Where Did All the Blockchain Consortia Go? Feat. Paul Brody

Blockchain industry veteran Paul Brody unpacks why many corporate blockchain projects fail, and what works and doesn’t work when companies adopt decentralized technology.

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ABOUT

This week on “Opinionated,” Ben Schiller and co-host Anna Baydakova are joined by Paul Brody, head of blockchain at consulting powerhouse EY.

This episode is sponsored by Unique One Network and Mimo.

If you read CoinDesk in 2017 and 2018, you’d have come across many stories like this:

Big Company joins Big Industry Blockchain Consortium to work on technology set to shake up Everything.

These days, many of those consortia are closed, others are barely issuing press releases and “enterprise blockchain” is often struggling to take off.

In recent months, IBM has laid off most of its blockchain services staff and Microsoft has shuttered its Azure-based blockchain-as-a-service platform.

What happened?

Blockchain industry veteran Paul Brody unpacks why many corporate blockchain projects fail, and what works and doesn’t work when companies adopt decentralized technology.

He pinpoints where blockchain is having a dramatic impact, the validation that comes from decentralized finance (DeFi) and how blockchains can re-engineer enterprises in the years ahead.

Brody’s Twitter is: @pbrody

CoinDesk stories mentioned in this episode:

Brody: Web 3.0 Is Coming for the Sharing Economy

Brody: Public Blockchains Are Set to Reshape Global Commerce

IBM Blockchain Is a Shell of Its Former Self After Revenue Misses, Job Cuts: Sources

Microsoft to Shutter its Azure Blockchain Service This Autumn

Image credit: DKosig/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by Coindesk

HOSTS

Dan Ilett

Dan Ilett writes on tech, money and energy. He advises business on digital strategy and technology messaging for large deals. He is founder of Erbut - an advisory company - and Greenbang - a smart technology research company.

Anna Baydakova

Anna writes about blockchain projects and regulation with a special focus on Eastern Europe and Russia. She is especially excited about stories on privacy, cybercrime, sanctions policies and censorship resistance of decentralized technologies.
She graduated from the Saint Petersburg State University and the Higher School of Economics in Russia and got her Master's degree at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.
She joined CoinDesk after years of writing for various Russian media, including the leading political outlet Novaya Gazeta.
Anna owns BTC and an NFT of sentimental value.

Danny Nelson

Danny was CoinDesk's managing editor for Data & Tokens. He formerly ran investigations for the Tufts Daily. At CoinDesk, his beats include (but are not limited to): federal policy, regulation, securities law, exchanges, the Solana ecosystem, smart money doing dumb things, dumb money doing smart things and tungsten cubes. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL tokens, as well as the LinksDAO NFT.

Benjamin Schiller

Benjamin Schiller is CoinDesk's managing editor for features and opinion. Previously, he was editor-in-chief at BREAKER Magazine and a staff writer at Fast Company. He holds some ETH, BTC and LINK.

Danny Bradbury

Danny Bradbury has been a professional writer since 1989, and has worked freelance since 1994. He covers technology for publications such as the Guardian.

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