Sep 02, 2020 - Within each industry, distributed ledger technology is influencing the value chain and the role of a CFO. This project outlines why the CFO, as the CEO’s business partner, should understand blockchain’s impact on enterprise strategy, not just on corporate finance, capital investment, and operations. It shows how blockchain could catalyze change in the near term, with finance use cases in taxation, accounting and audit processes and in digital asset payments for consumer goods, employee payroll, and cross-border transactions. In the longer term, CFOs will help make the business case for blockchain applications in trade finance, supply chai...

Feb 09, 2021 - This research project surveys what federal governments can do to exploit the next era of technology across their operations, within their economies and society, and with their allies and global partners. It focuses on the threats and opportunities facing the United States—including China’s increasing dominance in global supply chains and strategic innovation. It also speaks to challenges the new administration faces, and recommends five areas for immediate action: securing digital systems, citizen identities, and personal data; embracing cryptocurrencies and launching a digital dollar; transforming government services and culture; engagin...

Jan 22, 2018 - This research anticipates blockchain's impact on enterprise IT architecture and the role of the chief information officer, sometimes called the chief technology officer or chief digital officer. It examines "low-hanging fruit,” that is, use cases where processes are ripe for change, volumes are predictably low, and the potential rewards are large. It also explores the coming convergence of emerging technologies--artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and Internet of Things--and how those will catalyze distributed business models based on decentralized structures and disintermediated transactions. Finally, it provides a digital...

Feb 18, 2020 - This research describes many industry consortia within the blockchain enterprise space and describes the goals of three in particular—Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, and Hyperledger, hosted by the Linux Foundation. The project involved interviews with twenty-five executives and thought leaders who are innovatively deploying blockchain technology in industries ranging from artificial intelligence to healthcare. It lays out the business case for joining blockchain consortia including developing standards for technologies and building trust and confidence in new technology solutions. It distills the best...

Feb 28, 2018 - This project looks at the three layers of the blockchain stack—protocol, consensus, and economic—from logical and technical points of view; and it distinguishes between two types of standardization, semantic and technological. It should help executives and investors to understand the implementation challenges—such as scalability, energy consumption, and governance of each layer—and the problems that the blockchain community is attempting to solve with each innovation.

Oct 26, 2017 - This work helps CEOs to develop strategy around implementing and commercializing this new disruptive technology. CEOs must pick the right change agents to identify the problems to be solved with the technology so that the company picks the right pilot project. CEOs also need a strategy for communicating about that pilot with multiple stakeholders, learning from it whether it succeeds or not, and socializing lessons so that the company continues to experiment with the new technology.