management of intercompany liabilities, payment capabilities and
as a policy tool (for example, in the context of negative interest rates cycles) has generated white
papers and proofs of concept at the Bank of England (RSCoin), Bank of Canada (CADCoin), Federal
Reserve System (FedCoin), Riksbank (e-krona), People’s Bank of China, Venezuela (Petromoneda),
Bank of Japan (J-Coin), United Arab Emirates, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to name a
few. In May, the Bank of Canada and the Monetary Authority of Singapore undertook a test whereby
digital currencies were exchanged using Project Jasper and Project Ubin. While this is interesting in
terms of highlighting alternative cross border payment scenarios it is clear significant challenges
remain before digital fiat, let alone crypto fiat reaches the Plateau of Productivity.
Moreover, it is unclear whether sufficient attention has been given to government policy as well as the
broader implications for customer adoption, security, jurisdictional differences, settlements and
payments. The last two years have seen a fairly dramatic shift in opinion as to the merits and role of
cryptocurrency. The potential of these assets as part of mainstream business and economic activity is
moving out of the fringe and into the center of national policy considerations. However, there is likely
to be a big time difference in terms of issuance of digital and then potentially crypto fiat and the
replacement of traditional currency.
User Advice:
 Monitor market developments and policy white papers to pre-empt required changes to business
strategy, regulatory reporting systems and financial education. Focus on the progress among the
early promoter countries that have conducted proofs of concept to understand the potential
value propositions and issues.
 Evaluate the progress of private and public distributed ledger technologies, including wallet,
security and payment functionality.
 Assess the viability of blockchain-based payments/settlement mechanisms as precursors for
bigger national changes.
 Monitor consumer behavior and willingness to adopt digital and crypto payment mechanisms.
Business Impact: The impact on companies and individuals would be significant:
 Black markets would be substantially reduced.
 M0 would be eliminated as part of a cashless society.
 Global tracking of financial flows would be possible, radically reducing tax evasion, fraud,
illegal activity and currency manipulation.
 The costs of making, shipping and storing physical cash would disappear.
 In theory, all commercial activity could be tracked at a personal and enterprise level, raising
considerations of privacy and undue government oversight.
A new digital currency infrastructure supported by governments will be the foundation of innovative
financial services that can serve consumer and commercial industries. However, economic policy
would enter a new age, and an individual’s right for anonymity would come under pressure or
disappear. Some economists have suggested that centrally issued cryptocurrency would radically
change the structure of the financial services industry by impacting the viability of loan portfolios,
savings and so on. Moreover, centrally issued and controlled systems would provide greater incentive
for bad actors to disrupt the market on a far greater scale.
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Basis Technology; R3; Ripple; Saifu; Stably; Waves Platform
“Central Banks’ Digital Money Strategies: Why Bank CIOs Should Care, and What They Should Do”
“Use Gartner’s Strategic Tokenization Decision Framework to Boost the Value of Digital Business
Ecosystems”
“The Physiology of Money: When Behavioral Economics Meets Digital Business Ecosystems”
“Your Digital Transformation Depends on Psychology”
Blockchain in 3D Printing
Analysis By: Michael Shanler
Definition: Blockchain in 3D Printing (3DP) is an expanding list of cryptographically signed,
irrevocable transactional records shared by all participants in a 3DP network. Each record contains a
time stamp and reference links to previous transactions. With this information, anyone with access
rights can trace back a transactional event, at any point in its history, belonging to any participant. A
blockchain is one architectural design of the broader concept of distributed ledgers.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: While blockchain is the top search term at Gartner and is
frequently explored as an option for new ways of doing business, very few organizations are actually
moving blockchain into design and development projects for manufacturing.
In the last three years, entrepreneurs have started companies to address the network, technology and
frameworks for blockchain-based 3DP transactions between multiple parties. With collaborative
manufacturing demands for improving the speed of delivery for 3DP-related assets, blockchain has
potential to impact across manufacturing phases: designing, developing, validating and executing 3D-
printed transactions.
On the surface, applying blockchain into 3D printing transactions, especially in distributed co-
collaboration environments with multiple parties, may appear to be an attractive avenue for securing a
series of events. Clients are also exploring blockchain for intellectual property protection, preventing
counterfeiting and adding compliance into service-oriented printing runs. However, realizing value will
be extremely difficult.
While blockchain technology has potential across multiple industries, several adoption hurdles remain.
Storage of large computer-aided design files into perpetuity across a network with any semblance of
performance will be difficult to engineer. The intrinsic value will not be as high as many initially
believed. It remains unclear what data can and should be transacted over blockchain, what value
blockchain provides against conventional technologies like cloud- and SOA-based applications, and
how security and transaction formats dealing file transfer protocols with the printing services should be
implemented. Numerous vendors selling blockchain are struggling with how to assemble the right
technology stacks. In most cases, clients are still not convinced that the business cases justify the risk.
For these reasons, blockchain in 3DP is early in the Innovation Trigger phase and has embryonic
maturity.
User Advice: In most cases, blockchain in 3DP will not be ready for your organization for another 3 to
5 years A lot of technical, operational, logistic and partnering details need sorting out before this hyped
technology will survive a Proof of Concept (POC), nevertheless prove scalable. Building the business
justification for “Why blockchain?” is essential. In most cases, other technologies and processes that
are more centrally manageable and secured are more viable.
There are a variety of options for implementing a blockchain-based system and a spectrum of
permissions, algorithms and environments. Both the scalability and suitability need to be factored into
the economics of the decision-making process. Today, 3DP stakeholders have three basic options for
evaluating investments:
 Companies with low risk tolerance should delay blockchain investments until scalable solutions
are more mature.
 Companies with a moderate risk tolerance can leverage the small, but growing set of new
vendors that are focused on building blockchain for 3DP capabilities. This approach can lead to
reducing costs for transactions for niche but important parts of a 3DP value chain. Use this
approach if the technology represents an opportunity to improve the level of trust in transactions
between multiple parties.
 For companies with a higher risk tolerance, stakeholders should look to build or invest in a
blockchain platform with a larger partnering entity, such as IT and contract services firms that
have an industry-based or functional specialty.
In most cases, it makes sense to delay investments until at least 2020. The major IT firms that are
already pushing blockchain consulting capabilities should attempt to bring together industry players to
share and develop standards from 2020 through 2022. Also, the existing 3DP service bureau ecosystem
is rapidly expanding, with both new firms, as well as existing legacy 3DP instrument vendors. They
will likely have some involvement and could see blockchain in 3DP, as the companies that don’t evolve
will ultimately be threatened by competing business models.
Business Impact: Blockchain for 3DP has the potential for developing trust in untrusted and
uncontrolled 3DP logistics environments. If systems for 3DP can be deployed, there is an opportunity
to optimize the way the work is performed. It could lead to a variety of benefits, including:
 Better protection of intellectual property by establishing — with trust — which parties have had
access to information.
 Greater operational savings and lower costs via elimination of the “middle man” involved with
brokering transactions.
 Better usage of distributed innovation and supply chain models, and faster connections between
independent or smaller 3DP stakeholders in a product development or fulfillment process.
There could be other business benefits that unfold as new players and models evolve. This is
commonly the case with new technologies in the Trigger phase.
Benefit Rating: High
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: 3DPCOIN; Cubichain Technologies; Politronica
“Blockchain Status 2018: Market Adoption Reality”
“Blockchain-Based Transformation: A Gartner Trend Insight Report”
“Market Guide for Blockchain Platforms”
“The IT Impact of 3D Printing on Business Models”
“Market Guide for 3D Print Service Bureaus”
Blockchain for Customer Service

Analysis By: Nadine LeBlanc
Definition: For customer service, blockchain technologies focus on enabling multienterprise
collaboration and/or transactions that help to build trust and transparencies in a low-trust environment.
Blockchain technologies serve as new complementary records management systems beyond
organizational boundaries, including digital assets such as contracts, health records, transcripts or IoT
devices.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Most organizations are still learning about the potential
uses of blockchain for customer interactions. As blockchain technologies continue to mature, customer
service use cases will expand to include customer onboarding, problem diagnosis, coordinated
deliveries, customer surveys, asset tracking, warranty management, dispute resolution and consent
management. Customer service use cases are often a common thread across blockchain early adopters.
Early adopters include financial services, government, healthcare, education, manufacturing and
utilities organizations.
Blockchain technology vendors have shown progress in supporting customer service during the past 18
to 24 months. Vendor offerings are being released, but are still limited in scope, with a primary focus
on building consortium and communities. A submarket of decentralized applications (dapps) and
applications accessing distributed ledger enables organizations to collaborate and transact for customer
service. In addition, mega-CRM vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, SAP and Oracle offer blockchain
services for their cloud platforms. Salesforce joined the Blockchain Research Institute in early 2019.
While Salesforce doesn’t offer blockchain services at this point, partner services such as AWS can be
leveraged.
Blockchain for customer service will be only the beginning in addressing the advanced security and
protection concerns all customers will demand of enterprises. The idea of an ecosystem working as a
whole to enable data sharing and reduce the burden of preserving privacy could be part of the answer to
more-stringent data privacy legislation. While the current generation of blockchain doesn’t support
several privacy requirements, we are starting to see R&D effort to solve challenges such as data
location and immutability. In addition, programmable behavior and applications can be added to
enhance the customer experience, decrease costs and give rise to new customer service models.
The commercialization of blockchain technologies for applications and platforms is at an early stage.
Issues of scalability, security, and adherence to existing legal, regulatory and compliance standards will
need to be resolved prior to seeing major commercial applications in customer service. Current
implementations of blockchain technology are more often than not accompanied by trial-and-error
efforts or small pilots.
User Advice: Application leaders and CIOs responsible for CRM and customer experience should:
 Invest in a small pilot. If one of your technology providers offers blockchain as a service or
blockchain technologies, take the opportunity to raise awareness and increase knowledge and
skills around the application of blockchain.
 Explore private, consortium and public technology frameworks as a way to decentralize your
organization’s CX. Be prepared to incur migration costs every 18 to 24 months until the
technology matures.
 Investigate the security and privacy risks of blockchain technologies, such as the implications of
handling personal customer data with blockchain technology, and the risk of unauthorized
disclosures to public and/or other consortium participants or partners.
 Consider blockchain’s applicability in promoting data minimization and serving as a technology
to support compliance activities. Focus on placing control over personal data into customers’
hands via self-service features in order to emphasize and promote trust.
Business Impact: Customer service is the largest application software market subsegment at $17.2
billion out of the $48.2 billion in sales for customer experience and CRM applications (see “Market
Share: All Software Markets, Worldwide, 2018”). Large organizations see customer service
applications as a strategic asset that often requires multimillion dollar investments in annual license
costs and services.
Blockchain-based disruption can optimize and, in certain cases, transform the way organizations
deliver services and engage with their customers beyond the organization’s boundaries. Because a
blockchain can help implement trust mechanisms in untrusted environments, it allows competitors and
organizations of all sizes to benefit from it. It is the digital ecosystem itself that provides the most
benefits.
The benefits associated with the usage of blockchain technologies include:
 Enhanced customer experience and efficiencies by supporting seamless, frictionless multiparty
customer service.
 Increased accuracy and scope of proactive and predictive customer service, such as identity
management, proof of ownership, or proof of sequence of events.
 Reduction in the cost of data management, such as cross-check, reconciliation or storage, and
cost of service, such as customer onboarding efficiencies or smart alerts.
Blockchain technology, an infrastructure supporting dapps, is still immature, but accelerating interest in
it, early adopters and its nascent ecosystems could become catalysts for better business processes,
including customer service. Gartner predicts that, by 2023, 10% of large organizations will join a
blockchain consortium with the specific purpose of improving their level of customer service.
Market Penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Colu; Gliding Eagle; IBM; Loyyal; Lumeos; Microsoft; Oracle; QEDIT; SAP;
Warranteer
“Predicts 2019: CRM Customer Service and Support”
“Leverage Blockchain Beyond Cryptocurrency for Long-Term CRM and Customer Experience
Success”
“Use Gartner’s Blockchain Conceptual Model to Exploit the Full Range of Possibilities”
“Toolkit: Blockchain Consortium Initiatives”
Decentralized Autonomous Organization

Analysis By: David Furlonger; Rajesh Kandaswamy
Definition: A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is a digital entity that can engage in
business interactions with other digital agents and corporate entities without conventional human
management. They rely on smart contracts for interactions. As a DAO may be autonomous and span
multiple geographic jurisdictions, it may be beyond legal reach — literally, an outlaw.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: In its early stage, current form, a DAO is an application-
level solution constructed on a blockchain platform. DAOs are programmatically controlled via code
that runs on the blockchain platform (a mechanism known as “smart contract”). The agents can send
and receive payments; engage in other forms of value exchange and dynamic behavior, relying on
tokens to validate value exchange; and interact with other DAOs, as well as conventional information
systems (via APIs). They can also potentially spawn other digital entities and work in concert with
these.
Although DAOs have faded into the background to some extent, related concepts may reenergize their
evolution. Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are narrow-scope mechanisms that implement a small subset of
the DAO vision, but are now being deployed within cryptocurrency communities (primarily Ethereum).
Dapps are also a functionality relating to DAO, particularly in the context of money management.
The vision of the DAO concept includes different types of automated governance. Participants can
initiate actions through various means (for example, voting rights based in proportion to value token
holdings), as well as digital asset trading. In future versions, the DAOs will be able to evolve via
artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and self-modifying code. DAO platforms, such as DAOstack,
offer tools that help create and operate DAOs.
DAOs are still in the early stage of evolution. Many challenges and limitations that have yet to be
overcome including developing aspects of the core technology to support the key aspects of an
organization. The opportunity is for investors in DAOs to share in the development and future of the
organization, negating the need for centralized control. The transparent and structured nature of the
operational rules provides for more efficiency in how the DAO conducts business. The security of the
code, lack of legal frameworks, need for better tokenization platforms, the risk in moving away from
proven business models, vested interest of traditional companies and governments, and the underlying
issues with cryptocurrencies provide for an uncertain future.
User Advice: Track the emerging ecosystem of DAOs and Dapps ICO initiatives, which is primarily
occurring outside traditional enterprises, and learn from its success or failure. In addition, follow other
radically different approaches to management and organizational hierarchy — including those that are
enabled by AI. AI is likely to strongly influence the functionality/capability of DAOs. As AI technology
matures, its ability to shape and improve smart contracts use cases and therefore, the terms and
conditions of doing business will be significant. Executives should also consider experimenting with
aspects of computer-augmented decision making in limited-risk areas. Carefully measure lead and lag
indicators, as well as the impacts on reporting lines, from staff morale through, to the amount of
productivity and level of innovation achieved.
Business Impact: DAOs will function autonomously, enabled by a blockchain-platform-based
distributed and decentralized network to engage with a commercial ecosystem (for example, other
DAOs, traditional companies and individuals) for undertaking transactions of a monetary and
nonmonetary nature (using smart contracts). This trend will be applicable across all contexts, sizes of
organizations and geographies. It is easier to implement in newer and smaller organizations, and in
geographies and contexts where hierarchies of power are less embedded in the culture. However, even
the largest hierarchical businesses can find areas to begin experimentation with a managementless
organization. Potential benefits can be significant, including greater agility, productivity, speed of
decision making, more-efficient business processes and expanded capabilities. Since a cultural change
is required, there is also potential for competitive advantage, sustained for the midterm, for institutions
that go on the journey earlier.
The legal status of a DAO is important. For most organizations, the DAO should be constructed such
that it is within the reach of law, most likely through an independent entity that can manage and control
its operation.
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Colony; DAO IPCI; DAOstack; Ethereum
“Use Gartner’s Blockchain Conceptual Model to Exploit the Full Range of Possibilities”
“Blockchain-Based Transformation: A Gartner Trend Insight Report”
“Blockchain Status 2018: Market Adoption Reality”
Smart Assets
Analysis By: Rajesh Kandaswamy; Christophe Uzureau; David Furlonger
Definition: Smart assets are records of assets stored on a blockchain or distributed ledger where the
ownership and transfer can be managed through programmable processes. Smart assets are often used
in conjunction with “smart contracts” — formalized rules of ownership, transactions and exchange
implemented through a blockchain (metacoin) platform.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Smart assets can include virtual assets such as shares in a
company, telecommunications bandwidth, the right to use complex machinery, intellectual property
rights or access rights to a remote computer. The ability to represent physical or virtual items of value
through smart assets and exchange them can help create new value through new assets that did not exist
before or remove inefficiencies for certain unutilized and under-utilized assets. Some of these smart
assets can also be used to launch initial coin offerings (ICOs) or security token offerings (STOs). The
use of programmable rules allows smart assets to be traded with radically less need to trust in
centralized entities, and with increased velocity and flexibility, while preventing double spend. This has
the potential to reduce fraud and mediation fees and allow trades to take place in new ways, including
forms that otherwise would never have happened, such as truly peer-to-peer business interactions.
There has been interest in using smart assets, but not matched by actual adoption in enterprises that
have significant technology investments to manage such current assets. Smart assets are likely to be
adopted more by new startups in the early days and in greenfield areas for large enterprises.
User Advice: Conduct an inventory of organizational transactions, workflows and business processes,
and identify the participating entities. Consider whether these interactions can be encoded in simple
programmable rules associated with objects of value (smart assets). Identify the virtual assets that will
play a key role for your business in the future where smart asset technology can play a role. Evaluate
blockchain platforms for the potential to implement smart assets that align with your organizational
processes.
Business Impact: There are many industries where there are brokers and intermediaries that provide
only a minimum amount of added value, and where the exchange of value can be expressed in the form
of a rule or structured workflow. This can then be implemented in software. These are candidates for
utilization of smart assets. There are also additional scenarios where no ecosystem of intermediaries has
surfaced, due to the lightweight nature of the required transactional rules. That is, there is not enough
potential value to sustain a heavyweight business, but there is enough to justify encoding the value
exchange in a smart asset. Availability of new markets increases liquidity and can stimulate more
commercial activity on the underlying assets. Further, smart assets improve transparency of
information, and hence have the potential to reduce fraud and improve prices. In addition, automation
of transaction, clearing and settlement can improve operational efficiencies.
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Ethereum Foundation; NEM Foundation; NEO; slock.it
Ecosystems”
“Pay Attention to These 4 Types of Blockchain Business Initiatives”
“4 Types of Blockchain Business Use Cases That Investment Management CIOs Need to Track”
Blockchain-Based ACH Payments

