Cryptocurrency fever gave rise to the fever by the blockchain. The underlying technology in bitcoin, Ethereum or Ripple seemed to be a true jewel that raised revolutions beyond financial ones, and in fact, many bet heavily on the chain of blocks for future projects.

The word became one of the favorites in the presentations of financial results among the big companies in the industry, but it seems that expectations have relaxed and that hype that generated the blockchain has declined significantly. Be careful, because that does not mean that we can see value projects in the near future with the blockchain as the absolute protagonist.

Companies no longer speak (so much) of the blockchain

A year ago the managers of the big companies became obsessed with the blockchain because they could not ignore it anymore. It was the buzzword in technology, but its ramifications had already reached all kinds of industries: from transport and logistics to courier or music, of course, to finance.

Blockchain Mentions

Announcements of projects focused on blockchain were constant at the end of 2017. The Spanish banking and middle IBEX 35 climbed on the bandwagon without any we had just to know why, and businesses around the world repeated the mantra on its financial results: the Blockchain had a spectacular future in those companies. The European Union, by the way, also gave wings to that hype.

For some time now, however, we have seen little on a practical level regarding successful implementations of this type of technology, and in many cases, it is difficult to measure the real impact of the projects that have been launched.

The cryptocurrency phenomenon triggered interest in the chain of blocks, but it seems that the fall in the value of these virtual currencies – and of the ICOs, which largely failed – has had a direct effect on those initiatives that seek to bring about the revolution based on different blockchains applied to all types of industries.

The revolutionary blockchain still does not demonstrate how revolutionary it is

This has caused a decline in the mention of the word blockchain significantly in recent months. In the first and second quarter of the year more than 150 companies in the S & P 500 index mentioned that term in their financial results announcements, but in the last presentations that number is below the 35 companies.

The hype seems to be over, but the promise is still there

That partial forgetfulness on the part of the industry does not mean that the value of the blockchain is not huge: the advantages offered by technology like this are very interesting in many areas, and there are companies that do seem to be clear that the blockchain can mark a before and after in certain scenarios.

As indicated in Axios, IBM is one of the companies that continues to have special confidence in the chain of blocks. In the blue giant there are 1,500 people working on projects related to the blockchain, and for example, they have launched a project to manage the traceability of certain vegetables in the Walmart chain.

As in other cases, the project is more of a pilot than a massive initiative, but it is a good example of how some companies are seeing the potential of this technology in the industry. It remains to be seen that these projects really add value to those who put them in motion (and to end users), but it certainly seems that the expectation generated by the blockchain has relaxed.