Thread by @ByteSizeCapital

The "Blockchain Not Bitcoin" narrative is taking its last breath.

It is slowly being subsumed by a much more powerful tale of "Bitcoin And Capital Markets".

From @IBM to @Nasdaq, our thoughts on the evolving corporate narrative in crypto.

Championed by peer-pressured executives & Heads of Innovation™ with oversized budgets, 2015 to 2018 was the era of "private blockchain".

Encouraged by an uptrend in $BTC, the meme of "Blockchain-as-a-Service" caught on as companies began deploying PoCs en-masse.

Three years on, reality is finally kicking in as many "private blockchain" experiments fail to deliver results & interest wanes.

A report by @MERLTech documented 43 potential blockchain use cases but was unable to find any evidence of tangible results or ROI.

merltech.org/blockchain-for…

According to @GreenwichAssoc, blockchain budgets amount to $1.7B per year, yet only 14% of PoCs have progressed into production systems.

57% of executives now say "implementing DLT solutions has been harder than expected".

greenwich.com/equities/block…
greenwich.com/market-structu…

Corporate "Blockchainers" are also starting to lose faith in the narrative.

After 4 years of enterprise consulting, @anguschampion published a piece on his skepticism of private chains, questioning if they "provide a real business benefit at all".

coindesk.com/how-i-lost-my-…

Why did this happen?

Bitcoin's incredible performance left everyone by the wayside, wishing they could emulate its success.

For the risk tolerant, this meant delving into the world of altcoins & launching the "better" Bitcoin.

For the cautious, this meant deconstructing Bitcoin, removing contentious elements - the speculative token - and adopting what remained: the blockchain.

Renewed by the hype of the rising Bitcoin price, corporations FOMO'd into what amounted to technology dating back to the 1980s (cc: Leslie Lamport).

Some raised alarm bells - like @aantonop in 2016 - but the warnings fell on deaf ears.

In an extended bear market, the few viable private chain use cases will be adopted as standard practice & the call for "Blockchain not Bitcoin" will soften.

This is good news.

In its wake, a new movement is emerging - lead not by innovation-signalling executives - but by firms in traditional asset management & financial market infrastructure:

"Bitcoin And Capital Markets"

Institutions like @DRWTrading, @Fidelity & @vaneck_us recognize Bitcoin & other digital assets as greater than the sum of their parts.

"Blockchain" is just a vehicle to achieve an outcome: trust-minimised, scarce, non-sovereign digital commodities ruled by economic incentives.

This renewed movement of "Bitcoin And Capital Markets" builds on the narrative that cryptocurrencies (especially $BTC) transform capital markets as we know them, revolutionizing the basic institution of money.

Just as @anguschampion shifted to "a greater focus on public blockchains and cryptoassets", the next wave of corporate interest is pivoting towards Bitcoin.

1) Investment Products -> @VanEck & the SolidX ETF
2) Derivatives Exchanges -> @Bakkt, @ErisX_Digital, @SeedCX
3) Custody Solutions -> @GoldmanSachs & @BitGo
4) Stock Exchanges -> @sixgroup, @Nasdaq
5) Payments -> @RevolutApp, @Starbucks (through Bakkt), @Square

Compared to the last wave of enterprise hype & corporate newspeak, there is a lot more substance behind this movement, as fresh minds with skin in the game enter the space.

However, "Bitcoin and Capital Markets" needs principle, especially if it draws in a broader cohort of financial professionals.

It is important early institutional adopters commit to the values that drew them in, lest @CaitlinLong_'s warnings of rehypothecation fall on deaf ears.

Not corporate virtue signalling, not middle road compromise - but the promise of battle-hardened, trust-minimized, scalable & decentralized public networks - of a digital asset class that threatens to transform the face & body of financial markets globally.

Lead by the likes of @gaborgurbacs, the movement is still in its early stages.

We're excited to see it mature in the coming years as it draws in the masses to the spell of "digital gold".