Personal take

Three months ago I joined OmiseGO. With the company’s overarching mission and values close to my heart, I was happy, humbled and hungry to get started. As I wrote then, technology as an enabler for better access to opportunity and designing the future have been, and more than ever now remain, two of my key guiding principles in what I do.

I also wrote that my focus would be on the commercialization of our technologies and services, exploring exciting partnerships and collaborations, and together with the teams ensure that what we offer is relevant, needed and scalable. Where are we now and what’s to come?

Choose the landscape

In order to dive in, you should know your surroundings. What’s the context within which you operate? Or, asked differently: do you jump in the water if you know there’s crocodiles hiding, or rocks near the surface?

Taking time to understand context well is important. It lays the foundation from which you can build on solid, rather than shaky, ground.

Many cryptocurrency and blockchain startups have disappeared last year and I expect a similar number to go bankrupt this year, too. As Bloomberg reports, “a year ago there was a lot of free money in the market. But in a bear market there’s a change.” Merely including ‘blockchain’ as a term alone no longer guarantees “being able to raise millions”. The hype of the term is over. I put it right up there alongside ‘AI’ and ‘big data’.

While individuals and companies left and right during the hype phase were keen to ‘jump on the blockchain bandwagon’, now is the time for the reality test: what works and how.

Are the past and future failures of many blockchain startups because of the market crash and thinning out of wallets? Surely to a large extent. However, let’s keep in mind that reportedly (though with a distinct lack of actual sources on this number:) 9/10 ‘regular’ startups fail (see Forbes here or Fortune here). It’s a common story for new products. I’ve been there too, and as with so many others can certainly say that I learned a number of lessons that I can take forward from it.

The biggest reason for startup failure is a lack of market need, closely followed by not having sufficient funds and not the right team. Beyond a theoretical and research-driven agenda, new and emerging technology, which blockchain is a part of, need to have significant and deep real world exposure to stand the test. It has come a long way with corporates across industries employing blockchain in one way or another to various extents of the definition. Yet, much remains to be done, particularly from innovators and those at the forefront of this technology to validate with, and scale in industry. That’s certainly true for us in championing a new open finance network that can revolutionize how we approach accessibility, the way businesses offer their customers’ access to financial services and how ecosystems support that.

Get out there

Blockchain technology is an important foundation and enabler, but not a panacea that miraculously solves all the world’s problems if only released.

This recognition has become more widespread, and goes with a general market sentiment now. But there’s a larger underlying theme at play in my opinion — maturity of understanding industry!

Those that can will move from the “trough of disillusionment” to the “slope of enlightenment”: