Since its debut as the underlying technology behind Bitcoin in 2009, blockchain has been making waves in different industries. Over the past decade alone, billions of dollars have flowed into blockchain startups, major corporations have announced blockchain initiatives and governments have explored regulatory frameworks for its integration.
With all this progress, it makes sense to wonder whether the technology is really living up to its dream. Well, a quick glance at the crypto markets could offer some insights. Take the Solana price, for instance. Compared to what it was like in the early days of the token, it has really made tremendous progress, following increased interest in high-speed, low-cost decentralized applications.
This momentum has sparked fresh debates about blockchain scalability and real-world utility, even as platforms like Solana aim to address shortcomings of legacy networks like Ethereum. Therefore, to see whether this technology is really living up to its promise, stay around.
Blockchain in finance
According to Cognitive Market Research, the global blockchain finance market size was valued at $816.6 million in 2024. Interestingly, the institution predicted it could continue growing at a CAGR of about 61% to reach $22897.63 million by 2031.
In another place, Number Analytics reported that 76% of financial executives think the technology could be a strategic priority in improving operations, demonstrating how blockchain has evolved from a theoretical concept to something more practical.
The technology’s decentralized nature removes the need for central authorities like intermediary banks, which leads to significant cost reductions in transactions. This also means reduced processing times. In traditional infrastructures, a settlement cycle takes at least three days, whereas blockchain-based transactions can be completed in a matter of seconds.
This explains the technology’s popularity, given the growing need for immediate and cheaper transactions. Federal Reserve Bank Services recently reported that about 74% of consumers and 86% of businesses used quick or instant payments.
As a forward-thinking brand seeking to take advantage of contemporary trends, you definitely won’t ignore such a statistic. This is why companies have been turning to advanced technologies like blockchain to meet this preference.
But as much as blockchain has received a massive welcome in this industry, it has not been without challenges. For instance, just in 2021 and 2022 alone, decentralized finance (DeFi) hacking resulted in losses of about $2.5 billion and $3.1 billion, respectively. Such incidents are critical as they erode consumer trust.
Enterprise and supply chain use
In the supply chain industry, blockchain was expected to change things by providing real-time traceability, reducing fraud and improving transparency. As such, several companies welcomed it and have even reported tangible benefits. Walmart is a good example.
After starting its journey with the technology in 2016, it announced blockchain initiatives in the years that followed and officially launched a blockchain-based freight and payment network in 2019.
Currently, the company continues to use the technology for various applications, including food traceability, supply chain management, etc. This has made it possible for the company to reduce the time to trace a contaminated product to its source from about 7 days to a mere 2.2 seconds.
Therefore, seeing an institution like Grand View Research expecting the global blockchain supply chain market to grow by a CAGR of about 90.2% should not be surprising. But again, this doesn’t mean that it has been a smooth ride. Companies like Maersk have seen their blockchain-based platforms fail due to factors like slow adoption.
Plus, existing blockchain implementations like Bitcoin may struggle to handle large volumes of transactions, leading to delays and congestion, which can be very problematic for supply chains. Thankfully, more efficient ones like Solana are emerging to help get ahead of these challenges.
Real-world limitations
As we have already hinted, public networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum face serious scalability challenges. Bitcoin, for instance, can only process about 7-10 transactions per second. But we are in a world where users have become more aware and intolerant of encounters that compromise their experience.
In fact, in the business world, about one in three may turn away to competitors after just one bad experience. The good thing is that more scalable chains like Solana (which can process 65,000 transactions per second) are coming up.
And besides that, Ethereum developers are working hard to improve its scalability. For example, Ethereum 2.0 aims to scale using sharding, which distributes data across numerous machines, making it possible to process up to 100,000 transactions per second.
Sharding is simply a technique that splits a large blockchain network into smaller, independent units called shards, each holding a subset of the network’s data. This allows the network to process more transactions per second, thus increasing scalability.
And as much as blockchain is more secure than traditional systems, it is still susceptible to attacks. This can be very disadvantageous, given that no one wants to interact in an insecure environment. In 2024, crypto hacks resulted in about $2.2 billion being stolen, a 21% increase compared to the previous year.
There was also a notable increase in individual hacking incidents from 282 in 2023 to 303 in 2024, emphasizing the need to pay more attention to security in blockchain-based infrastructures.
So, while it’s actually true that blockchain has brought great shifts, there is still a gap between its potential and practical usability. Of course, customers can now enjoy great experiences through features like quick and secure transfers. The supply chain sector also enjoys improved efficiency through smart contracts.
However, you can agree that we are yet to tap into the technology’s full potential. But since we are still innovating, maybe things might change in the future.
