The Blockchain Industry Defined: Digital Asset Data Report
This post explains the importance of the newly issued Digital Asset Data Report by The Block. Downloadable here.
The digital asset industry is now at a stage where enterprises are looking to understand how blockchain technology can increase efficiency within their technology stack or integrate with the digital assets themselves. Many of these companies have budgets to build pilots and architect potential implementations.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many sources of information for these major players to learn about the technology, industry, or understand which tools are at their disposal. This lack of formal research is holding back enterprise adoption, and BRD wanted to do something about that. BRD commissioned The Block, a leading news and research publication, to create an in-depth, yet concise report to show a clear landscape of the players making up the industry today.
Introducing the Digital Asset Data Report by The Block
Most of us know about the Gartner’s Magic Quadrant or Forrester reports, which drive industries forward through defining the different players that make it up.
These reports serve a few vital uses:
1. People outside of the said industry can gain a nuanced understanding of the differences between companies in the space.
2. Industry players can use these reports as sales tools to move conversations forward, saving time and money for both the prospect and selling company.
3. Shift the mindset of populations at large scale passed surface questions like “what is blockchain” to who is the best infrastructure provider, or market data provider, or on-chain analytics provider.
Defining reports like these have never existed in the digital asset space, until now. This report, called “The State of the Digital Asset Data and Infrastructure Landscape” was published on May 14, 2020, by The Block. The report shows the major players, up and comers, and where all the companies stand in terms of revenue potential, profit potential, and overall growth.
Beyond the in-depth market research that the report offers, we view this report as a fundamental, upward turning point for the blockchain industry. Here’s why.
It’s Maturing the Industry
The digital asset industry is more than an experiment. It’s not only for cypherpunks to test cryptographic signing or tinker with mining rigs. It’s no secret that there are thousands of cryptocurrencies, digital assets, non-fungible tokens, and massive mining operations supporting these networks. With such support at the ground level, there needs to be higher-level focus, definition, and experienced professionals involved.
Professionals in the traditional technology or FinTech spaces who are tasked with using a budget to build pilots now know where to look. They have a better sense of the tools and products available to them.
Create a Mental Construct
When people think of blockchain technology, they can now gain a notion in their minds. People are able to conceptualize companies, logos, and the different skills required for different types of companies in the industry.
This report, including a recent webinar on the report, is attracting lots of high-level, C-level attendees with real, tangible interest. Rather than asking surface questions like “what is blockchain” or “what are you doing” — the questions can now go one step deeper, enabling large institutions to understand the power of blockchain and the different players involved, which allows them to carve larger budgets and begin to reach out to specific companies to help with development. This is a starting point for real enterprise adoption.
BRD Commissioned It. Why?
It should be known that BRD did commission this report. BRD commissioned it because the company strongly believed that there needed to be formal discovery done for the communities within the blockchain space and outside of the blockchain space to understand what the blockchain industry is doing, how we’re growing, as well as define various categories that different types of companies bucket into.
It’s likely that an outside firm would not underwrite such a report, so we were pleased and excited to do so. Despite the fact that we commissioned the report, we had no say in the results, how to conduct the research, or have any involvement in the process whatsoever. This was all done by The Block’s research team. Our angle was simply to gain genuine insights for our industry and the rest of the world to see.
The goal was to have a formal analysis done to define the industry. This report is crucial for our industry, including friends and competitors. The reality is that until now, there was no way to conceptualize the industry. When someone thinks of a website or the internet, there is a notion and defined view that comes to mind, but not with blockchain. This report is the first step in doing that.
On top of this one report, our vision is that this spurs more research, practical conversations, and more high-level webinars and events to continue to push this amazing technology and industry forward.
We will be posting more information soon breaking down the report and emphasizing the valuable insights that come with it. To get a headstart, download it here.