Analysis By: Alistair Newton
Definition: Blockchain-based ACH payment describe payment solutions that use core blockchain
technologies to supplement or replace existing domestic bulk payments systems — most commonly
known as ACH payments systems, after the Automated Clearing Houses that invariably supply and
support these domestic payment systems.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: As with last year, this technology is positioned at a very
early stage on the Hype Cycle, reflecting the fact that the base blockchain and distributed ledger
technologies remain very immature. While many domestic ACH systems are currently up for review
and renewal, Gartner still considers it unlikely that blockchain solutions will play a significant part in
their immediate replacement. Given the systemic importance of these key payment systems, it is not
considered likely that their replacement by solutions based on such immature technology will occur
within at least the next five years. While blockchain technology has the potential to transform
businesses and certain aspects of banking, that potential remains limited in the payments arena to some
opportunities in the cross-border remittance market. Gartner believes that businesses considering
deployment of blockchain technologies in the domestic payments market (specifically those focusing
on the bulk ACH payments space) ought to wait a considerable period of time. Regulators and others
still have obvious concerns over deploying unproven technology in such systemically important
infrastructure projects. The vendor landscape focused purely on ACH payments is sparse. Equally, the
business value such a roll-out could deliver is likely negative in the short term to medium term.
User Advice: Bank CIOs and digital business leads:
 Accelerate your institutional knowledge of blockchain capabilities by including the technology
in proofs of concept for new, low-risk services.
 If your local bulk payment system is due for replacement within the next five years, monitor
and challenge overzealous calls for it to be based on blockchain technology. Instead, aim for an
implementation that will ultimately allow integration with the wider blockchain ecosystem.
 If you already have access to a modern near-real-time payments infrastructure, undertake
additional planning to allow integration with future blockchain deployments in the nonpayments
space.
Business Impact: The theoretical benefits to be accrued from a blockchain-based bulk payment system
may be high. However, in reality, replacing an existing near-real-time payment solution with a
blockchain-based one will deliver little intrinsic benefit. Notwithstanding that many of these modern
near-real-time payment systems are very much fit for purpose, they are relatively new and are several
years away from being fully amortized. Equally, to leverage the real benefits from blockchain would
require many of the end systems and processes that integrate with the bulk payments systems to be re-
engineered and rewritten, which is an unlikely occurrence, at least in the short term.
Benefit Rating: Moderate
Maturity: Emerging
“Blockchain Will Prove to Be a Risky Route for Payment Systems”
“Why Retail Payment Systems Don’t Need Blockchain”
Blockchain and IoT

Analysis By: Nick Jones; Benoit Lheureux; Avivah Litan
Definition: Blockchain and IoT refers to the use of blockchain in conjunction with Internet of Things
(IoT) devices and technologies. Integrating IoT and Blockchain supports trusted multiparty processes
that bridge physical world things to business process computing environments.
Blockchain and IoT can be combined in many ways for purposes such as IoT payment, tokenization of
IoT-related assets or services, identity validation, provenance tracking, utilization recording or billing.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The combination of blockchain and IoT networks:
 Enables an immutable audit trail of key IoT data and related business events that is shared
across multiple participants and which can be independently verified by each party, and
 Supports smart contracts and distributed applications (known as dapps) that drive process
automation across network participants often by referencing information represented in digital
twins.
IoT digital twins provide the visibility and monitoring of things and related events (e.g., using IoT
devices to automatically capture the origin of a product), and blockchain enables the shared single
version of truth as to the state of these “things” across their life cycles and associated business events.
Still, the combination of IoT and enterprise blockchain is very immature and faces many technical and
business challenges. Most IoT devices don’t have adequate computational or networking resources to
act as full nodes in a blockchain so must rely on proxies or gateways. The relative volatility of
blockchain implementations involving protocol changes may be a challenge for long-lived IoT devices.
Some blockchain implementations struggle to scale to the transaction rates that can be generated by
large numbers of connected “things.” In the long term, we expect the combination of IoT and
blockchain to enable innovative devices and business models, but the necessary evolution in both
blockchain and IoT will take five to 10 years to achieve maturity.
User Advice: CIOs, enterprise architects and technology innovation roles should look for situations
where IoT and blockchain enables new business capabilities and solves real world problems, and where
the immaturity and rate of change of the technology isn’t an impediment. Pilot projects are relatively
easy to achieve using smaller vendors and startups that support integration of IoT and blockchain with
their software. Private blockchains with known ecosystem members are likely to pose fewer technical
and governance challenges. Beware of applications involving long-lived IoT devices and long-lived
data, which will require the ability to periodically deploy blockchain technology updates in scale. In
situations where all that’s required is immutable data storage without shared ecosystem ownership,
business rules, or tokenization consider immutable centralized databases or ledgers such as Datomic or
Amazon QLDB as an alternative to blockchain.
Business Impact: Business opportunities often involve situations where the IoT devices participate in
an ecosystem where untrusted partners must store and share immutable information, or where
tokenization enables a new business opportunity. Examples include:
 Smart packaging to track supply chain provenance of high value, sensitive or regulated products
such as food, pharmaceuticals, human tissue/biological materials, medical shipments
 Business models where trustworthy tracking of equipment utilization is critical (e.g., truck
leasing or insurance)
 Business models that combine IoT and tokenization (e.g., smart trashcans providing credits for
recycling).
 Cases where blockchain can contribute to increased trust or security for IoT, e.g., trusted
machine identity, trusted firmware updates.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Filament; IBM; modum
“Emerging Technology Analysis: Don’t Sell Blockchain for IoT, Sell Business Innovation Using IoT”
“Integrating Blockchain With IoT Strengthens Trust in Multiparty Processes”
Blockchain Business Models

Analysis By: David Furlonger; Richard Hunter; Christophe Uzureau
Definition: A blockchain business model is one in which blockchain is a key element of a value
proposition for one or more customer segments, supported by capabilities for blockchain deployment,
management and governance. Blockchain business models are particularly constructed from the
perspective of decentralized governance and operations, and with the onus on cryptographic value
exchange.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The most radical business model changes resulting from
blockchain will enable massive decentralization and be based on public blockchain techniques.
However, most current pilots are aimed at private or hybrid/consortia blockchain initiatives. These
initiatives do not fundamentally change the business models of participating organizations, but they can
improve value propositions related to reducing transaction cycle times and costs or reaching new
customer segments — where the need for shared trust is not apparent. That said, technology standards
for private and public blockchain are in flux and will remain so for the next two years. In addition,
current governance mechanisms for blockchain are poorly understood and difficult to scale.
The arrival of effective blockchain utilities that enable enterprises to operate within blockchain-enabled
business ecosystems at scale can be expected to change enterprise financial models by reducing
expenses. We believe that blockchains embedded in financial software, such as ERP packages, will
eventually improve accuracy and efficiency for financial management in multinational companies, and
even across ecosystems. However, the impact won’t likely include sustainable competitive advantage
unless there is a move toward the decentralization of finance providing access to new capital —
notably, midsize companies and new opportunities for a broader pool of investors.
Regulation is likely for cryptocurrencies — the most active arena for public blockchain — within five
years, and its impacts are unpredictable at this point. Customer acceptance of decentralized commercial
ecosystems and cryptocurrencies is uncertain and not synergistic across geographies. Legal and
accounting/taxation structures are also designed for centralized businesses and single entities.
Moreover, the technologies to support these business models, such as DAOs and dapps, are too
immature to support more than early-stage startups. And, the main impact on business model
transformation is more likely to occur with enhanced blockchain solutions, mobilizing AI and IoT
capabilities to create new markets. In short, the impacts of blockchain on new business models (and on
refinements to existing ones) depend on multiple strong forces whose resolution is currently unclear.
Five to 10 years is an optimistic but defensible time frame for resolution of these issues.
User Advice:
 Clients who have not documented their current business models should do so now. Carefully
weigh costs for ongoing development and integration of blockchain-supported applications
against the currently more robust functions, features and infrastructures provided by mature
DBMSs.
 Clients should consider blockchain’s impact on value propositions, customer segments, essential
capabilities, compliance and finance when designing new business models that can take
advantage of blockchain’s core strengths. These strengths include multiasset value exchange,
decentralization, anonymity and immutability with low overhead for maintenance.
 Clients who wish to gain experience in managing blockchain environments can begin
experimentation with the understanding that any technology artifacts will require rearchitecting
in a few years.
 Clients who want to leverage industry blockchain frameworks and solutions should watch
carefully for the emergence of blockchain utilities (public and private) and compare the
functionality of these to their new business model constructs.
Business Impact: Impacts on business models in pilots to date are about costs and operational
capabilities (e.g., reduced cycle time and cost for transactions that required layers of intermediaries
preblockchain). It is unclear how public blockchain’s ability to support decentralized anonymous
transactions will translate to profits for most businesses — hence the prevalence of private blockchains
that merely reinforce traditional business, economic and societal structures (such as business models).
In general, the overlapping value-creating mechanisms supported by blockchain — decentralization,
cryptographic value exchange and smart contracts — potentially impact a wide range of current
business models. Decentralization reduces external dependencies and supports trust. Cryptographic
value exchange creates anonymity and immutability. Smart contracts allow for automated decision
making without human intervention, reducing friction, latency and cost. Business models that include
the full range of these capabilities in delivering the value proposition are yet to appear.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Algorithmia; ConsenSys; Golem; Numerai; Pothole Coin; Vevue; WorkChain.io
“How Blockchain Will Affect Your Business Model”
“Understanding the Gartner Blockchain Spectrum and the Evolution of Technology Solutions”
Stablecoin
Analysis By: Rajesh Kandaswamy
Definition: Stablecoins provide the benefits of cryptocurrencies but try to be immune to market
volatility. Price volatility impedes enterprises from adopting cryptocurrency as they want to avoid
market risk. Stablecoins attempt to alleviate that risk with mechanisms to peg their value to a stable
currency. Certain stablecoins represent regular fiat currency using cryptocurrency technology.
Mechanisms to achieve price parity include adjusting the supply of the currency by holding reserve
assets in a fiat currency (or commodities) or using algorithms.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: A few stablecoins have been around for a few years.
Many more have been launched recently (including the USD Coin and Gemini dollar), and the interest
and use is mostly restricted to the cryptocurrency markets and their use is to transfer assets across
cryptocurrencies. Enterprises’ use for stablecoins remains rare, whether within their blockchain projects
or as a bridge to cryptocurrencies. Consistent price parity is a key need for any stablecoin to build
credibility. While the mechanisms to ensure that the pegging works can be strengthened over time, the
proof is only in the sustained ability to do so over a long period. So, while growth of blockchain
technologies and adoption by enterprises will further the demand for such stablecoins, adoption will
still be based on a consistent peg. Pegging can involve a large amount of collateral (fiat or public
crypto) and analytical tools to assess/manage market behavior. Schemes can rely on centralized or
decentralized mechanisms to manage the peg. Further, these currencies will need acceptable and
reliable demurrage mechanisms. Stablecoins can also serve as a mechanism to transfer fiat money to
the crytocurrency realm and vice versa.
User Advice: By reducing the risk imposed by cryptocurrency volatility in blockchain applications,
stablecoins can help open up blockchain-based applications and markets for you to make use of. But
they are not ready yet; examples include using cryptocurrencies to accept consumer payments, and
using cryptocurrencies to represent and exchange value within an ecosystem. Further, they enable you
to make use of many of the favorable aspects of a cryptocurrency — the ability to be used for payment
and avoiding double spend, while not having the volatility of many cryptocurrencies. Monitor
developments in stablecoins, but wait for sustained performance and growth in adoption rates before
embarking on usage. As these technologies develop, you will need to involve the CFO’s office in your
organization to assess the opportunities and risks of using stablecoins. Further, the audit treatment of
such assets needs to be evaluated before investment commitments. Before using any stablecoin, get full
clarity on how they maintain their peg to a second asset — lack of transparency is a red flag on the
operations of such stablecoins.
Business Impact: A key promised benefit of blockchain technologies is the ability to use tokens for
value exchange without double spend, but for that promise to be realized, such a token must be immune
to market volatility. Stablecoins provide the way to achieve that and become a necessary cog in these
ecosystems to bring stability and lead enterprises closer to the blockchain ecosystem. As blockchain
technologies grow, enterprises will come across various blockchain applications where this could be
applicable. These include startups that they plan to invest in because of interest in the business or
technology (but not for speculation), business partnerships with blockchain-based companies and the
use of blockchain system vendors or platforms. While that is the promise, the extent of the impact still
depends on how successful any one of these stablecoins proves to be in the long run. When stablecoins
work true to their intent, the result will be a smoother integration between traditional enterprises and
blockchain-based innovative startups, further growing the latter.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Circle; Gemini dollar; MakerDAO; NuBits; Tether; The Royal Mint (RMG);
TrueUSD; USD Coin (USDC)
“Central Banks’ Digital Money Strategies: Why Bank CIOs Should Care, and What They Should Do”
Strategic Tokenization
Analysis By: Christophe Uzureau; Ali Merji
Definition: Strategic tokenization refers to the design of roadmaps to manage the issuance, acceptance
and management of multiple types of tokens in order to support the creation and exchange of value to
create or expand a digital ecosystem. A token is a representation of value such as an asset (monetary
value or data), identity, as well as an output of the contractual agreements defined by the underlying
company/institution, industry or protocol during the creation of the token — the tokenization process.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Strategic tokenization considers the roles of tokens
across three main categories, all driving digital transformation:
 Value Maximization — The main purpose of the token is to support a specific and predefined
process, improving such processes and/or facilitating value exchanges such as JPM Coin
 Value Representation — This usually refers to the digital/virtual currency domain. The token
could be considered as “money” under some conditions (qualifies as a medium of exchange, a
store of value and a unit of account). It could also include tokens representing an alternative
funding model such as ICO’s to STO’s, such as with MovieCoin, or an asset-backed or
algorithm-based token such as stablecoins.
 Value Creation — The main purpose of the token is to unleash new value by improving the
level of autonomy of ecosystem agents (people, machines and organizations) and therefore
supporting the programmable economy such as for example with Fetch.AI.
The objectives of strategic tokenization are to enable:
 Data monetization by facilitating the collection, tracking and exchange of data. This includes
data generated by the activity of the IoT such as for example with IOTA Foundation
 The programmable economy that depends on autonomous organizations exchanging data and
value while being able to identify the credentials of their counterparts. Supporting smart
contracts would also contribute to this objective.
 The modernization of monetary systems by increasing the velocity of money as well as the
performance of the underlying infrastructure. This could include the creation of new digital
currencies such as with Bitcoin and Ethereum.
As stressed in 2018, strategic tokenization demands to align a large pool of fragmented technologies
(multiple blockchain platforms, integration with existing tokens such as EMVCo and PCI Security
Standards Council) supported by a large variety of organizations (banks, vendors, central banks,
fintechs, blockchain platforms, etc.). While there is a high degree of fragmentation, tokenization has
become more visible during 2018 as companies realize that tokenization was not just about ICOs and
creating an alternative money, but also about digital transformation. As a result, we are moving the
profile to pre-peak 35%.
User Advice:
 Map your token universe by inventorying the tokens that are in use by your enterprise as well as
in your ecosystem.
 Maintain a competitive advantage by tracking how your customers are attempting to use your
tokens beyond their initial purpose.
 Experiment with tokens by looking for inefficient ecosystem processes, unused or underutilized
assets and smart things acting as proxies for people or businesses.
 Prepare for digital and industry transformation by designing token workflows for newly
identified products, services and customer interactions, and potentially experimenting with
token creation in limited scope proofs of concept.
Business Impact: Tokenization no longer belongs to the tactical domain. Blockchain technology, as
well as digital commerce ecosystems, have turned tokenization into a fundamental “invisible”
innovation. Strategic tokenization is therefore at the core of the battles to control the gates of digital
ecosystems. As a result, we rate the business impact as transformational — from the perspective of
delivering new business models as well as the ability for the organizations in control of tokenization to
disrupt multiple industries and generate significant revenue.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Edgecoin; EMVCo; Ethereum; Fetch.AI; IOTA Foundation (Tangle)
Ecosystems”
“Blockchain Not Ready to Unchain Customer Rewards”
Blockchain in Media and Entertainment

