Global Enterprises Embrace Public Blockchains as Technology Matures

"At the beginning of the blockchain revolution, a lot of enterprises were keen to experiment with blockchain but questioned the resiliency, privacy and ability to customize public blockchains. Private blockchains were seen as a more attractive alternative. However, public blockchains have grown and matured and overcome most if not all of these implementation challenges."

Public blockchains reaching new heightsA report by Big Four firm Ernst & Young published in November 2019 found that 75% of survey respondents are likely to use a public blockchain in the future.

CONA will "Baseline" network data to the public Ethereum mainnet, demonstrating the capabilities and benefits of using a public blockchain for a common enterprise use case - supply chain management.

According to Tapscott, Ethereum's Baseline initiative clearly demonstrates that private, secure, enterprise-grade blockchain applications can be built on public blockchains.

"Enterprise can use public blockchains to occasionally plant anchors from permissioned blockchains as a way to address censorship-resistance and decentralization concerns without needing the complexity of zero-knowledge proofs to protect confidential data."

In 2017, Lu mentioned that VeChain wanted to incorporate more capabilities for enterprises to use a public blockchain.

"Enterprises don't like change, as many already have stable technology platforms. These companies are also frightened to lose control and don't want all of their information public and transparent. This is why private, consortium blockchains seemed like a good fit at first. However, when you dive further into blockchain, you discover that consortium blockchains actually hamper growth and collaboration."

Lu pointed out that the nature of blockchain networks is to accommodate multiple players focused on solving the same goals: "Sometimes when enterprises develop a proof-of-concept and want more collaboration, they discover they need a public blockchain."

When all is said and done, public blockchains are indeed very suitable for enterprises.

While the benefits of public blockchains for enterprises are becoming more apparent, Lu pointed out that adoption challenges still remain.