SVET Reports
McKinsey and DLT
McKinsey is widely recognized to be one of the top-notch corporate consultancy houses and I started to research their "blockchain expertise" not without some understandable anticipation. Pretty soon, however, I was faced with a bleak reality.
Not only their publishing on this subject is almost fully reduced to several articles found in the "Our Insights" section of their site, but also its authors, although seemingly well self-educated about major DLT features, lack the necessary technical knowledge (realistically speaking we shouldn't expect to find it among "strategy consultants") as well as broader economic insights outside of their tradition corporate executives niche - mostly finance and FMCG giants (those, which can afford their astronomical fees).
However, this narrow view through the lenses of the wealthiest and better educated elite of the "non-IT" corporate world provides McKinsey with a down-to-earth approach to evaluating DLT perspectives. To put it shortly its don't look bright from where McKinsey stands today.
As one of the authors puts it: "One reason for the lack of progress (in DLT) is the emergence of competing technologies ... the question is not whether blockchain technology can provide an alternative, but whether it needs to". Another reason is that: "few companies had the appetite to lead development of a utility that would benefit the entire industry."
The third reason put forward by McKinsey authors for degrading DLT is its too "niche application" found only in three areas. Firstly, "... elements of data integration for tracking asset ownership and asset status". Secondly, "Modernization value: Blockchain appeals to industries that are strategically oriented toward modernization." Thirdly, "Reputational value: A growing number of companies are pursuing blockchain pilots for reputational value".
Giving credit to McKinsey specialists all three reasons they've cited are viable and I'd more than once mentioned its in my posts. However, reducing DLT usage only to "remittances, KYC/ID fraud prevention, and risk scoring" (as another McKinsey's author did) is to completely disregard the "decentralized factor" with its long-term social, economic and political ramifications and to overemphasize industrial, "corporate" one, which values only better encryption protocols, transactions speed, and more efficient multi-parties "charing information" processes.
Nonetheless, I've found McKinsey's readings more original and better thought trough than those of Big Four's but, at the same time, won't recommend its to you as a source of feasible information about DLT space.