Analysis By: Monica Zlotogorski
Definition: Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger, where value exchange transactions are
sequentially grouped into blocks. Each block is chained to the previous one, immutably recorded across
peer-to-peer (P2P) networks using cryptographic trust and assurance mechanisms. Use cases in media
and entertainment relate to transactional, security, data management and integrity, advertising,
intellectual property/copyright protection and smart contract capabilities. Disruptive applications come
from potential disintermediation of traditional business models.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Some potential blockchain applications for content
management are supported by the technology’s ability to manage, access and secure data for content
and advertisement services. Most extensively, blockchains could also be implemented with the
following perception:
 Protect artist/creator of content digital copyrights and real-time payments
 Help manage customer access and expiration rights of particular content
 Enable the transfer of access rights to other users during the rental or subscription period
 Facilitate the creation of new business models for the consumption of content
 Highlight advertisement inventory, placement and distribution models
Media and entertainment (M&E) use cases — powered by blockchain technology — have been
growing, but actual implementations, at scale, are still in their initial stages. Challenges continue to
include (among others):
 The lack of a common blockchain platform and interoperable blockchain standards
 Integration (with other applications)
 Costs
 The large amounts of historical data that must be retained
 Trust from royalty collection associations.
User Advice: Content creators, aggregators and distributors should consider implementation roadmaps
defined and enabled based on the scalability and interoperability progression of blockchain
technologies (for example, two to three years). Additionally, blockchain initiatives should consider the
disruptive business impact that these technologies might engender (like streaming music from the
“cloud” a few years ago had; and like expanding pay-per-usage options [micropayments] for content
creators, without any intermediaries from a music or movie studio). This is the most disruptive
applicability of blockchain technologies for content. As a result, this could significantly reshape
existing ecosystems involving any online delivery services. For instance:
 Blockchain could enable the contractual piece and payment distributions at lower costs. The
author or artist could then be immediately reimbursed for any content as it is consumed, where
the payment is distributed (via a blockchain) per the terms and conditions established in a
blockchain-based smart contract.
 Traditional media content providers can benefit from the blockchain micropayment capability to
replace the current billing systems, which often renders some potential products (especially
music or video clips and segments) too costly to offer. Blockchains could enable more offerings
such as pay-per-click.
 As digital copyrights are protected and guaranteed via blockchains, and transactions can be
enabled directly to the creators, this provides the potential and availability for content
aggregators to obtain more content at less expensive prices, with the content pushed directly to
consumers.
 The aggregator can also immediately push advertising of this new content to the relevant
customer profiles. Rather than involving a third party (such as a movie studio), the creator is
paid directly by the aggregator in micropayments, as the content is consumed.
Business Impact: Companies in the media and entertainment space should explore blockchain
scenarios that help enhance their position much better in this increasingly competitive industry
environment. As this market becomes more fragmented, personalized, diversified, competitive and
aimed at more specific niche markets, businesses should explore how blockchains can positively
impact the M&E industry in:
 Tracking advertisement consumption, advertising conversion and efficiency in postcampaign
reporting for payments with more accuracy
 Enabling new consumption business models with micropayments at a manageable cost, and the
legal sharing of subscriptions and content among consumers, thereby legally and efficiently
emulating peer-to-peer distribution.
 Tracing usage and consumption of content, veracity and authenticity of news, and making
illegal copying and piracy almost impossible due to the near-perfect visibility of the content
flow enabled by a blockchain.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Akamai; Breaker; Comcast; Custos Media Technologies; Google; NetObjex;
Premion; Spotify; Theta; Verizon
“Market Insight: Shaping the Television Video Experience of the Future”
“How CSP CIOs Can Partner With Their Product Managers to Exploit Blockchain”
“CSPs Need to Think Differently to Exploit the Disruptive Potential of Blockchain”
“Market Trends: How Blockchain Reinforces CSPs’ Industry Vertical Initiatives”
Blockchain in Retail
Analysis By: Kelsie Marian
Definition: Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger in which value-exchange transactions are
sequentially grouped into blocks. Each block is chained to the previous one and immutably recorded
across a peer-to-peer network, using cryptographic trust and assurance mechanisms.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Over the past year, retail interest in blockchain has
continued to increase as a result of hype from media outlets, vendors, and experimentation by Tier 1
retailers. Large retailers such as Walmart, Carrefour, Kroger and Alibaba are testing blockchain related
technologies to promote supply chain visibility and reduce food fraud. The intense hype on blockchain
over the past twelve months has caused a jump from post-trigger 30% to prepeak 30%; however, expect
its transformational potential to most likely be realized between 5 to 10 years.
In retail, blockchain is being considered for supply chain transparency, anti-counterfeiting, loyalty
programs and smart contracts, with retail payments a longer-term goal. In the near term, greater traction
will likely occur in nonpayment retail use cases. For example, in supply chain and record keeping,
blockchain presents opportunities such as supply chain track and track and trace, increasing the product
quality and maintaining food safety and greater control in the supply chain. It is also being considered
in both food and non-food segments for the possibility of increasing transparency by helping to
establish provenance and authenticity of goods and items, anti-counterfeiting, helping customers keep
track of warranties, alternative execution of co-branded loyalty reward systems, storing, verifying and
executing smart contracts, and supporting decentralized marketplaces. The true potential for blockchain
is often clouded, misinterpreted, or lost in the scramble to translate proofs of concept (POCs) into full
business rollouts. Despite these issues, there is a fundamental value proposition for a blockchain
complete approach to reduce friction and incorporate decentralized trust across domains — which, for
the governance, movement and tracking of physical goods, holds a lot of promise.
User Advice:
 Balance the increased interest from the business to use blockchain to enable digital business
transformation with the commensurate levels of risk posed by its nascent state. Have a healthy
skepticism for vendors claiming to offer blockchain capability for retail as the vendor
ecosystem is rapidly evolving along different trajectories and is lacking in detailed consensus as
to the feature set with vendors having widely varying levels of maturity. Use a robust defense
for nonblockchain technologies so the business can cut through the blockchain hype
 Actively monitor the evolution of decentralized digital marketplaces, such as OpenBazaar, and
alternative currency providers, such as Currency Alliance, to gauge whether they can provide
another way to reach consumers.
 Engage with consumers (through focus groups, for example) to identify the current use and
perceived value of digital and cryptocurrencies as an exchange or payment method in the retail
shopping process — testing the waters for revamping customer loyalty programs by offering
digital currency, which could be exchanged for various other currencies, goods or services.
Business Impact: Blockchain and distributed ledger concepts are gaining traction because they hold
the promise of transforming industry operating models. In retail, blockchain has the potential to reduce
fraud, increase transparency and traceability in the supply chain, build and strengthen trust in new and
existing relationships with consumers and suppliers, free up capital, improve cash flow, and generally
improve the speed of commerce in digital business.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Ethereum; Everledger; IBM; Loyyal; Provenance; Skuchain
“What Retail CIOs Need to Know About Blockchain”
“Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2019: Blockchain”
At the Peak
Blockchain in Oil and Gas

Analysis By: Rich McAvey
Definition: Blockchain is a technology with potential to fundamentally transform the conduct of
business in oil and gas. It consists of an expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable
transactional records shared by all participants in a network. Each record contains a time stamp and
reference links to previous transactions, which allow anyone with access rights to trace a transactional
event belonging to any participant at any point in its history. A blockchain is one architectural design of
the broader concept of distributed ledgers.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Gartner assesses that blockchain for the oil and gas
industry has advanced, but has not yet reached the Peak of Inflated Expectations. Last year’s
assessment that oil and gas is trailing other industries continues, but two significant advances are
recognized for 2019. First is greater awareness/respect for the complexity involved in blockchain
development. While blockchain strategies vary widely among companies, those most active have
consolidated and sharpened their near-term objectives to a small number of use cases, leaving more
disruptive ambitions on the roadmap for later development. Second is progress curing the technical
immaturities currently blocking pathways to enterprise levels of scale, security and usability. Driven by
strong R&D investment in larger companies, technologies for the core elements of blockchain
(immutability, encryption, broad scale distribution, decentralization and tokenization) continue to
evolve. Gartner estimates that the most problematic technology issues will be resolved in two to five
years.
User Advice: The journey to create a multicompany blockchain consortium is inherently awkward.
Making wholesale changes to decades-old enterprise methodologies is hard to achieve in any situation.
However, the transformative nature of blockchain works across multiple levels simultaneously
(process, operating model, business strategy and industry structure), and depends on coordinated action
across multiple companies. This has created a deeper interest in multicompany development
consortiums like OOC or VAKT, which show great promise. Further complicating progress are elevated
risk concerns prompted by booms/crashes in cryptocurrency prices and the implosion of the initial coin
offering (ICO) market.
CIOs must:
 Continue to educate executives and senior leaders about those blockchain opportunities and
challenges that are most critical for your business.
 Build thought leadership within IT and fight unwarranted vendor hype.
 Expect different industry domains (upstream, midstream, downstream and marketing) and
functional areas (such as commodity trading, international cash management, field supply
chains and data integrity) to adopt blockchain along different timelines.
 Continue to develop proof of concepts (POC) internally as well as part of market consortiums.
 Expect complicated technical challenges as early solutions will likely be a mix of significant
process redesign, agile solution development, multiple cloud integrations and a large number of
integration points with legacy systems.
Business Impact: Blockchain and distributed ledger concepts provide opportunities for enterprise
leaders to imagine new kinds of operating models and business strategies. Of particular interest is the
creation of a decentralized commercial exchange that reduces the excessively high friction and cost of
traditional methods. Oil and gas companies also face a threat from startups and complementary
businesses that can use core blockchain concepts to disintermediate markets. By offering capabilities
like identity portability, trustless interactions, smart contracts and new forms of value exchange, these
companies can shift value streams to information and commoditize multiple forms of oil and gas assets.
Gartner is aware of more than 30 blockchain use cases being considered by oil and gas companies. Not
all will mature. Long term, Gartner expects significant disruption to traditional operating practices from
blockchain solutions or their derivatives.
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Accenture; DataGumbo Blockchain; Deloitte; Ethereum Foundation; GuildOne;
IBM; OOCBlockchain; PONTON; VAKT
“Guidance for Assessing Blockchain Platforms”
“5 Blockchain Realities for CIOs to Address in the Next 5 Years”
“How Oil and Gas CIOs Can Hack Culture and Lead Organizational Change”
Blockchain in Utilities
Analysis By: Zarko Sumic
Definition: A blockchain is an expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable transactional
records shared by all participants in a network. Each record contains a time stamp and reference links
to previous transactions. With this information, anyone with access rights can trace back a transactional
event, at any point in its history, belonging to any participant. A blockchain is one architectural design
of the broader concept of distributed ledgers.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Blockchain’s potential is in its ability to disrupt the
existing business environment and enable democratization of the business processes that are
traditionally managed by a central authority (such as a government department, a bank or an electric
utility). This is because blockchain is an effective mechanism for achieving distributed consensus in the
face of an unsafe, unreliable networked environment with a dynamic collection of untrusted
participants.
In the utilities industry, the most common use cases are energy exchanges among distributed assets and
transactions among parties in transactive energy markets such as nonutility distributed energy resource
(DER) owners and consumers. The blockchain is enabling a new way of managing how energy is
distributed, accounted for and secured. For example, microgrids could become more resilient with peer-
to-peer (P2P) communications. P2P enables intelligent electronic devices to share information directly,
without the need for a centralized system. Also, data about the asset activity (and hence the value) can
be exchanged instantaneously, 24/7, giving rise to new business models and applications for many
distributed energy sources, as well as increasing the security and reliability of the grid. With the energy
utility industry trending toward a distributed and connected future, blockchain is an alternative for the
online portion of the online-to-offline energy sharing platform.
Blockchain adoption in the peer-to-peer energy exchanges will be implicitly controlled by regulation.
Blockchain requires either distribution open access regulatory posture, or an operating model in which
distribution system operator’s revenue are tied to a number of connected customers rather that the
amount of kWh sold.
User Advice: Recognize that the terminology surrounding blockchain is in flux. This uncertainty
masks the potential suitability of technology solutions to meet business use cases. Consequently, use
extreme caution when interacting with vendors who have ill-defined/nonexistent offerings.
Numerous trials have emerged in the utility sector to investigate and leverage blockchain for creating
cryptographically secured, distributed peer-to-peer energy exchanges. POCs involving tracking and
trading of the renewable certificates, wholesale market trading (European project Enerchain), EV
charging and eliminating energy retailers via blockchain have been reported. The U.S. Department of
Energy has awarded a project to a consortium whose goal is to secure distributed energy resources
(DERs) and increase the trustworthiness, integrity, control and monitoring of energy exchanges.
Although most of these examples are in an early stage, they indicate the potential impact that
blockchain may have in sector digital transformation, particularly on energy-provisioning
democratization.
Blockchain technology use outside of the financial sector, as a mechanism for enabling operation of
distributed assets and market participants, is in the embryonic stage. As such, expected initial
operational benefits are low. Early adopters must have reasonable expectations about what can be
gained by embarking on energy-related blockchain initiatives. However, we do suggest that utilities
monitor and learn more about blockchain technology as an example of a disruptive general purpose
technology that can have a major long-term impact on the sector; particularly in markets facing high
penetration of consumer-owned DER. Utilities operating in those markets should assess potential risks
and operational costs, as well as their execution capabilities when considering the use of blockchain.
They should examine integration points with existing infrastructures, which traditionally have been
operated in a centralized manner, to assess the future investments needed.
Business Impact: Blockchain technology is continuing to gain traction in utility sector because it has
the promise to transform the transaction flows and offer a new way of managing and operating
distributed assets and operations, some of it outside of utility direct ownership or control. In the energy
utility sector, the primary impact will be enabling democratization of energy provisioning, such as
managing microenergy transactions between prosumer-owned DER and consumers, though we also see
use in enabling virtual retail operation, wholesale energy exchanges and DER integration into
wholesale energy markets.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Bankymoon; Electron; Energy Web Foundation (EWF); Ethereum; Grid Singularity;
GridPlus; LO3 Energy; Power Ledger; PONTON
“Top 10 Trends Driving the Utility Industry in 2019”
“Blockchain in Utilities: Promise and Reality”
“Industry Vision: Utilities as Platform Providers for the Energy-Sharing Economy”
“The Bitcoin Blockchain: The Magic and the Myths”
Cryptocurrency Custody Services

