Why Blockchain May Never Benefit Corporations

Joe Weisenthal (0:11)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast.

Tracy Alloway (0:16)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:18)

So Tracy, you know one way that this year, actually this month in particular is very different than this same month last year?

Tracy Alloway (0:27)

Wait, it's the month of November. So November versus October?

Joe Weisenthal (0:34)

No, no, no, November 2018 versus November 2017

Tracy Alloway (0:38)

Oh, I know, it has to be Bitcoin, surely, right? Everyone was obsessed with Bitcoin late last year.

Joe Weisenthal (0:46)

Yeah, November last year was when I think this sort of like mania that was already in place for several months really turned into an incredible, just absolute euphoria, particularly around Thanksgiving time. But at this time last year already, I think basically all anyone was talking about was Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Tracy Alloway (1:09)

Right, and I think we reached the record for Bitcoin $18,000 or something. Was that in December?

Joe Weisenthal (1:16)

Yeah, I think middle of December.

Tracy Alloway (1:18)

Now no one cares, right?

Joe Weisenthal (1:19)

Pretty much, nobody cares. Nothing is happening, it appears. The prices don't swing around like they used to. All the speculators have probably moved on to marijuana stocks.

And it's just, it couldn't feel more different, the overall environment surrounding cryptocurrencies and all that than it did exactly a year ago.

Tracy Alloway (1:39)

Right. And I don't know how many of our listeners ever went to industry conferences where people would talk about Bitcoin.

But the trope, the cliche that you always heard there was, oh, I don't believe in Bitcoin, but I do believe in the underlying technology blockchain.

Joe Weisenthal (1:55)

Yes.

Tracy Alloway (1:56)

People are still saying that.

Joe Weisenthal (1:57)

Yes, people still say that.

And they might even be more confident in their assertions today because of the sort of diminished cryptocurrency bubble and like, oh, there's still something here. We're sure of it. We don't really know exactly how it's gonna work yet, but we know that the underlying technology is gonna have all these great applications like tracking shipping or tracking tomatoes or verifying the provenance of pharmaceuticals or diamonds. And so people continue to search for that problem that the technology could theoretically be helpful in addressing.

Tracy Alloway (2:34)

Yeah, my favorite project that I heard most recently was Walmart putting lettuce on the blockchain in order to track quality control.

Joe Weisenthal (2:45)

Exactly. But the question is, do you really need a blockchain to track lettuce? And I've always been kind of skeptical of that or track tomatoes or ships or anything like that.

Or is this really just a great buzzword where if you're sort of like a senior level executive somewhere and you mention conferences and you want to be at a conference and you want to sound smart on a panel, you want to have something going to say, oh yes, of course, we're actively working to incorporate blockchain. This is a pretty open debate because for as much talk about all the people saying, blockchain, not Bitcoin, there doesn't seem to be many actual practical examples yet in the field where someone is clearly demonstrating the value of the technology.

Tracy Alloway (3:32)

No, and a lot of the projects that we did hear about have been quietly shelved, or at least there hasn't been a lot of tangible progress on them or progress that we are able to see.

Joe Weisenthal (3:42)

Exactly right. So then the question is, why haven't we seen more progress and why haven't we seen some sort of tangible connection between what people talk about at conferences to how businesses actually operate and today's guest will hopefully shed some light on this question on the Odd Lots podcast.

This week, we have Angus Champion de Crespigny. He used to be a blockchain leader at EY and help companies learn about blockchain technology. Now he is off doing independent stuff in the crypto world and he has a lot of thoughts on blockchain and how it might or might not be of benefit to companies. And so he has experience and looking forward to getting his perspective. Angus, thank you very much for joining us.

Angus Champion de Crespigny (4:29)

Thank you very much for having me.

Joe Weisenthal (4:30)

So how many conferences have you been at where someone said blockchain is the interesting thing, not Bitcoin?

Angus Champion de Crespigny (4:38)

I could not possibly count. And it's funny when you mentioned November last year, there was a glorious two week period where what I did was cool.

Prior to that, no one had any idea what Bitcoin was. After that, people very quickly found someone else to talk to because they were sick of hearing about it. But it's been a number of years. And I've got to admit, I was at one point a blockchain, not Bitcoin person. But as you sort of alluded to, when you strip away all of the hype, how does this technology actually help? And I've founded my work. It generally doesn't.