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The conversation around blockchain is changing. We’re only now starting to understand this technology’s full potential, says one executive.Bitcoin isn’t mainstream yet, and some skepticism of the digital currency remains. But the buzz surrounding the technology underlying it—blockchains—has started to take a different tone. Blockchain, headquartered in Luxembourg, is a company that provides a software platform for digital assets. Its product offerings are on the forefront of advancing blockchain technology. In this interview with McKinsey’s Rik Kirkland, Liana Douillet Guzmán, senior vice president for growth, discusses what areas are ripe for development and how the story is changing. An edited version of her remarks follows.I think it was Time magazine in maybe 1994 had a cover on the Internet, and it was all about how it was for the dark net. That was very much the Bitcoin story a year ago. I’m finding we’ve matured out of that story. People are realizing that anything can be used for illicit means. But actually, this is not the ideal thing to use for illicit means, because though it is private, it is fully traceable.Blockchain beyond BitcoinBlockchain technology is a distributed ledger. It allows for the permanent and immutable transparent recording of data, essentially, and transactions specifically. That can be used to exchange any number of things that have value, whether that’s an actual item [or something else]. It could be tea leaves making their way to the final tea maker. Or it could be me sending you a payment person to person without the need for intermediaries.I think of Bitcoin as being the entry point to a digital future where everything of value can and likely will be exchanged in digital format. Central banks will look to the Bitcoin experience to build central-bank-backed digital assets.