Analysis By: Ali Merji; David Furlonger
Definition: Cryptocurrency custody services providers offer storage and security services for digital
assets aimed mainly at institutional investment firms or advisors. Solutions are positioned as custody-
as-a-service or self-managed platforms.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Cryptocurrency custody services market is relatively new
and evolving quickly. Institutional investments firms seeking custodial services are still figuring out
what features they need, whether they have the capabilities to manage the solutions and how to
evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of these offerings. Recent entry of key intermediaries such
as Fidelity, Vontobel are offering custody-as-a-service, whereas enterprise solution providers such as
IBM are offering self-managed custody solutions. The market believes that the lack of custody services
is a key enabler of digital asset adoption and a means to add more legitimacy to investment activities.
However, limited regulatory cohesion, such as the lack of formalized definitions for asset classes and
types, as well as the need for greater definition about the types of services that may be permitted as part
of a blockchain-enabled solution are required.
User Advice: Most third-party custodians offer slight variations of similar services. It boils down
differentiation based on regulatory status and support for variety of cryptocurrency and additional add-
on services such as prime brokerage. There is no obvious go-to institutional model yet. Asset managers
need to evaluate offerings based on the regulatory frameworks and policies in-place in their region, and
the flexibility of the two main offering types. Ensure offerings cover a broad spectrum of digital assets;
perform careful due diligence over security; perform an analysis to assess integration with other
systems such as risk management.
Business Impact: Custody of digital assets currently is managed by exchanges, institutions and broker-
dealers holding those crypto assets. This presents a conflict of interest and compliance/risk challenges
in centralizing the entire value chain from trade, deal and advise and placing custody in the hands of
one party. Institutional investment firms face a dilemma. Either they allow intermediaries to control
digital assets and potentially reduce the security and liquidity risks, or they seek to deploy decentralized
blockchain capabilities which could reduce cost and allow for self-custodianship. Managing secure
storage and transfer of crypto assets may be one of the key factors holding back institutional
participation in crypto assets. Crypto custody services can address this problem now by allowing
institutional investors an option to custody their assets in a secure environment that resembles a
traditional asset protection model.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Boerse Stuttgart; Coinbase; Digital Asset Receipt; Fidelity Assets; IBM; Vontobel
Blockchain in Gaming
Analysis By: Christophe Uzureau; David Furlonger
Definition: Blockchain in gaming covers a range of applications of blockchain technology to combat
fraud, lack of transparency, privacy issues and barriers to open competition. Gaming-enabled
blockchain builds on the expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable transactional records
shared by all participants in a network. Each record contains a time stamp and reference links to
previous transactions. With this information, anyone with access rights can trace back a transactional
event, at any point in its history, belonging to any participant.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The gaming industry has long served as a testing ground
for digital experimentation. Like the real world, gaming economies have real economic issues, like
resource hoarding, inequality, currency devaluation, digital coin hacking, bank runs, fraud, etc. This
location at the confluence of high tech, entertainment, economics and social experimentation makes the
gaming industry a hotbed of blockchain innovation, as well as a place to watch, given the tech savvy of
gamers and their historical propensity to innovate. Within this hotbed, esports — tournament-driven
video game competition — is emerging as a lead contender in blockchain innovation.
As a result, blockchain gaming startups are developing new solutions to challenge centralization and
deal with operational issues. This challenge to digital giants is explicit with companies such Enjin,
which launched its Enjin Coin (ENJ) token. Enjin launched a platform that allows users to create their
own tokens to support the design of player rewards as well as to enable virtual goods trading. One of
the objectives is to ensure that the gamer owns the items they purchase, and can decide to trade or
convert them back into tokens (ENJ). The tokens provide gamers more control over their gaming items
and make them more portable across gaming platforms. Another tokenized solution comes from
GameCredits, launched in 2015 to solve the problem of fraud and payment time lags in esports. One of
the key goals of GameCredits is to increase the amount and speed of the payout to developers as an
incentive for them to make their games available in the GameCredits store. The company claims that
the payout can increase from 70% of the game purchase price (the typical share offered on Google Play
and Apple App Store) to 90% on their platform.
As a result, the gaming industry, and esports in particular, is at the forefront of blockchain innovations,
and this is why we position this profile at post-peak 15%.
User Advice:
 Disrupt digital giants by replicating the strategies of blockchain gaming startups such as using
tokens as incentives for your customers to give consent and share their data.
 Contact peers and ecosystem partners to discuss how to coordinate the design and issuance of
tokens in a decentralized context as currently deployed by esport blockchain startups.
Business Impact: High user volumes and rapid innovation makes the gaming sector a test ground for
innovative application of blockchain. It is a place to watch and see how users push the adaptability of
key components of blockchain, such as decentralization and tokenization. Gaming startups, notably in
the esport domain, provide appealing alternatives to the ecosystem approach of Amazon or Google or
Apple, and serve as a model for companies in other industries to develop digital strategies. As a result,
blockchain is not only transformational for the gaming industry, but also for other industries that can
learn from its innovative practices and experimentations.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: DMarket; Enjin; GameCredits
Ecosystems”
Blockchain in Healthcare
Analysis By: Gregg Pessin
records shared by all participants in a network (patients, providers, payers). Each record contains a time
stamp and reference links to previous transactions. With this information, anyone with access rights can
trace back a transactional event, at any point in its history, belonging to any participant. A blockchain is
one architectural design of the broader concept of distributed ledgers.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Blockchain, the top search term on gartner.com, is
characterized as a radically new method of capturing, exchanging and tracking data and creating value.
Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency craze have pushed blockchain to the forefront for IT and business
leaders alike. Mainstream media and industry magazines include blockchain-related topics on a daily
basis. Vendors such as IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Microsoft and Oracle aggressively reference
blockchain technology solutions and services in their marketing literature.
Healthcare’s interest in blockchain continues to grow. Between the 2018 and the 2019 Gartner CIO
Surveys, healthcare organizations that have deployed a version of blockchain or distributed ledger grew
from 0% in 2018 to 4.4% of life science respondents and 1.0% of healthcare provider respondents.
Similarly, CIOs report an increase in blockchain’s role in short-term and midterm planning. For
example, in short-term planning, it went up from 5.0% to 5.9% in life sciences. For healthcare
providers, it went from 2.0% to 3.1%, and for payers, it went from 5% to 7.7%. In midterm planning,
blockchain/distributed ledger is 4.4% for life science, 9.3% for providers and 12.8% for payers.
Longer-term planning is around 38% across all three groups, which indicates there is still a good deal
of hype at work in the industry, with innovative organizations finding some real value in the
technology.
While there is excitement about the possibilities of the technology to transform the broader health
ecosystem, there is also an equal amount of skepticism about what can actually be accomplished. A few
CIOs have reviewed their initial blockchain projects and decided that their organizations may have
been misguided about blockchain capabilities or applied them in a way that was misaligned with their
strategy.
In the payer and provider worlds, speculation is focused on streamlining transactions and data sharing
among all the major players in the healthcare value chain for use cases like contracting, credentialing,
claims payment, health data aggregation and population health management. Also, blockchain-based
longitudinal medical records could be the source for precision medicine and population health studies.
In 2019, although the interest level in blockchain has grown, along with the media hype, the actual
success rate of pilots is not increasing at the same rate. The elevated level of industry interest in the
technology has resulted in an increase in R&D investment, which is why we have moved the profile
slightly forward this year.
User Advice: Distributed ledger concepts are complex and are not well-understood by the healthcare
and life science CIO community. Existing production examples of blockchain such as Bitcoin are
useful to understand and explain the concepts and underlying technologies. Progress is being made by
several vendors to develop distributed ledgers for medical information storage. At least eight startups
are underway for this purpose. Tracking those vendors is a smart step.
To fully keep abreast of this emerging technology:
 Track blockchain’s market readiness in healthcare and life sciences, and factor these trajectories
into your strategic plans and investment timing. The most transformative and impactful
applications will be oriented to ecosystem services, with multiple organizations involved, and
they will take longer to evolve.
 Differentiate the kinds of blockchain technology providers and disruptors by establishing a map
of solution providers in your industry sector.
 Use Gartner’s criteria for identifying opportunities, and apply the decision framework to
determine the blockchain technology approach.
 Experiment with innovative trials using blockchain, but also be ready for setbacks as use cases
emerge and the technology itself continues to evolve.
Business Impact: Blockchain and distributed ledger concepts are gaining traction with healthcare
businesses, because they hold the promise of transforming both architectures and operating models.
However, the definitive business case for blockchain in healthcare has yet to be written. Now is the
time for industry stakeholders to learn from and then build on existing models as they evolve. The
potential of this technology to radically transform economic interactions should also raise critical
questions for the health value chain, regulators, suppliers, patients and consumers, for which there are
no clear answers today.
Finally, as healthcare companies get more serious about blockchain, it will become critical to ensure
that the right type of governance is applied to drive innovation, collaboration and more-efficient supply
chains. The benefits, if the technology can be applied correctly, are clear. Blockchain will enable
efficiencies for reaching new customers, extending relationships with supply chain partners, and
offering better quality and more-complete linkages between events and data. Blockchain has the
potential to expand the boundaries of healthcare.
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: bron.tech; Blockchain Health; Boardwalktech; Gem; Guardtime; Hashed Health;
HealthCombix; MedRec; PointNurse
“What Healthcare and Life Science CIOs Need to Know About Blockchain”
“How to Determine If You Need a Blockchain Project, and If So, What Kind?”
“Top 10 Mistakes in Enterprise Blockchain Projects”
“Practical Blockchain: A Gartner Trend Insight Report”
“The Bitcoin Blockchain: The Magic and the Myths”
Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Regulation

Analysis By: David Furlonger
Definition: Cryptocurrency and blockchain regulation covers a set of rules, legislation, guidelines and
policies created by governments and supervisory bodies to oversee the development and deployment of
digital currency, distributed ledger (blockchain) platforms, smart contracts and other capabilities.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies have
created a complex set of legal, taxation, accounting, regulatory and policy questions for governments
and participating stakeholders. As the notoriety blockchain-related activities have increased,
policymakers have been forced to issue statements concerning the use of digital currency, initial coin
offering’s cryptoexchanges, etc. Statements and views vary widely across different jurisdictions
regarding regulatory treatment of data privacy, tokens, accounting and taxation treatments. Recent
developments such as the introduction of GDPR have added to the confusion. Policymakers are rushing
to catch up with technological developments and the radical nature of the changes that blockchain
technology can enable means development of policy is fraught with uncertainty. Regulatory initiatives
are subject to constant change (see Digital Currencies: International Actions and Regulations).
Governments and regulators do not want to stifle economic development and geopolitical posturing
that is underway. Parallels exist with attempts to regulate, control, and tax internet activity and web
content. These efforts have had mixed success and require consistent, protracted investment by the
government or regulatory body (for example, in China).
However, some focus is starting to come into view. The European Securities and Markets Stakeholder
Group issued a report in October 2018, offering more insight into ICOs and crypto assets. The U.K.
Government crypto assets task force issued their findings on the technology in July 2018. The PACTE
law in France was passed by the senate. Multiple initiatives at a State and Federal agency level are
underway in the U.S., including the Token Taxonomy Act. Movement toward more regulatory clarity
is beneficial to enterprises and citizens. Alignment and cohesion will be key if blockchain is to move
onto the plateau and this will take time at a national and international level.
User Advice:
 Ask external legal counsel to provide guidance on enterprise involvement in blockchain
initiatives and potential to incur operational risk.
 Conduct workshops with legal and accounting functions to get and use their opinions on
cryptocurrency, blockchain and related technologies, and how usage by customers will impact
your business.
 Discuss with the CEO and board the appetite for risk in the current blockchain context and how
to manage the balance between innovation and taking undue risk.
 Ensure that the use cases you identify are able to adapt to rapidly changing regulations that vary
across different counties or even state/province levels.
 Update compliance and legal policies including those impacting employee behavior around
crypto ownership and ICO participation.
Business Impact: The challenge for businesses (and individuals) is whether to continue to operate and
conduct commercial activity on the edge of the law. Recognizing the potential for censure, or whether
to catch the wave of digital business change and hope that regulators accommodate this change is a
critical choice. Governments and regulators may add considerable friction to economic development by
imposing existing frameworks on this nascent area. However, the opportunity to develop new business
models and revenue streams will encourage many individuals and startups to continue development
activities. Traditional businesses will lag the market in the face of operational risk concerns.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: BitLegal; Blockchain Alliance; Coin Center; FinCEN; Perkins Coie; SEC
Ecosystems”
Blockchain in CSPs
Analysis By: Monica Zlotogorski
Definition: Blockchains are a type of distributed ledger in which value exchange transactions (in
Bitcoin or other token) are sequentially grouped into blocks. Each block is chained to the previous
block and immutably recorded across a peer-to-peer network (although there are also more centralized
variants appearing in “private blockchains”) using cryptographic trust and assurance mechanisms.
Depending on the implementation, transactions can include programmable behavior.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: For communications service providers (CSPs), there are a
multitude of use cases that include roaming tracking, data integrity and identity management, security,
fraud prevention, 5G support, asset management, smart contracts, Internet of Things (IoT), supply
chain/logistics, along with digital rights and content management, adjacent market opportunities and
more.
Our research indicates that blockchain projects are experiencing a slowdown among CSPs. They
continue to focus on narrow scope, lengthy, siloed and complex technology project implementations,
which often lose strategic effectiveness and market impact. Blockchain projects would be better aimed
at enabling use cases that offer enough scale and volume for revenue generation opportunities (see
examples in the Recommended Reading section). Even though blockchain remains a “hot topic,” most
efforts continue to struggle beyond proofs of concept (POCs), for example. This is usually due to an
inability to enable significant business scale. Key issues include:
 Strategic Focus — Most blockchain CSP developments remain at the patent/ideation/POC
level.
 Security and Transactions — Blockchain deployments exploiting security and transactional
capabilities are still perceived, in most cases, as technologically/business model/use case siloed.
 Scalability and Flexibility — Blockchain projects are still limited to enable monetization at
scale. In addition, interoperability challenges continue to remain.
User Advice: CSPs should continue to work on real business cases that have no proven solution via
other technology options, but where blockchain can provide greater benefit. CSPs should also evolve
these projects from narrow to more complex functionalities, responding to specific customer and
business needs — rather than broad-scope executions. CSPs must:
 Encourage scenario planning exercises to better understand the new value supply
chains/ecosystems. Focus on the areas where blockchain can enhance ecosystem/platform
capabilities — such as Internet of Things (IoT), data management, security, smart contracts and
transactions.
 Identify and focus on opportunities in vertical/adjacent markets that are already being pursued,
where blockchain can play a more disruptive game rather than using existing technology
options, or where it can enhance them.
 Limit POCs to specific groups of customers and features. Use them as a testing and learning
sandbox before going to market with a mass-market offering.
Many of these areas of opportunities have been challenging for CSPs, as well as other industries
seeking to deploy blockchains. As a result, CSP business leaders must consciously identify where
blockchain can substantially enhance opportunities, disrupt adjacent markets, or enhance go-to-market
differentiation and options for their businesses.
Business Impact: CSPs should consider blockchain scenarios that help enhance use cases, fix
customer issues and uncover more effective solutions for specific customer problems. For example:
 Media/content distribution — peer-to-peer (P2P) content distribution has been possible for
some time with more traditional internet technologies. However, as media/content becomes
more diversified, is sold in smaller “segments” and is aimed at more specific niche markets,
blockchain could facilitate more P2P connectivity and distribution. It could also provide new
encryption levels (safeguarding individual intellectual property [IP]) and offering immediacy of
reward transfers via cryptographic tokens.
 Cybersecurity — CSPs can apply blockchain to enhance cybersecurity solutions related to
connected cars, IoT, medical devices and so on. By using the protection of data integrity —
enabled by means of secure servers communicating with a private blockchain and encrypted
messaging — CSPs can add an extra layer of protection to over-the-air (OTA) hacking and/or
ransomware, among others.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: AT&T; China Mobile; du; Deutsche Telekom; kt; NTT DATA; Telefónica; Verizon
“How CSP CIOs Can Partner With Their Product Managers to Exploit Blockchain”
“CSPs Need to Think Differently to Exploit the Disruptive Potential of Blockchain”
“Market Trends: How Blockchain Reinforces CSPs’ Industry Vertical Initiatives”
Blockchain in Logistics and Transportation
Analysis By: Andrew Stevens; Alex Pradhan
Definition: A blockchain in logistics and transportation is an expanding list of cryptographically
signed, irrevocable transactional records shared by all participating supply chain trading partners
(including manufacturers). Each record contains a time stamp and reference links to previous
transactions. With this information, anyone with access rights can trace a transactional event, at any
point in its history, belonging to any participant. A blockchain is one architectural design of the broader
concept of distributed ledgers.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Across manufacturing and groups of logistics and
transportation trading partners, blockchain is well-suited to potentially deliver in areas such as
disintermediation, automating/digitalizing transactional contracts, source-to-store goods authentication,
event tracking and shipper-to-carrier capacity matching and optimization. It is positioned in 2019 at
Pre-Peak 10%. This is reflective of continued but decelerated momentum for blockchain initiatives
across the logistics and transportation sectors (compared to its position in Hype Cycle for Business
Ecosystems, 2018). Solution adoption and cadence could be dependent on how manufacturers of
finished goods demand interdependent process steps and verifications across digital and physical
transactions during high-risk or critical stages of transportation and distribution. Technology solutions
supporting blockchain must adapt to bridge physical levels of authentication and interoperable data
exchange across responsible trading partners.
Current blockchain solutions in logistics and transportation include a loose portfolio of technologies
and processes that span middleware, database, verification, asset management, security, analytics,
contractual and identity management, and payment concepts. Blockchain is also increasingly being
offered as a service or development option, or as a complementary component of a more established
technology solution already deployed and production-ready for the supply chain; for example, supply
chain visibility solutions. A critical aspect of blockchain technology today is the unregulated,
ungoverned verification of successful transactions as well as immutability. These aspects create both
opportunities and barriers for ongoing blockchain collaboration and development for logistics and
transportation. Challenges include:
 Governance and readiness for further scalability across diverse networks of trading partners
 Privacy over consumption of resources,
 A perceived operational risk with decentralized protocols, especially for brand owners
Blockchain technology adoption challenges will also be impacted by a lack of robust protocols for
governance across transactions, limited resources for establishing core blockchain expertise in-house
and creating zones of trust in dynamic and interoperable operating environments. This is especially true
for smaller and local logistics and transportation partners.
User Advice: Manufacturing, transportation and logistics business leaders should consider joining or
establishing a dedicated working group and consortium to accelerate their potential for being able to
position blockchain accurately in their logistics and transportation operations. Recognize that
terminology surrounding blockchain across logistics and transportation is in flux and often needs more
granular and broader interpretation when it is applied in the context across the full supply chain.
Uncertainty and applicability across supply chains (especially in physical transactions) often masks the
potential suitability of technology solutions to meet business use cases. Be sure to:
 Assess the solution’s ability to map and execute across specific logistics and transportation use-
case criteria and risks — such as location, status and ownership — and its planned timing and
positioning across your strategy technology roadmaps.
 Identify specific high-risk logistics and transportation routes or markets that exhibit
transactional complexity or have exhibited variable or low levels of service. These are prime
candidates for blockchain.
Business Impact: Multiple business use cases for blockchain across logistics and transportation are yet
to be proven. Although early hype has been focused on the financial services industry, it is likely that
supply chain management will see increasingly higher volumes of adoption, but at slower rates.
Consider the following areas and levels of impact:
 Risk: High — Tools are still nascent and unproven, and resources and expertise to develop,
maintain and govern these systems are lacking. However, in supply chain logistics and
transportation, blockchain continues to have momentum.
 Strategic policy change: High — Certain supply chain blockchain use cases deployed as part
of a strategic technology roadmap across many areas of the supply chain, such as global trade
finance, product pedigree and security, could realize significant business improvements.
 Organization change: Medium — Groups of trading partners will need to address new
collaborative and interoperable working practices.
 Culture change: High — Blockchain execution will require cultural shifts focused on shared
value creation, trust and consensus across all levels of the business.
 Process change: High — Protocols must be established for secure transactions and governance
mechanisms for the blockchain ecosystems.
 Competitive value: High — Early collaborators and adopters will gain a competitive
advantage. However, because of the multienterprise nature of supply chain management
blockchain use cases, logistics and transportation may get wrapped up into broader initiatives
across the extended supply chain.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Block Array; Blockshipping ApS; Chainworks; Guardtime; InXeption; Modum;
Morpheus.Network; OriginTrail; ShipChain; TMW Systems
“Cool Vendors in Blockchain Business”
“Integrating Blockchain With IoT Strengthens Trust in Multiparty Processes”
“Supply Chain Brief: Industry Consortia to Drive Education and Standardization of Blockchain in
Transportation”
“Toolkit: Accelerate Your Blockchain Technology Competency Across the Supply Chain”
“Follow Four Evaluation Steps to Decide If Blockchain Is Right for Your Supply Chain”
Blockchain in Supply Chain

Analysis By: C. Klappich; Alex Pradhan; Andrew Stevens
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Supply chain-related blockchain initiatives continue to be
nascent with mostly proofs of concepts and solutions in early stages of development. There are few, if
any, supply chain blockchain projects being deployed at scale. Interest in potential applications across
supply chains has accelerated and supply chain organizations have shown continued interest in
blockchain concepts. Initiatives are a mix of vendor-led, industry and consortium driven discussions.
Solution adoption and cadence could be dependent on the how supply chains often demand
interdependent process steps and verifications across digital and physical transactions. Technology
solutions supporting blockchain must adapt to bridge physical levels of authentication and the need for
interoperable data exchange across responsible trading partners.
Current capabilities offered by blockchain solutions for supply chain can include a loose portfolio of
technologies and processes that spans middleware, database, verification, security, analytics,
contractual and identity management concepts. Blockchain is also increasingly being offered as a
service or development option across supply chain solutions that target closely aligned objectives such
as automation, traceability and security. A critical aspect of blockchain technology is the unregulated,
ungoverned verification of successful transactions as well as immutability. These capabilities fund
much of blockchain development for supply chain. Other concerns include lack of scalability and full
transparency, privacy over consumption of resources, and a perceived operational risk with
decentralized protocols.
Blockchain technology adoption challenges for supply chain also include lack of standards for
governance across transactions, scalable distributed consensus systems and foundational electronic
interoperability across trading partners.
User Advice: The position on the Hype Cycle reflects use cases across supply chains and technology
solutions still in early POC and development phases. Recognize that terminology surrounding
blockchain is in flux and often needs more granular and broader interpretation when applied to a supply
chain use case. Uncertainty and applicability across supply chains (especially in physical transactions)
often masks the potential suitability of technology solutions to meet business use cases.
 Clearly identify how the term is being used and applied internally and by providers to better
understand the return on capital employed, and the incremental value that could be realized
beyond proven technology options.
 Assess the solution’s ability to map and execute across specific supply chain use case criteria
and risks — such as location, status and ownership — and its planned timing and positioning
across your strategy technology roadmaps.
 Identify specific high-risk areas of supply chains that exhibit transactional complexity across
multiple stakeholders. These are prime candidates for blockchain: for example, trade contracts,
asset management, transportation and traceability.
 Closely monitor the evolution of blockchain technology solutions for supply chain that might
materialize through working groups, consortia or peer-to peer industry initiatives.
Business Impact: Multiple business use cases for blockchain across supply chains are yet to be proven.
Although hype has been focused on the financial services industry, supply chain management is likely
to see increasingly higher volumes of adoption, but at slower rates. The potential of this technology to
radically transform economic-related interactions should raise critical questions for society,
governments and enterprises. Although there are no clear answers to these questions today, it is
important to find the answers during the rise of the programmable economy.
Consider the following impact areas:
 Risk: High — Tools are nascent and unproven, and expertise to set up, maintain and govern
these systems is very immature.
 Strategic policy change: High — Certain supply chain blockchain use cases deployed as part
of a strategic technology roadmap in areas such as global trade finance, product pedigree or
security could realize significant business improvements.
 Organization change: High — Across diverse supply chain business partners, companies need
to address new collaborative and interoperable working practices.
 Culture change: High — Blockchain execution will require cultural shifts across all levels of
the business focused on shared value creation, trust and consensus, particularly for solutions
that span multiple enterprises where ecosystem enablement is difficult.
 Process change: High — Protocols for secure transactions and governance mechanisms for the
blockchain ecosystems.
 Competitive value: Moderate — Early adopters will gain a competitive head start, but because
of the multienterprise nature of SCM blockchain use cases, industries will benefit most if
multiple parties participate in the technology.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: arc-net; Blockverify; Chronicled; Circulor; Guardtime; IBM; Omnichain; Skuchain;
SupplyBloc; VeChain
“Seven Things That Supply Chain Leaders Need to Know About Blockchain”
“Blockchain Fundamentals for Supply Chain: A Guide to the New Boardroom Buzzword”
“Explore Blockchain’s Potential in Life Science Companies’ Track-and-Trace and Serialization
Development Strategies”
“The 2018 Top 8 Supply Chain Technology Trends You Can’t Ignore”
Smart Contracts
Analysis By: Adrian Leow; Avivah Litan; Lydia Clougherty Jones
Definition: A smart contract is a computer program or protocol, typically running on a blockchain-
based technology platform, which facilitates, verifies or executes business processes that could be
triggered by events, on-chain and off-chain transactions or interactions with other smart contracts. A
smart contract can also be a digital and autonomous representation of the traditional contract process,
including contract formation, creation of enforceable and immutable rights and obligations, and
execution of performance.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: As they emerge, smart contracts will be used to automate
a value exchange through contract or contract clause execution, offering fine-grained terms and
conditions or other contract specifications with context-specific built-in enforcement (mediated by the
underlying technology foundation or platform). Smart contracts can function at varying levels of scope:
From a single transaction (e.g., unbundled smart contract) to an organizational unit, to an ecosystem.
Smart contracts are designed to facilitate a value exchange and record evidence that the requirements of
particular conditions, such as certain specific payment terms or delivery of a good, have been met. This
potentially reduces claims or lowers the cost of fraud or dispute resolution.
Smart contracts are the least mature subsystem of blockchain technology, which is itself still very
immature. The word “smart” is something of a misnomer. The computer code is prescriptive and,
unless informed by AI, has no inherent artificial intelligence (AI) or self-learning capabilities. Still, it is
expected that AI will be used (outside the blockchain) to process and model large volumes of data and
provide selective data feeds to the prescriptive smart contract code. Similarly, AI models will likely
ingest relevant data from the blockchain to inform smart contract or off-chain programmed processes.
As used today, the term “smart contracts” refers to code often written in blockchain-based languages
(such as the Ethereum Solidity language) that manage how transactions are processed and written to a
blockchain. The future vision of smart contracts includes a potential replacement for simple or complex
legal documents and transactions., but there are many obstacles to be overcome such as organizational
readiness, unanticipated “follow on” smart contracts, perceived lack of enforceability, potential
evidentiary gaps, regulatory compliance, which may take many years.
Smart contract scripting languages, tools, frameworks and methodologies are all currently at an early
stage of development. The need for a secure scripting language, that is “Turing complete,” as well as
enabling easy smart contract creation is still an unsolved problem in the industry. The capability to
automate complex agreements and, for a trustless runtime environment, to provide a deterministic
programming language, are key technical challenges that are five to 10 years away. In the future,
possibly five to 10 years from now, smart contracts are likely to offer regulators and lawyers an
opportunity for enforcement via evidentiary audit trails of actions being performed, thereby
contributing to existing traditional contractual law. In the meantime, utilities must be developed to
enable all entities who participate in smart-contract-driven processes to be able to validate the flow of
the code, and ensure its performing as intended.
User Advice: Application leaders looking at developing a strategy to deploy smart contracts should:
 Research the emerging platforms, technology, tools and frameworks to determine the level of
resources needed for smart contract development.
 Develop a clear understanding of the different smart contract platforms, programming models,
tools, frameworks and ecosystems, and their limitations and challenges.
 Identify use cases that can derive significant benefit from the core value exchange promised by
smart contracts. This includes being aware that the term “smart contract” is already being
misused and its imminent “safe” use exaggerated.
 Identify integration points with existing processes to determine their impact on core industry
and ecosystem value propositions. Assess the implications for your information management
architecture, legal compliance policies, payment systems, customer service and other core
business processes.
 Determine policies with respect to contractual enforcement and smart contract use. Familiarity
with the technology will also be required by all participants for transactions to succeed.
 Ensure you understand smart contract code that impacts your organization and that you have the
tools to monitor its correct execution.
Business Impact: As stated, smart contracts will develop in different forms and with differing levels of
impact. Many will simply replace existing transactional tracking mechanisms and execution systems
such as used in blockchain-based supply chain management use cases. As such, smart contracts will be
impactful. However, only when truly secure and proven smart contracts develop will smart contracts
have the potential to transform commercial relationships through granular obligation recognition and
secure value transference.
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Augur; Ethereum Foundation; Gnosis; Hyperledger; MONAX; Provable; R3
“Preparing for Smart Contract Adoption”
“Use Smart Contracts and AI to Drive Value From Data Investments”
“Data and Analytics Leaders Need to Focus on Blockchain Smart Contracts Now”
Blockchain in Insurance
Analysis By: David Furlonger; Manav Sachdeva
Definition: Blockchain in insurance refers to a portfolio of insurance activities potentially transformed
by enterprise applications of blockchain technologies. Blockchain-enabled insurance is built on an
expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable blocks of records shared by all participants in a
P2P network. Each block of records is time stamped and references links to previous data blocks.
Anyone with access rights can trace historically a state change in data or an event, belonging to any
participant.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: As with much of the market the hype around insurance-
based solutions for blockchain has abated somewhat from 2018. While there has been heavy
investment, no initiatives have yet produced a blockchain solution in production at scale. Interest
among insurance CIOs to pursue blockchain investigation suggests around 14% will be deploying some
form of blockchain capabilities within the next 12 months and around another 12% in a two-year
period. We must point out that these deployments are not blockchain complete solutions that use all
aspects of blockchain core components, i.e., the vast majority, they lack decentralization and
tokenization. The challenges of extending pilots, proofs of concept into fully fledged production
solutions persist. Generally, insurance CIOs have taken a measured approach. The requirement for
education at senior levels of the enterprise remains a critical priority. Both in terms of the type of
blockchain capabilities being investigated as well as in terms of avoiding lock-in to suppliers or
consortia. Developing skills and hands-on experience with blockchain technologies in innovation labs
will have a knock-on benefit for broader digital transformation initiatives.
Insurance IT leaders are predominantly exploring the use of private/permissioned blockchains in
support of complex transactions and relationships (such as between insurers and reinsurers, or agents,
brokers and insurers) The goal is to improve collaboration and operational efficiency, e.g., by reduced
reconciliation. Some insurers are also pairing smart contracts with blockchain in support of simple
parametric insurance products, such as flight insurance, etc. Smart contracts use in other industry
contexts will also impact how insurance products are priced sold and supported, as they change the
time frames of decision making, payout structures and potentially the legal foundation for the
commercial arrangement. Insurance business leaders need to pay close attention to both the technical
and regulatory implications of their evolving capability.
Blockchain promises to transform the industry in terms of new kinds of monetization of data, customer
convenience via enhanced self-service using smart contracts, integration of blockchain with other
technologies like AI and IoT, e.g., in the context of faster claims management. The lack of cohesive
legal frameworks and the threat of disintermediation enabled by decentralized insurance processes and
business models requires careful analysis by strategic planners and business leaders.
User Advice: Insurance CIOs should:
 Create a strategic evaluation framework for blockchain that includes assessments of technology,
information security, regulatory, use-case applicability and insurance technology (insurtech)
startup provider viability.
 Monitor the evolution of blockchain, in conjunction with other industries to ensure alignment of
innovation initiatives.
 Educate your business peers that define blockchain technology, set appropriate expectations,
and identify future opportunities.
 Develop a framework for engaging with clients and understand how innovative P2P insurance
business models enabled with blockchain will be relevant in their context.
Business Impact: Initial progress with blockchain has appeared in a few key areas within P&C
insurance — cataloging high-value assets (such as art, jewelry and other collectibles), facilitating
transactions between insurers and reinsurers, and supporting parametric insurance products. These
examples, however, are just a few of the many use cases that are being explored (see “How CIOs Can
Identify Viable Blockchain Use Cases in Insurance”). In the longer term, there are opportunities to use
blockchain across all insurance lines of business for documents and transactions that play a pivotal role
in business processes, such as inspections, policies, claims, medical reports and settlements.
Blockchain could also accelerate the use of peer-to-peer insurance and other new business models.
There is also greater scope to explore the intersection of different customer experiences using tokens to
adjust behaviors, for example reducing insurance premiums via the prevention of medical conditions
using reward tokens, or using tokens to change driving habits, etc. The evolution of IoT and AI will
introduce other opportunities in the context of smart city development and the insurance of
infrastructure projects.
While multiple insurance use cases for blockchain are emerging, there are also many use cases that are
being explored in other industries, such as manufacturing, government, healthcare and education.
Blockchain technology will play a pivotal role in the rise of the programmable society. However,
realizing the potential of this technology to radically transform economic interactions will require
answers to critical questions not only for insurers, but for society, governments and enterprises across
industries.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Accenture; B3i; Cognizant; Deloitte; Ethereum; Etherisc; Everledger; IBM; Infosys;
The Institutes RiskStream Collaborative
“What Insurance CIOs Need to Know About Blockchain”
“Innovation Insight for Blockchain Consortia”
“How CIOs Can Identify Viable Blockchain Use Cases in Insurance”
Blockchain in Education
Analysis By: Terri-Lynn Thayer; Jan-Martin Lowendahl
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Blockchain is experiencing hype in higher education as a
solution to a multitude of challenges, including student payments, IP management, digital identity,
diploma verification, lifetime transcript digital credentials, and even as a possible foundation for a new
education platform (such as Woolf University). The greatest interest and pilots center around the
exploration of blockchain as an underpinning of a new digital diploma and microcredential
infrastructure. Institutions in a number of countries have or soon plan to issue blockchain-verifiable
credentials, most using an open standard called Blockcerts. The issuance of blockchain-based
credentials could signal a move from the current institution-centric model to a world where the
credential earner has control of whom they share their credentials with and how. This can better support
the increasing mobility of workers and their desire to acquire credentials throughout their lifetime.
Blockchain-distributed ledger technology can enable the secure and resilient management of this data
and fundamentally transform how credentials are conferred and attested.
While the promise of blockchain is exciting and bold, the work to date has been largely exploratory,
proof of concept, or pilot in nature. The 2019 Gartner CIO Survey revealed that 2% of institutions had
invested or deployed blockchain, with another 18% in some state of experimenting or planning.
However, the percentage of respondents indicating “no interest” grew by 10% over 2018, indicating
that blockchain is peaking. As a result, we have placed blockchain in education on the Peak of Inflated
Expectations this year, and expect it to hurtle down toward the trough in the coming years, taking five
to 10 years to reach the Plateau of Productivity.
User Advice: Determine if there is a legitimate business need for blockchain. If so, then educate senior
university leadership about the benefits. Evaluate vendor offerings and open standards for pros and
cons, as well as vendor lock-in. Select low-risk pilots and proofs of concept. Evaluate the results, and
keep or discard. But, be prepared to migrate off the chosen technology within as little as 18 to 24
months due to anticipated vendor consolidation and a rapidly shifting market. Get involved in industry
standards and governance developments around the most important areas, such as digital credentialing
with blockchain. Otherwise, those who are involved will determine the standards and governance that
impact your organization.
Business Impact: Blockchain applications fall into four types: blockchain disruptor, digital asset
market, efficiency play and record keeper. To date, higher education use cases have clustered around
the last two, while the disruptive power lies in the first two. The most compelling record-keeping use
case for education is for blockchain to become the foundation of a new digital credentialing
infrastructure. However, additional applications are being envisioned that could prove transformational,
such as an education platform that brings educators and learners together without an institution as the
middleman administrator.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: 3Dream Studios; Attores; BEN; Educhain; IOHK; Learning Machine; ODEM;
OpenCerts; Parity; Paymium
“4 Promising and Ambitious Blockchain Initiatives in Higher Education”
“Promising, Practical Blockchain Use Cases for Governments”
“Toolkit: Government Use Cases for Blockchain”
“How to Determine If You Need a Blockchain Project, and If So, What Kind?”
Blockchain in Life Sciences

