Blockchain won’t immediately dominate the financial market, but expect increasing co-existence with other industry approaches for the near future. I recently sat down with Kris Hansen, Senior Principal at SAP Financial Services to talk about why innovators at leading-edge financial services organizations are intrigued by blockchain’s promise, and how they’re getting ready for what will be the next enormous industry transformation. Hansen is particularly surprised at how blockchain “seemed to come out of nowhere.” Below is an excerpt from our conversation, which you can read in full here . “The genesis of blockchain is what blows me away. This very disruptive concept of a shared, immutable ledger was dropped anonymously at a forum in 2009. Since then, it has slowly, steadily gained ground to become a major industry phenomenon. Unlike so many disruptors, it wasn’t built in an R&D lab, by a major think tank, or even by designated experts in financial industry labs. Now it’s being applied to areas like Bitcoin and approaches like SAP’s partnership with Ripple Labs and ATB Financial to disrupt the market.” Like most innovations, blockchain won’t immediately dominate landscapes in one fell swoop. Or as Hansen put it, “It’s not a zero sum game.” We can expect blockchain co-existence with other approaches for the near future as companies figure out how to align current portfolios with blockchain for beneficial disruption. Regarding where SAP stands in the market, Hansen is pretty clear. “Our strategy is to stop talking and start doing things. We’re focusing on getting blockchain out of the white papers, rolling up our sleeves, and getting our innovations into the hands of our customers,” he said. Taking action includes the many long-running, evolving conversations Hansen said he is having with CFOs and CIOs about blockchain’s potential, and how their organizations might harness […]
