138  Blockchain

on blockchain products to solve these problems by using different kinds

of consensus mechanisms and also technologies like shading.

• Blockchain interoperability issues: There have been multiple products for

blockchain recently and continuously growing every day. One common

issue amongst all of them is interoperability. For blockchain to be suc-

cessful, we need common standards and protocols, so any product can

talk to each other. One of the great examples of common standards is the

Internet, that is, HTTP and HTTPS protocols that enable a browser or

API (Application Programming Interface) to talk to each other. There are

multiple start-ups that are working on products to provide a middleware

layer, so different blockchain products and protocols can understand

each other. However, still there is belief that there is a need for a global

standard for blockchain for it to talk to any other product seamlessly.

• Lack of Governance: Governance is an essential factor for any busi-

ness. Blockchain projects need a similar robust governance frame-

work for it to accelerate the adoption on mainstream. The governance

framework for blockchain should adopt existing risk and control

frameworks to make sure that blockchain adoption does not have any

hiccups in future from regulators. An established governance frame-

work is also required for permissioned and permissionless blockchain

to make sure that all parties within the eco-system are protected and

have improved trust from regulators, management and end users.

Currently, the lack of formal and effective governance standards is

potentially leading to a slow adoption of blockchain.

• Skill gap: As discussed in Chapter 4, skill gap is one of the main

issues hindering blockchain adoption. There has been inauguration of

many emerging technologies over the past few years. Blockchain, AI,

robotics, quantum computing and cloud are a few of them. There is a

growing demand for experienced blockchain architects, engineers and

software developers in the industry to fulfil the growing demand, but

the supply is lacking.

• C-Suite buy-in: In any business, it is essential to get a buy-in from

C-Suite stakeholders in order for any project to get a green light. The

board of directors and C-Suite including CIO (Chief Information

Officer), CEO (Chief Executive Officer), CTO (Chief Technology

Officer), CFO (Chief Finance Officer), CISO (Chief Information

Security Officer) and CDO (Chief Data Officer) need to give a go-

ahead for our project to start. They control the strategy, finance,

governance, regulations, data and so on for the company, and we

need to get their buy-in to get funding for the project as well as green

light to kick start the project. Currently, it seems to be difficult to

get their buy-in due to blockchain education, uncertainty on regula-

tions, uncertainty on how to start the blockchain project and so on.

However, as technology and regulations continue to improve, we will

see most of the C-Suite showing their interest in blockchain and show-

case the value it can create for their businesses (Figure 5.2).