Analysis By: Michael Shanler; Andrew Stevens
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Blockchain in life science is a variant of distributed
ledger and structured trust protocols contextualized for the pharmaceutical and medical device
industries in which value exchange transactions (in Bitcoin or other token) are sequentially grouped
into blocks. Today, the primary potential applications include serialization, track-and-trace, genomic
and clinical data sharing. It has become an extremely popular topic and strategic conversation with
Gartner clients.
In 2019, there are still very few active blockchain projects within the life science industry. Even though
“blockchain” is a top search term by clients at Gartner, less than 5% of life science organizations have
blockchain in their roadmaps and even fewer are working on funded projects today. Most life science
leaders aren’t clear on blockchain’s role, how it works and its overall positioning across technology
deployments in regulated business units. Gartner clients express uncertainty in blockchain’s fit in
maturing supply chain strategies and are unclear when it will be ready for their own use cases.
The majority of the interest is in blockchain projects for anti-counterfeiting efforts within the
pharmaceutical supply chain. Lower levels of supply chain maturity in the life sciences sector provide
more opportunities for blockchain exploration around applications as the technology matures, but also
create challenges in digital readiness and interoperability. Some clients are exploring concepts where
blockchain would streamline clinical trials, extended regulatory filings, exchange genomic information,
managing intellectual property generation, handle payments to drug distributors, conduct health record
and exchange transactions, and more.
Today, there are very few vendors, IT consultant firms and sponsor organizations that have a deep life
science capability (for example, supply chain and R&D) and that also understand a wide array of
blockchain models and underlying technologies. However, there have been some recent successes with
scaling blockchain pilots for track and trace, verification services, and wholesalers, much of which is
driven by Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).
Blockchain is extremely hyped across many industries, and life science is no different. However, the
industry continues to be slower than others to develop use cases and drive POCs to evaluate the
technology. For that reason, blockchain in this industry is positioned further back on the Hype Cycle
than most other industries. However, it is accelerating through the Peak of Inflated Expectations phase.
We are expecting the crescendo of calls for more blockchain to amplify due to industrywide problems
that blockchain could potentially solve, while clients get more pragmatic about the challenges of the
technology. While the technology shows promise and continues to refine, we expect to see technology
pilots encountering new challenges, while moving into full scale POCs for areas such as counterfeits,
healthcare reimbursement, diversion and parallel trade in the pharma supply chain.
User Advice: CIOs and functional IT leaders supporting blockchain strategies should:
 Recognize that the terminology surrounding blockchain is in flux. This uncertainty masks the
potential suitability of technology solutions to meet business use cases. Consequently, use
extreme caution when interacting with vendors that have ill-defined/nonexistent blockchain
offerings.
 In your planning efforts, ensure you are clearly identifying how the term “blockchain” is being
used and applied, both internally and by providers, to better understand the return on capital
employed, especially compared with existing, proven technologies.
 Take this opportunity to proactively understand the differences between the four implementation
options as part of your organization’s strategic planning efforts, especially as they relate to
specific business use cases and operational risk assessments.
 Closely monitor the evolution of blockchain across industries, including related initiatives, such
as consensus mechanism development, sidechains and distributed ledger, as well as DSCA and
other consortium activities.
 Monitor the vendors that are marketing their solutions. Vendors are currently peddling concepts
with few active proofs of concept.
Business Impact: Blockchain and distributed-ledger concepts are gaining interest because they hold
the promise of transforming industry operating models; however, multiple business use cases are yet to
be proven. This is an opportunity for life science industry stakeholders to learn and to refine existing
models as they evolve. The potential of this technology to radically transform economic interactions
should also raise critical questions across the health value chain, including regulators, suppliers,
patients and consumers, for which there are few clear answers today. As life science companies get
more serious about blockchain, it will become critical to ensure that the right type of governance is
applied to drive innovation, collaboration and more efficient supply chains. The benefits, if the
technology can be applied correctly, are very clear. Blockchain will enable efficiencies for reaching
new customers, extending relationships with supply chain partners, better quality and more complete
links between events, and it should expand the boundaries of traditional life science businesses.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Blockpharma; Blockverify; BloqCube; EncrypGen; EXOCHAIN; Genecoin;
Hyperledger; iSolve; IBM; Nebula Genomics
Recommended Reading: “Predicts 2018: Is It Time for Life Science CIOs to Enable Digital
Monetization?”
“What Healthcare and Life Science CIOs Need to Know About Blockchain”
“Explore Blockchain’s Potential in Life Science Companies’ Track-and-Trace and Serialization
Development Strategies”
Blockchain Rewards/Loyalty Models

Analysis By: Christophe Uzureau; David Furlonger; Ali Merji
Definition: Blockchain reward models are enabled by tokenization and orchestration. Tokenization is
the process of making use of a token of value to be used as the currency for a reward system.
Orchestration refers to the use of blockchain to manage a reward ID, which could be linked to a store of
value in the preferred currency of the client.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Customers expect more flexibility in their ability to use
rewards to fund transactions. Blockchain reward models provide an option to improve the fungibility of
rewards — for example, by enabling a reward program to become a node of the blockchain, allowing
for an exchange/transaction with other programs. Further, blockchain technology could also deliver
much-needed fraud reduction, operational and onboarding benefits. Airlines, whose reward programs
customers consider of high value, are experimenting with blockchain technology, for example,
Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways. American Express is also exploring with Boxed the
opportunity to make reward points interchangeable.
Multiple startups are trying to force entry into the market such as ReChain, BitRewards, Quillhash, Gift
Jeenie and others. However, the current scope of blockchain reward models remains limited, mostly
serving a specific program and dealing with a specific process, and therefore not delivering the
fungibility benefits that customers expect. Limitations in terms of privacy, scalability and performance
of blockchain platforms, as well as their interoperability, also limit the impact of current blockchain
reward models. Wallet security is another challenge. A blockchain-based reward construct will have to
deal with the potential impact on reward issuers’ liability from the volatility of the underlying value
tokens (adding to the challenges from the related lack of liquidity and ubiquity of currently available
blockchain-enabled tokens).
User Advice:
 Make rewards more fungible. Increase their velocity across your business ecosystems by
experimenting with blockchain-enabled tokens.
 Test the impact of the use of tokens for rewards on your profitability by exploring the impact of
a blockchain-enabled token high-volatility scenario on your reward-deferred liability.
 Evaluate tokenization options, including but not limited to blockchain-enabled tokens — for
example, how existing tokenization processes such as those for proximity payments (such as
QR codes, EMVco) could play a role in designing a new reward value chain.
Business Impact: The growing number of reward schemes is putting a strain on the average value of
each point and making reward points increasingly difficult to redeem. New accounting standards put
further strain on reward issuers, see “New Revenue Recognition Rules: How Will They Affect Loyalty
Programs,” PwC. Blockchain technology provides a foundation for an alternative reward tokenization
mechanism to drive the fungibility and velocity of reward points — which could reduce the impact of
the deferred liability under the new accounting standards.
Furthermore, the transparency and traceability enabled via blockchain technology could reduce the
incidence of fraud, and potentially make fraudulent attempts much too expensive to carry out. Another
potential operational benefit of blockchain technology would be to enable easier mergers between
programs, and make terms and conditions more transparent. This would also facilitate onboarding for
new reward issuers, as well as redemption parties, by becoming a node of the underlying blockchain.
This would be especially valuable for smaller reward issuers or redemption parties. They would be able
to navigate from one reward scheme, while limiting the sunk costs associated with creating a reward
program from scratch.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Elements; Motivate; loyyal; LiberActa; Loyela; M20; qiibee; REM Loyalty;
Vexanium
“Blockchain Usage Depends on Blockchain Wallet Platforms”
Ecosystems”
Blockchain in Government
Analysis By: Rick Howard
Definition: Blockchain in government refers to the broad and diverse portfolio of public services that
could be potentially transformed by blockchain-enabled business processes built on an expanding list
of cryptographically signed, irrevocable transactional records. Each immutable record contains a time
stamp and reference links to previous transactions that allow anyone with access rights to trace a
transactional event at any point in its history.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: As with other industries, blockchain has the potential to
reshape government services by providing a transparent, authoritative record of government
transactions and reducing friction across public- and private-sector ecosystems. The Hype Cycle
positioning of blockchain in governments generally (federal, state/regional and local/municipal) has
been determined from the current progress of government blockchain initiatives. Many proofs of
concept and prototypes of blockchain’s disruptive potential are underway at all levels of government
(including smart cities):
 Decentralized identity and identity trust fabric
 Verifying provenance and authenticity of supply chain partners and products
 Enabling authoritative, trusted and immutable social service transactions for real estate
transactions and land registries
 Citizens participating as both consumers and providers to a local power grid
 Streamlining government procurement and sourcing processes
 Providing online permits and registrations.
The Gartner 2019 CIO Survey indicates that 7% of government organizations have already deployed
blockchain/distributed ledger technology, or plan to deploy it within 12 months. In the same survey,
43% of government respondents indicated they had no interest in blockchain, up from 35% in 2018.
This waning interest likely reflects the growing awareness on the part of government CIOs that
challenges posed by blockchain outweigh potential benefits, at present. These challenges include
scalability, lack of international data standards, insufficient attention devoted to governance of large-
scale networks of participants and/or immature technology not ready for deployment at scale.
User Advice: Government CIOs, like CIOs in any other industry, should approach blockchain
technology and blockchain projects from a critical and cautious point of view. Buyer sensibilities and
market hype about blockchain may have cooled over the past year, but products and services are
rapidly evolving. We advise government CIOs to monitor, anticipate and prepare for a blockchain
technology disruption.
 Invest in building thought leadership within IT to inform and educate your executive leadership
(both elected and appointed officials), influence and guide your organization’s adoption, and
help manage and moderate expectations before public announcements of intentions.
 Expect different ecosystem domains (private-sector partners and providers, other tiers of
government) to adopt blockchain on different time scales.
 Engage with internal business units that are likely early adopters (such as those processing
citizen transactions, administering public assets, invested with public trust or engaged in
complex, cross-organizational processes), external technology vendors and blockchain
consortiums. However, use extreme caution to avoid investing in ill-defined or immature
offerings or in use cases that are not well-thought-out.
 Educate your executive team (and other stakeholders, including legislatures and constituents)
about blockchain and the aspects that are most critical or of most interest for your government.
 Sponsor (limited) studies to quantify the financial benefits for the most promising use cases and
track their change over time.
 Prepare the workforce (IT and others) for the impending technology-induced changes.
 Closely track the evolution of blockchain-based technology, including consensus mechanism
development, sidechains and distributed ledgers.
Business Impact: Use cases for blockchain in government present the high likelihood of a
transformational impact on many nonfinancial government functions, such as identities, voting, public
records, procurement and regulatory oversight of supply chain risk. Blockchain can provide a secure,
direct way of exchanging money, intellectual property, and other rights and assets without the
involvement of traditional intermediaries like banks, utility companies and governments. It has the
potential to disrupt the status quo with respect to the historical and highly inefficient business
architecture of government, spanning silos, flattening tiers and inspiring new service delivery models
for governments. Blockchain also promises the potential for early adopters to create new business
models for supply chains, decentralized identity, social and humanitarian services, and voting. It may
also be used to reduce operational risk and transactional costs, increase compliance, and restore faith in
government institutions. Once practical use cases for implementing blockchain are developed and
commercial platforms mature, it is likely that adoption will ultimately be marked and will lead to
radical transformation of some key government functions and services.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Bitfury Group; Deloitte; Ethereum; Factom; Guardtime; Hyperledger; IBM;
Samsung SDS; SecureKey; Symbiont
“Promising and Maturing Blockchain Use Cases in Government”
“Predicts 2019: Blockchain Business”
Sliding Into the Trough
Blockchain Consortium
Analysis By: David Furlonger; Fabio Chesini; Rajesh Kandaswamy
Definition: A blockchain consortium is a group of companies joining forces to foster cooperation by
sharing a ledger and by defining standards and a governance model with the objective of creating a
digital ecosystem to reduce operational risk, minimize costs or enhance customer service.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The scope of a blockchain consortium can include some
or all of the following:
 Developing agreements about sharing a common ledger
 Educating members
 Defining technical and data standards for use
 Building common use cases
 Establishing a governance model
 Fostering a digital ecosystem
Consortia are playing a critical role in blockchain development. Like the blockchain-inspired solutions
they utilize, they have been instrumental in bringing to market different industry solutions to shared
problems. Consortia take many forms. Some align organizations in a genuine collective model to
pursue common goals. Others represent the vision of a single, powerful entity exerting influence over
industry subordinates. By our count, there are more than 100 blockchain-focused consortia, with more
forming each month. The links between consortia members vary widely and include industry,
geography, technology and business affiliations. Many enterprises belong to more than one. Blockchain
consortia have particular credibility as developers of solutions to address an industry or geographic
problem.
There are four types of blockchain consortia:
 Industry-centric: For example, Energy Web Foundation, Blockchain Insurance Industry
Initiative (B3i) and Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA)
 Geography-centric: For example, Financial Blockchain Shenzhen Consortium and Global
Blockchain Business Council
 Technology-centric: For example, Hyperledger, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and R3
 Business-process-centric: For example, for maritime shipping an initiative funded by Lloyd’s
Register and, in the milk industry, an initiative led by Ant Financial.
Unless and until more clarity can be ascertained as to the role and value proposition of consortia, the
business benefits from consortia participation will be hard to attain. Clarity needs to be established
around purpose, IP ownership, funding, governance, accountability, payouts, communication,
technology sourcing and exit strategies. This clarity will take time to appear and will not be consistent
at an industry or geography level.
User Advice: Scores of consortia have formed in just a few years to promote the interests of certain
industries, countries and technology platforms. Market powers with vested interests in protecting
centralized operations and value chains will establish consortia to achieve market dominance and to
promote Trojan horse solutions that lock-in value chain participants. You should:
 Align your organizational strategy in relation to blockchain with the intentions and engagement
model of the consortia in your industry or geography.
 Analyze your prospective consortia in terms of the core blockchain-inspired archetypes of Fear
of Missing Out (FOMO), Trojan Horse, Opportunistic, Evolutionary and Native, as well as
those that you are likely to explore.
 Maximize your consortium opportunities by gaining clarity about the purpose, IP ownership,
funding, governance, accountability, payout structure, external communications, technology
sourcing and exit strategy of relevant consortia.
Business Impact: Some of the benefits members gain include active engagement and communication
with others in their industry, whom they normally view as competitors. For some, this establishes a
spirit of collaboration and creates the potential for a broader level of trust. Expect consortia and the
solutions they develop to evolve along the decentralization continuum. As they mature, consortia will
consider how tokens and tokenization could improve their solutions.
Maturity: Adolescent
Sample Vendors: Alastria; BiTA; Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative (B3i); Hyperledger; R3
Recommended Reading: “Toolkit Blockchain Consortia Initiatives”
Blockchain in Banking and Investment Services

