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By Rob Viglione
In the hyper accelerated world of technology, it is natural for critics of Web3 to ask why blockchain technology, with its much-heralded power and promise, has experienced such an obvious failure to gain traction at the enterprise level. Scant adoption among the Fortune 500 and high-profile shutterings of blockchain projects like IBM’s Tradelens certainly haven’t helped matters.
If we look back, we can see that these growing pains are actually a natural part of any major tech trend. For Web3 optimists, any setbacks are mere blips in the march toward the inevitable tipping point of widespread adoption. Blockchain vendors continue forging ahead at full speed, hell-bent to avoid becoming a novel chapter in the annals of tech history by proving blockchain to be the foundational computing standard for generations to come.
Blockchain Meets the Real-World
Unlike cryptocurrencies, many of which are excessively driven by speculation, blockchain solutions for the enterprise actually have to do things that are meaningful. They have to be useful, and this is a much higher bar.
We have seen various attempts to bring utility to blockchain, but perhaps the fundamental misstep of the early enterprise blockchain vendors was not appreciating the realities on the ground. Taking a multi-faceted technology like blockchain from the white board into the real world means confronting a single, inconvenient truth: The real world is complex. Entrenched processes, regulations, threats to existing jobs, confused buyers, agonizingly unpredictable sales cycles, and other challenges have only heightened the bar that blockchain vendors must clear.
So, how does the industry bridge this divide? For starters, Web3 vendors must first gain a clear understanding of the problem they’re trying to solve and for whom they’re solving it. Product teams must be empathetic to what an IT buyer must feel when evaluating a new technology like blockchain.
By striving to understand a defined segment, talking to prospective buyers, consulting with industry experts, and acquiring specialized knowledge of the space, Web3 vendors can better relate to their prospective buyers and craft solutions that map more directly to the buyer’s challenges.
The Tools of Tomorrow, Today
Armed with the gift of hindsight, today’s Web3 platforms have a sharper focus than their predecessors related to the pitfalls of selling to the business buyer. Most have toned down the lofty promises and jargony pitches, understanding that blockchain’s ultimate way in may be through the side door, enhancing existing Web2 systems where blockchain makes sense. An evolutionary approach versus a revolutionary one, but one that still upholds the promise of making the world faster, fairer, and more economical for everyone.
So what are these blockchain tools of tomorrow? They are ones that the Web3 crowd is intimately familiar with, but that remain mostly undiscovered to the world at large.
As an established vendor in the space, we are big fans of zero-knowledge (ZK) technology. With a sizable team of dedicated cryptographers, we believe the business opportunities for this unique proving mechanism at the enterprise level are vastly abundant as they allow companies to provide validation of claims without disclosing the underlying details. Proof without giving up your power.
The next area for us is not new for the industry but is foundationally necessary for any blockchain vendor with enterprise ambitions – the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Like many vendors in the space, we are big believers in the power of Ethereum and of side chain compatibility. Our recently launched EVM opens up a world of possibilities to engage with the Ethereum network and all that it offers. We believe smart contracts will be the underlying mechanism that ultimately drives most enterprise use cases.
Currently, our smart contracting team is actively building libraries of off-the-shelf smart contracts that can be readily used for escrow payments, supply chain traceability, and a wide range of other use cases relevant to any number of vertical industries. The more we build, the more we realize the near-infinite number of possibilities for this technology.
As exciting as ZK technology and smart contracts are, there is a third component that cannot be overlooked and is perhaps most underappreciated: UI/UX design. It is easy for us Web3 natives to go deep down the rabbit hole when discussing the technology, but to reach ubiquity means making the solutions accessible to the average Web2 user.
There is a bit of a magic revelation in the sales process, when an enterprise buyer sees a blockchain application for the first time and immediately realizes it looks, well, pretty much like any Web2 app. The trepidation borne out of trying to grasp the headiness of Web3 suddenly dissipates in a single, disarming moment when the fear leaves the room and the familiar sets the buyer’s mind at ease. These are the moments that we live for because we know that by solving even the smallest challenge, we are moving the ball forward for the entire industry.
Author Bio
Rob Viglione is the co-founder and CEO of Horizen Labs, as well as the co-founder of the public blockchain Horizen. Rob holds a Ph.D. in Finance, an MBA in Finance and Marketing, and a Bachelor's in Physics & Applied Mathematics. Previously he has been an advisor to Aave, HeroEngine, and was a U.S. Air Force officer and scientist.
Disclaimer
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