Monday, October 31, 2016

Blockchain and the technology diffusion cycle

Blockchain
Blockchain is all over, blockchain is that the hot stuff, blockchain, blockchain, blockchain…”

It feels like everyone is talking concerning blockchain all the time.. however is it extremely the case?

When I conducted my analysis on blockchain for trading, I interviewed each blockchain specialists and other people whose jobs square measure probably to be compact the foremost by the implementation of the technology in capital markets - i'm talking principally concerning sales and traders (having worked as a broker for many years, they unsurprisingly kind my main skilled network!). the thought was to urge a holistic non-biased vision and compare divergent opinions. you'll see Pine Tree State coming: most of them barely detected concerning blockchain and its potential implications for his or her jobs. For those that recognize Pine Tree State, you'll suppose i'm exaggerating as usual! however, if you probably did your own investigation you'd be surprised!

 In reality if you think that concerning it, it ought to be foreseeable. I actually have mammary gland into the idea of technology diffusion cycles and this can be what I found:

  1.  The blockchain technology associate degreed its applications square measure still at an early stage of the S-curves for technological improvement and technology diffusion, which means that the speed of performance contains a giant space for improvement;
  2.  per the Abernathy - Utterback Model, the blockchain technology remains in its fluid part, which means that there's an absence of clear plan of the potential applications for the technology;
  3. The additional folks square measure educated on the topic, the faster the diffusion... (and price savings achievement). thus let's cite it some more!

 Look at the life theme of a technology: a brand new technology 1st emerges, then evolves in terms of performance improvement’s rate; it's adopted by one or many companies and once more progresses in terms of rate of diffusion. Finally, it becomes obsolete and is being replaced by different technologies. This path is understood by technology flight.

 S-Curves in Technological improvement

 The S-Curve of technological improvement of a brand new technology describes its improvement performance against the number of efforts and cash endowed during this technology. it's attainable to match performance with time; but, it usually happens that the hassle isn't constant and so actuality relationship between performance and energy is biased.

The S-Curve is supposed as a result of it always portrays a curve in a very S form.

Unfortunately i could not transfer the figure however the S-curve shows that simply when the emergence of the technology, the performance is low whereas the hassle endowed in time and cash is growing terribly slowly. Indeed, the adoption of a tumultuous new technology like the DLT 1st needs to be basically understood. solely companies that embrace a full comprehension of the technology would need to adopt it.

Education takes time. Moreover, companies would need to assess the technology before finance time, money, capabilities and skills into it. In these early stages, only a few assessments are completed. during this respect, the blockchain technology remains at associate degree early stage. i might say that it's notably true for buy-side players, United Nations agency square measure terribly conservative and slow to catch up with innovation.

Once the technology has been understood and assessed, then it starts to be accepted. this can be the second stage wherever companies begin to take a position efforts and R&D, leading ultimately to raised performance. many banks square measure during this stage, having began to massively invest in R&D, each one by one and in pool. economic process and competition hasten the process: companies would need to be 1st adopters of a brand new revolutionary technology.

At a particular purpose, the technology can reach its limit and therefore the performance to effort quantitative relation can decrease, flattening the S-Curve. or else, a discontinuous technology will emerge, cacophonic the incumbent technology obsolete. Austrian monetary unit defines a discontinuous technology as ‘a technology that fulfils the same market would like by building on a wholly new cognitive content.’. due to the placement of the incumbent and therefore the discontinuous technologies on the s-curve, it's common that, at the primary stages, the hassle endowed within the new technology don't generate the maximum amount returns because the recent technology. Therefore, companies square measure usually unwilling to change. However, afterwards, 2 situations square measure plausible:

 -       The new technology contains a vessel s-curve, which means that, because the technology evolves, less effort are needed for identical rate of performance

-       The new technology can manufacture an improved rate of performance for identical quantity of effort

 In those cases, high inheritance companies square measure confronted to a strategic call. the primary selection is to continue finance in their current technology and face the likelihood that it becomes chop-chop obsolete. In parallel, they could lose market share, as new companies getting into the market or competition adopt the new technology and so, square measure able to higher serve ever ever-changing and more and more exacting customers’ desires.

The second selection they need is to change to the new technology, which means that they'd have to be compelled to invest plenty of efforts and cash within the transition method, while not knowing the long run performance to effort rate.

 S-Curve in technology diffusion

 It is fascinating to undertake and perceive the speed of diffusion of a brand new technology against the clock. As we have a tendency to mentioned higher than, the tutorial half is that the most important: if companies don't properly perceive the advantages of adopting and implementing a tumultuous technology, the latter will seem as being a burden.

 The second issue influencing the speed of adoption is that the technical demand the adoption might need. it's a protracted and dear method each in terms of cash and efforts because it might need to vary the design of processes within the case of a radical, field innovation like the blockchain technology. Therefore, it will take years before the diffusion embark. However, once this stage is reached, the diffusion will unfold quickly: the technology and therefore the needs for adoption square measure higher understood, companies square measure higher ready and gathered the proper resources and capabilities and additional specialists square measure accessible to share their information.

At some purpose the market get saturated and therefore the s-curve flattens.

  Technology cycles


Finally, a fast word concerning the Abernathy - Utterback Model process and describing 3 main phases of a technology life:

-       The fluid part: a phase of uncertainties and experimentations. No companies will recognize evidently that market niche the technology are fitted to and what is going to be the outcomes of the amendment. there's an absence of clear plan of the potential applications for the technology, therefore, competition is quiet light and companies base their competitive advantage on differentiation.

 -       The transformation phase: as companies and specialists learn additional concerning specificities of this new technology and concerning customers’ desires, a standardization emerges: The experimentations ultimately result in a accord concerning the specifications of the merchandise or method design, denominated dominant style by Utterback.

 - the particular phase: once the dominant style has been established, corporations will currently focus their attention on production effectiveness and potency. Competition becomes intense.

Needless to mention that the blockchain technology is in its fluid part - as a standardization has not been reached - which a route of exciting developments is prior to us!

source : www.finextra.com


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