Analysis By: David Furlonger; Rajesh Kandaswamy; Fabio Chesini
Definition: Blockchain in banking and investment services (B&IS) refers to a broad and diverse
portfolio of financial services (FS) that will be transformed by blockchain technologies. Blockchain-
enabled FS are built on an expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable blocks of records
shared by all participants in a P2P network. Each block of records is time stamped and references links
to previous data blocks. Anyone with access rights can trace historically a state change in data or an
event, belonging to any participant.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The banking and investment services industries continue
to experience significant levels of interest from innovators seeking to improve decades old operations
and processes. The industry leads all other industries in terms of POC interest. Yet challenges remain in
moving POC development into mainstream production environments and there is still an underlying
question mark from industry participants about how much of a game-changing technology blockchain
is. Only 7.6% of respondents to the annual Gartner CIO survey suggested it was. That said, nearly 18%
of banking and investment services CIOs say they have or will adopt some form of blockchain
technology within the next 12 months and nearly another 15% within 2 years.
Regulation, security and the inner working of the industry are frictional drags. Although tokens are
starting to be discussed more pragmatically and both institutional and retail interest exists, mainstream
adoption is a long way from reality. Payment, trade finance and KYC/identity initiatives are underway
in many locations. However, decentralization as a topic is barely mentioned. The focus for blockchain
in the industry is clearly slanted to private distributed ledger contexts, either in consortia or among
small collaborative groups of peers.
Positive cost benefit outcomes are hard to discern, but sufficient promise in terms of perceived
efficiency gains is enough to maintain momentum. We still believe technical issues need to be resolved,
standards introduced and more attention paid to the winners and losers in new blockchain-based
relationships determined if the industry is to traverse the trough quicker than currently anticipated.
Many institutions may get lulled into a false promise of limited scope blockchain inspired solutions,
especially via consortia. While these solutions may help protect the centralized business model, the
tipping point to a more decentralized and tokenized context via blockchain complete solutions is likely
to disrupt the traditional industry before the current time to plateau.
User Advice:
 Create a strategic evaluation framework that includes assessments of technology platforms,
information and wallet security, regulatory criteria, use-case applicability/value, interoperability
and startup provider viability.
 Monitor the evolution of blockchain technologies, standards, platforms and consortia. Use the
strategic evaluation framework to identify tipping points for more aggressive adoption.
 Brief business peers on the business outcomes and risks of blockchain capabilities; set
appropriate expectations and identify future opportunities.
 Develop viable blockchain use cases (including those benefiting from decentralization and
tokenization) and validate through such innovative lab work as hackathons, accelerators, etc.
 Use extreme caution when interacting with vendors; verify use of blockchain and production
experience. Avoid vendor lock-in from replatforming exercises and maintain a clear focus on
interoperability.
 Carefully evaluate consortia participation and assess likelihood and timeline of business output
value.
Business Impact: Blockchain has appeared in several key areas within the industry but focused on
centralized/permissioned ledgers. Gartner expects continued developments in the creation and
acceptance of digital (including crypto) currencies from a consumer payment, investment and central
bank perspective. There are long-term opportunities to use blockchain across all lines of business for
document/information management and transactions, which play a pivotal role in such business
processes as mortgage contracts, swaps, custody and collateral management, policies, financial
planning, etc. — subject to forthcoming legal and accounting frameworks. Blockchain could also
accelerate the use of peer-to-peer lending and other fintech business models including capital raising.
Considerable work needs to be completed in nontechnology-related activities in order for blockchain
capabilities to reach the Plateau of Productivity. FS lacks agreement on governance frameworks, and
while there are signs of collaboration via different consortia, many efforts are competing and regulatory
initiatives are not yet fully cohesive. Moreover, even if central utilities develop to improve operational
market effectiveness, each enterprise will need to make significant organizational, technical and
business model changes to either protect their franchise in the long term (e.g., due to decentralization)
or reconcile blockchain technologies with their existing infrastructure.
Sample Vendors: Barclays; BBVA; Citi; Credit Suisse; HSBC; JPMorgan Chase; Nasdaq; Royal Bank
of Scotland; Santander
“Blockchain in Digital Business: What the Board Needs to Know”
Blockchain
Definition: A blockchain is an expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable blocks of records
shared by all participants in a P2P network. Each block of records is time stamped and references link
to previous data blocks. Anyone with access rights can trace historically a state change in data or an
event, belonging to any participant. A public blockchain uses all five core components: immutability,
encryption, broad scale distribution, decentralization and tokenization. Gartner refers to them as
blockchain complete or enhanced solutions.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Gartner believes that blockchain as a concept has five
core elements: immutability, encryption, broad scale distribution, decentralization and tokenization (see
“Understanding the Gartner Blockchain Spectrum and the Evolution of Technology Solutions”).
Enterprise executives exploring this concept continue to experience two core challenges.
First, the immaturity of the technologies underlying blockchain, which prevent adequate levels of scale,
security, usability, etc., with enterprise levels of performance and security.
Second, the transformative nature of blockchain at a process, operating and business model level (in
terms of decentralization and tokenization) implies the need to break and remold decades-old business
processes, relationships and systems and industry structures very hard to accept and implement.
The crash in cryptocurrency prices, the implosion in the ICO market and the challenges enterprises are
experiencing progressing from POC to production systems suggest the market has much further to
evolve technically, and in terms of radicalization of business models before the blockchain concept can
move onto the Plateau of Productivity, and blockchain complete and enhanced solutions become a
reality. That said, significant research and development persists, including work on Ethereum 3.0 and
proof of stake consensus as well as various forms of interoperability. Gartner believes that blockchain
solutions using all five core elements of the concept will be enterprise-ready within five years.
User Advice: Educate senior leaders about the opportunities and threats that blockchain capabilities
introduce. Continue to develop proof of concepts (POC) — especially in the context of market
ecosystems. Identify integration points with existing infrastructures (for example, digital wallets, core
systems of record, customer service applications, security systems, etc.). Analyze the role, maturity and
interdependence of synergistic technologies such as AI and IoT as key levers in the evolution of
blockchain complete and enhanced solutions.
Business Impact: Blockchain complete and enhanced blockchains (see “Understanding the Gartner
Blockchain Spectrum and the Evolution of Technology Solutions”) provide an opportunity for
enterprise leaders to imagine new kinds of business models. In particular, decentralizing commercial
exchange, thereby reducing friction and cost and by monetizing multiple forms of assets. Enterprise
leaders also face a threat from startups and businesses that can use the five core elements of the
blockchain concept to disrupt and disintermediate markets and industries by offering capabilities like
identity portability, trustless interactions, smart contracts and new forms of value exchange. These
opportunities and threats will evolve over the next 10 years in varying degrees affording strategic
planners an opportunity to proactively address opportunities and threats. Regulation will play a
significant role is the speed of evolution — recent developments around the framing of compliance for
token use and ICOs are to be watched, as well as general consumer behavior toward and acceptance of
multiple forms of assets. Progression with identity management will change the power structure in
many industries and should be viewed through a business as well as technology lens.
Sample Vendors: Algorand; Block.one; Cardano; Ethereum; NEO; Zilliqa
Distributed Ledgers
Definition: Distributed ledgers are an expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable
transactional records shared by all network participants. Each record is time-stamped and linked to
previous transactions. Anyone with access rights can trace the history of a transactional event
belonging to any participant. Distributed ledgers can be built on top of relational databases, blockchains
or both. Those built in a private context use centralized controls and lack tokenization capabilities.
Gartner refers to them as “blockchain-inspired solutions.”
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The concept of distributed ledgers has led to the
development of blockchain-inspired solutions (see “Understanding the Gartner Blockchain Spectrum
and the Evolution of Technology Solutions”). Market adoption has increased since last year. Around
11% of the CIOs responding to the 2019 Gartner CIO Survey indicate that they are deploying
distributed ledgers in 2019, with 60% expecting to implement something within three years. That said,
40% of CIOs responding to the survey indicate no interest in the technologies.
Progressing from POC to production-ready enterprise systems remains difficult. Standards and
enterprise-scale capabilities are evolving, but distributed ledgers are still not adoptable in a mission-
critical at-scale context, unless merely to replicate existing legacy messaging and data management
solutions. Distributed ledger value propositions need to be more clearly established. Enterprises need to
understand and evaluate the operational and competitive ramifications resulting from implementing
centralized solutions. These include the potential for vendor lock-in as well as the risk of acquiescing to
digital giants and MNC Trojan horse initiatives to reinforce market positions by centrally controlling
the terms and conditions of doing business. For the distributed ledger concept to escape the trough
within the anticipated time horizon, enterprises will need to improve their digital maturity and move
beyond considering the distributed ledger as merely a means of optimizing legacy systems and
processes.
User Advice:
 Use clear language and definitions in internal discussions about how distributed ledgers may or
may not improve existing systems and processes.
 Understand the use of centralized architectures in deploying distributed ledgers as a concept.
 Ensure that nontechnical executives understand the differences in business outcomes, especially
the potential role of digital giants and MNCs to assume larger control over the markets in which
they operate.
 Ensure sufficient innovation capacity is applied to the evolution of distributed ledgers and
blockchains outside your immediate industry. Closely monitor distributed ledger technologies
and blockchain platforms, including data management, smart contracts, security, developer
toolkits and identity management.
 Identify integration points with existing legacy infrastructures. Evaluate the total cost of
ownership, especially against existing database and messaging systems, and be very cautious
about vendor lock-in and merely replatforming the enterprise.
 Recognize that blockchain value exchange interoperability differs from the typical information
exchange interoperability. In addition to message format and protocol translation, the former
must implement measures to protect against double spending when transactions are posted from
one blockchain platform to another.
Business Impact: Distributed ledger concepts hold the promise to transform industry operating models
via automation and economies of scale to improve efficiency. Consortia are continuing to push for
collaborative interactions that can address issues of reconciliation. But, multiple business use cases
have yet to be proven, and accurate value outcomes have yet to be calculated. It is unclear whether
current approaches for using distributed ledgers provide sufficient differentiation compared with
existing, proven messaging and data technologies. Clearly, interoperability of both technologies and
processes is a significant requirement. However, issues of confidentiality need to be overcome if
industry peers are to evolve usage.
Sample Vendors: Coin Sciences (MultiChain); Digital Asset; Hyperledger (Fabric); Hyperledger
(Sawtooth Lake); Lisk Foundation; Quorum; R3; Ripple; RSK
ICOs
Analysis By: David Furlonger; Rajesh Kandaswamy; Christophe Uzureau
Definition: Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are a form crowdfunding used by startup ventures. ICOs use a
blockchain-based value token, often layered on top of a platform such as Ethereum, to represent value
and/or to drive utility. The token does not convey ownership in the company (which may be a nonprofit
organization), but it can convey certain voting rights, depending on the scheme. The tokens sold
through ICOs are not regulated today as securities by an entity such as the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC).
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: ICOs are capital-raising mechanisms that have gained a
high level of visibility. Their popularity has risen rapidly in the recent past among blockchain and
cryptocurrency startups. According to data from icodata.io and CoinCodex, around $15 billion in ICO
capital has been raised from 2014 to date.
Most of the ICO activity is enabled by the smart-contract capability of the Ethereum platform,
including its ERC20 standard API for tokens. A relatively unskilled developer can support a new ICO
launch by using a library of smart contracts in conjunction with software frameworks, such as Truffle
and OpenZeppelin Solidity. This has had a synergistic effect on Ethereum currency (ETH) and the
underlying platform. Speculative interest in cryptocurrencies is a primary cause for ICO growth as well
as fear of missing out on a potential next Google or Facebook. Note that value tokens in blockchain-
based applications do not have to be solely for crowdfunding and speculative activity. Instead, tokens
can provide a valuable function in the application flow by managing resource consumption, data,
identity and reporting on application activity — independent of any kind of monetary transaction or
marketplace activity.
The cryptocurrency crash and resultant cooling of the ICO market, in the fourth quarter of 2018, have
led to many startups either failing or having to change their approaches as the anticipated financing
dried up. According to tokens-economy.com blog, the amounts raised have plummeted. But, the
mechanism for decentralizing finance is not likely to disappear as innovators continue to disrupt the
financial services industry and seek ways to propel the digital transformation of businesses.
ICO listings can be found on ICO List and ICO Calendar.
Note: None of our advice or insight should be construed as legal, investment or financial advice.
Gartner is not a registered investment advisor or broker-dealer and does not provide advice on
investments or securities, or offer legal opinion. Nothing contained in any Gartner publication or
teleconference should be construed as legal advice or a recommendation to make, or not make, any
specific investments or to buy, sell or hold securities.
User Advice: Only a few of the early ICOs had an associated contract that required the issuing
company to produce a product. The result was that many ICOs produced nothing. Even legitimate ideas
promoted by sincere entrepreneurs can fall prey to ICO manipulation, particularly “pump and dump”
campaigns by investors who talk up the coin price and then dump their coins on the market, causing a
crash in value.
ICOs are not well-regulated, increasing the risk of operating in this market. The SEC has issued
comments where, basically, it considers ICOs and simple agreements for future tokens as securities in
the context of securities laws. Other regulatory agencies are following suit. However, in a global
context, legality is, at present, poorly defined and lacking cohesion. Adoption of oversight, such as
SEC Rule 100, could improve the level of comfort for mainstream investors to take ICOs seriously. An
ICO may be funded in hard dollars, may be partially funded or may be minimally funded. In the latter
cases, the ICO may partly, or grossly, overstate the value of the cryptocurrency. These models lead to
extreme volatility in the ICO market, the companies and the technology itself.
The following are a few general guidelines:
 Educate your colleagues and peers by stressing the need to move beyond blockchain tokens as a
means of fiat token replacement.
 Separate the value between security and utility tokens as you evaluate them. Security tokens
represent an equity investment in a company, analogous to buying a share of stock in an initial
public offering (IPO). Utility tokens, by contrast, purportedly reserve a space in line for the
holder to access a technology solution.
 Think beyond the 2018 utility token crash by experimenting with the decentralization of finance
as security tokens get some regulatory recognition.
Business Impact: The impact of ICOs on financial decentralization is captured in the sheer volume of
companies that have acquired capital through blockchain-enabled crowdfunding. The challenge is
revealed in the high rate of failure of ICO-backed ventures. An analysis by researchers at Boston
College ( http://fortune.com/2018/07/10/initial-coin-offering-startups-live-fast-dies-young-icos/) shows
that 56% of startups that issue ICOs go out of business within four months of finalizing the token sales.
This isn’t surprising, given that a larger majority of startups with seed or venture funding fail to secure
more financing and go out of business. However, the accelerated timeline raises questions about
whether these companies had a sufficiently rigorous idea to support financing.
Sample Vendors: Blockchain Capital; Digital Currency Group; Ethereum; Pantera Capital; SPiCE
Ecosystems”
“The Future of Money”
“The Nexus of Forces Is Reshaping the Future of Money”
Cryptocurrencies
Analysis By: David Furlonger; Christophe Uzureau; Ali Merji
Definition: Cryptocurrencies are digitally native currencies that attempt to replace fiat and related
tokens, and can also be used to create new forms of assets. They rely on a decentralized, encrypted
peer-to-peer network for creation and exchange verification.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Cryptocurrencies come in multiple forms. These include
utility tokens that are intended as a crowdfunding method to finance the development of a product or
service and access mechanism to the resulting solution. They also include security tokens that give their
holders a share in the issuing entity, in the same way a stockholder has a share in a publicly-traded
company. And there are stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies whose value is pegged to a second
asset (a fiat currency, for example), a publicly-traded commodity, or to another cryptocurrency.
Volatility in the cryptocurrency market continues. The “winter” experienced as prices crashed in late
2018 had implications beyond mere token valuation. Crowdfunding for startups was impacted, projects
that were previously underway stalled or had to be reimagined. The crash also led regulators to work on
and offer more coherent and cohesive ways to manage the market without damaging the opportunity to
experiment and innovate. For example, trading licenses for exchanges are becoming the norm in many
regions of the world to promote KYC.
However, in January, Coinbase has suggested that between 70,000 to 100,000 new trading accounts are
being created daily on its platform (although this doesn’t necessarily correlate with sustained use).
Multiple technical and operational issues need to be addressed, and issues of customer adoption. These
include better security, trading tools, software usability, wealth and institutional asset management
services etc.
The recent interest in loyalty and rewards programs, as well as for gaming, is generating more
awareness of the potential for cryptocurrency, which will contribute to growth. But consumers are
notorious for wanting multiple forms of payment and the infrastructure needed to support day-to-day
use of the tokens is not close to being sufficiently widespread. Multiple payment and alternative
currencies are available for banked and unbanked individuals to transact. It is clear from our research
that context, fungibility (of token and wallet), cost, risk and ease of use are essential components
determining adoption speed. Gartner consumer data also indicates a lack of broad awareness and sense
of trust in cryptocurrencies. We believe that these issues may improve as cryptocurrencies are
incorporated more into mainstream enterprise use and gain credibility at a national and regulatory level.
User Advice: As the Blockchain Society develops, cryptocurrencies will increasingly be used for
specific customer use cases. Not one cryptocurrency will dominate the market, but there likely will not
be more than a handful that have any significant activity or value proposition in the immediate future.
 Educate your colleagues and peers by stressing the need to move beyond the role of
cryptocurrencies as means of fiat replacement.
 Monitor the development and adoption of cryptocurrencies to assess the likelihood of customer
adoption and usage as part of payment activity, rewards/loyalty and retail interactions.
 Monitor the evolution of the regulatory environments, locally and globally as regulators are
eying each other’s to understand the implications of cryptocurrency experimentations.
 Discuss with customers the perceived value proposition for their use of these cryptocurrencies
to better inform the development of products, loyalty schemes and partnerships.
 Assess employees’ use of these currencies to protect the enterprise against operational risk in
the event of unintended compliance problems. Update compliance and risk policies and seek
external legal advice on their use.
 Plan (technology and business roadmaps) for the potential integration of cryptocurrencies with
mainstream mediums of exchange — for example, review changes to transaction execution,
treasury management and risk systems.
 If you are building a business or solution on a blockchain platform, strive to generalize your
solution architecture so that it is not dependent on any specific cryptocurrency.
Business Impact: Cryptocurrencies are starting to feature more in the strategic conversations of
clients’ approaches to blockchain. Senior executives are slowly starting to recognize the importance of
analyzing holistically different kinds of digital assets used in the ecosystem — this includes fiat-based,
complementary-based and processed-based assets. Cryptocurrencies can be used in a variety of
different customer contexts, offering insight into behaviors and nudging customers in certain directions
as part of reward schemes or in the form of government schemes like social credit (e.g., in China). If
interbank or intercompany cryptocurrency transactions move out of POC phases, it can only benefit the
market as a whole. CIOs must conduct proofs of concepts to better understand the nature of
cryptocurrency use cases. Understanding the potential for different offerings in the form of information
and security brokerage, trusted advisory services, identity management, payment gateways and so on is
critical. If decentralized business models take root, these tokens will form the backbone of a new
economy. IoT and the use of smart contracts will propel that eventuality for example through the
development of smart cities.
Sample Vendors: Bitcoin.com; Block.one; Dash; Ethereum; Litecoin; NEM; Ripple; Stellar; Tether;
Zcash
Ecosystems”
Digital Asset Exchanges

