Blockchain Consortia Trends and Outlook 2021

On 7th January 2021 ESG Intelligence got a chance to present at the Global Blockchain Business Council‘s Virtual members forum. Here we presented a summary of major blockchain consortia trends that we observed in 2020, and how we expect blockchain consortia to help ‘build back better’. In this post, we list the highlights of this presentation.

Why Blockchain Consortia?

• Blockchain consortia have the potential to take many successful pilots and proof of concepts that were done in the last few years, to commercialization, by bringing all relevant stakeholders on board.
• They can emerge as the preferred method of blockchain adoption for enterprises by creating industry level trust networks.

How do consortia address the most pressing requirements of the enterprise blockchain ecosystem?

We first identified the biggest challenges that the enterprise blockchain ecosystem faces:

• Use case development and commercialization.
• Research to explore new use cases and integration of blockchain with other emerging technologies.
• Technology development to make it more conducive for enterprise usage by addressing the famous blockchain trilemma.
• Driving standardization to promote interoperability and work towards achieving regulatory clarity to facilitate smooth rollout and wider acceptance of the technology.
• Promotion of blockchain adoption through awareness, education, and collaboration efforts.

We then identified how different types of blockchain consortia are working towards addressing these pain-points of the enterprise blockchain ecosystem.

How did the blockchain consortia trends for 2020 look like? 

• The formation of blockchain consortia remained resilient in 2020.
• Identified the industries that drove the formation of consortia in 2020.
• Analyzed the distribution of the most popular use case categories among blockchain consortia.
• Analyzed the companies that joined blockchain consortia in 2020, with respect to:
  • Size (small, medium, large)
  • Type (public, private, non-profit, government)
  • Geographic Region
• Also discussed three top observations regarding the formation of blockchain consortia:
  • Use case selection
  • Importance of having a convening third party
  • Need to be inclusive

Outlook for 2021

Here we discussed the four major focus areas for blockchain consortia in 2021 and beyond:

• Build Back Better: Focus on creating sustainable business ecosystems.
• Standardization: Focus on creating technical, regulatory, and legal standards for wider adoption.
• Higher Government Participation beyond funding can drive regulatory clarity and drive consensus among various stakeholders.
• Better integration with 4IR technologies: Focus on integrating blockchain and other technologies to transform digital ecosystems into scalable, efficient, and sustainable models.

How can blockchain help us build back better and the big opportunity through consortia?

• Everyone (all stakeholders) loves corporate sustainability. The previous decade was very good for corporate sustainability.
• Governments, Investors, and Customers are all looking to incentivize the sustainable behavior of enterprises.
• Enterprises are responding and are embracing sustainable behavior and reporting.
• Blockchain has been proven useful in several use cases that address various sustainability issues across industries.
• However, a lot more needs to be done, and the enterprises that are coming together to form blockchain consortia must invite their sustainability leaders and consultants to these platforms.
• This will unlock many new use cases that can contribute to creating sustainable business ecosystems within industries.
• It will also increase the return on investment for consortia participants in the long run, as they can leverage the consortia for multiple use cases.

How can we help?

ESG Intelligence has been closely monitoring the evolution of the blockchain consortia landscape and has created a comprehensive yet curated platform that gives one-stop access to:

• 370+ blockchain consortia profiles
• 7,700+ company profiles that are participating in these consortia.
• 2,400+ blockchain leaders that are driving these consortia.
• A use case analysis dashboard and ~100 knowledge resources.

Enterprises, blockchain solution providers, and researchers can benefit tremendously from this platform and can book a free demo session with our team.

You can access the entire presentation here:

Need to know more about blockchain consortia?

• Request a demo session to explore our blockchain intelligence platform.
• Contact us to request the PDF version of our presentation.
• Join our email list below to stay updated with more insights about blockchain consortia.
• Join our LinkedIn Group for more content on blockchain consortia.