Analysis By: David Furlonger; Christophe Uzureau; Ali Merji
Definition: A digital asset exchange is an electronic marketplace for the P2P exchange of native and
digital representations goods and services. Exchanges can be conducted using cash payments, digital
tokens (e.g., air miles and loyalty points), cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin), etc.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: While digital exchanges have operated for several years,
the evolution of cryptocurrency-specific exchanges continues to dominate the broader marketplace in
terms of news focus. There are now around 256 exchanges listed on CoinMarketCap alone (and
increase from 190 in 2013) and over 2160 different types of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin still maintains
over 57.1% as of May 2019 of the total tradable market. There are several challenges impacting
growth, including type of transaction method, customer onboarding, lack of fungibility, fees,
transaction limits, regulation, security and limited functionality (e.g., margin trading, short selling and
derivatives). Another emerging concept is a decentralized exchange, an exchange that facilitates trades
of digital commodities (currently mostly Ethereum-based) using blockchain technologies instead of a
central actor. 0x and EtherDelta are initiatives in this regard.
Broad-scale consumer adoption and use beyond speculation is also not yet apparent, although recent
data from a Fidelity report may indicate changes to the institutional investor mindset. The
Intercontinental Exchange was reported to have been buying various crypto-related business assets to
add to its trading platform Bakkt. SIX, the Swiss stock exchange, has announced it is considering
launching its own tokens. It is likely we will continue to see a merging of crypto-centric startups and
legacy digital exchange providers as the assets classes gain broader recognition. Corporate familiarity
with loyalty and rewards programs as well as the existence of bartering and couponing will start to
overlap into the cryptocurrency space, providing substantially larger opportunities for growth.
Regulation will also help formalize the markets, providing stability and credibility.
(Note: “Digital Asset Exchange” is the new term for “Digital Commodity Exchange” from prior Hype
Cycles. Gartner observes that these exchanges are used for many assets and not all of them are
commodities and hence the change in the name.)
User Advice: Evaluate the suitability of creating partnerships with retail, luxury goods and
transportation companies, e.g., for co-product placement. Assess the viability of incorporating reward
schemes into financial planning/cash management applications. Prepare your systems and processes to
allow multitender transactions. Combine multiple types of points with a given payment instrument to
make a transaction.
Investigate the use of mobile devices to support couponing and incentive mechanisms, including digital
marketing, and in the use of mobile (via proximity communication) to support reward collection and
redemption. If the rewards are tradable and convertible, the role of mobile increases as a loyalty point
management platform.
Evaluate the IT and business integration requirement for interfacing with different kinds of digital
exchanges. Assess process capabilities, and impact on product, service and cash flows.
Appraise the pooling of intraenterprise loyalty schemes to maximize customer experience and how
secondary markets can be used via exchange services.
Evaluate integrating loyalty points, cryptocurrencies and other digital assets into digital wallet
solutions. Assess their location from a jurisdictional standpoint, e.g., in terms of exchange operations
and co-financing product/service purchases with standard payment mechanisms and loyalty schemes.
Introduce information analytics and advisory services for loyalty schemes and tokens, or partner with
the exchanges to do so.
Examine the risk factors for your enterprise and your customers in transacting on crypto exchanges,
and the regulatory compliance, accounting and taxation requirements.
Business Impact: The evolution of P2P business, the sharing economy and blockchain make digital
asset exchanges attractive to individuals, and may offer businesses additional revenue opportunities.
Risks concern the credibility or stability of the marketplace, potential issues of storage (for physical
goods and information) and custody. The complexity of the market and potential taxation/legal issues
(especially for cryptocurrencies), may inhibit mainstream development and use. Asset tokenization
enables companies to monetize and capture value that would otherwise be lost. New services could
then be offered, such as token trading and asset/cash-back schemes. This would enhance the liquidity
mechanisms and fungibility for clients previously locked into a proprietary scheme. It may also address
the issue of preloading bank cards or online accounts with loyalty points. The emergence of the Internet
of Things (IoT) will offer additional opportunities for monetizing via tokens, information and assets
currently locked in the traditional economy. Planning for the programmable economy will be critical
over the next five years.
Maturity: Mature mainstream
Sample Vendors: Binance; Bitfinex; Cardpool; Coinbase; Huobi Group; Kraken; Points; Poloniex;
ShapeShift
Recommended Reading: “Blockchain-Based Transformation: A Gartner Trend Insight Report”
Appendixes
Figure 3. Hype Cycle for Blockchain Business, 2018
Hype Cycle Phases, Benefit Ratings and Maturity Levels
Table 1: Hype Cycle Phases


A breakthrough, public demonstration, product launch or other event
Innovation Trigger
generates significant press and industry interest.
During this phase of overenthusiasm and unrealistic projections, a flurry of

well-publicized activity by technology leaders results in some successes,
Peak of Inflated
but more failures, as the technology is pushed to its limits. The only
Expectations
enterprises making money are conference organizers and magazine
publishers.
Because the technology does not live up to its overinflated expectations, it

Trough of Disillusionment rapidly becomes unfashionable. Media interest wanes, except for a few
cautionary tales.
Focused experimentation and solid hard work by an increasingly diverse

range of organizations lead to a true understanding of the technology’s
Slope of Enlightenment
applicability, risks and benefits. Commercial off-the-shelf methodologies
and tools ease the development process.
The real-world benefits of the technology are demonstrated and accepted.

Tools and methodologies are increasingly stable as they enter their second
and third generations. Growing numbers of organizations feel comfortable
Plateau of Productivity
with the reduced level of risk; the rapid growth phase of adoption begins.
Approximately 20% of the technology’s target audience has adopted or is
adopting the technology as it enters this phase.
Years to Mainstream
The time required for the technology to reach the Plateau of Productivity.
Adoption
Source: Gartner (March 2008)
Table 2: Benefit Ratings


Enables new ways of doing business across industries that will result in major
Transformational
shifts in industry dynamics
Enables new ways of performing horizontal or vertical processes that will

High
result in significantly increased revenue or cost savings for an enterprise
Provides incremental improvements to established processes that will result in

Moderate
increased revenue or cost savings for an enterprise
Slightly improves processes (for example, improved user experience) that will
Low
be difficult to translate into increased revenue or cost savings
Table 3: Maturity Levels


Embryonic  In labs  None
 First generation
 Commercialization by vendors
 High price
Emerging  Pilots and deployments by industry leaders
 Much customization
 Maturing technology capabilities and

 Second generation
process understanding
Adolescent  Less customization
 Uptake beyond early adopters
 Proven technology  Third generation

Early mainstream  Vendors, technology and adoption rapidly  More out-of-box
evolving methodologies
 Robust technology
 Several dominant
Mature  Not much evolution in vendors or
vendors
mainstream technology
 Not appropriate for new developments  Maintenance revenue

Legacy  Cost of migration constrains replacement focus
 Rarely used  Used/resale market only

Obsolete
Document Revision History

 Hype Cycle for Blockchain Business, 2018 - 27 July 2018
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Hype Cycle for Blockchain Business, 2019

Published 30 July 2019 - ID G00390391

The Hype Cycle

Blockchain for Lead Generation

Blockchain for Advertising

Blockchain Data Exchanges

Blockchain for Customer Service

Decentralized Autonomous Organization

Blockchain-Based ACH Payments

Blockchain and IoT

Blockchain Business Models

Blockchain in Media and Entertainment

Blockchain in Oil and Gas

Cryptocurrency Custody Services

Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Regulation

Blockchain in Supply Chain

Blockchain in Life Sciences

Blockchain Rewards/Loyalty Models

Sliding Into the Trough

Blockchain in Banking and Investment Services

Digital Asset Exchanges

Table 1: Hype Cycle Phases

During this phase of overenthusiasm and unrealistic projections, a flurry of

Because the technology does not live up to its overinflated expectations, it

Focused experimentation and solid hard work by an increasingly diverse

The real-world benefits of the technology are demonstrated and accepted.

Source: Gartner (March 2008)

Table 2: Benefit Ratings

Enables new ways of performing horizontal or vertical processes that will

Provides incremental improvements to established processes that will result in

Source: Gartner (March 2008)

Table 3: Maturity Levels

 Maturing technology capabilities and

 Proven technology  Third generation

 Not appropriate for new developments  Maintenance revenue

 Rarely used  Used/resale market only

Document Revision History

Recommended by the Authors

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