Sep 16, 2021 - With decentralization as a key design tenet, distributed ledger technologies are difficult to govern with centralized models of organizational oversight. While cryptoassets, smart contracts, and blockchains create efficiencies and mitigate certain known business risks, they introduce a unique set of risks. This project outlines strategies for managing, measuring, and mitigating these risks. For enhancing controls, its authors map out an integrated control framework with standards, roles, and responsibilities. They also look at audit and assurance of Dapps, proof of solvency, and regulatory compliance. Finally, they present a new playbook with...

Apr 19, 2019 - This research explores how blockchain can improve global trade for all stakeholders—banks and financiers, corporations, logistics companies, regulatory bodies, insurance providers, and customs authorities—and lays out a road map for implementation on business and technical fronts. Deloitte’s technology consulting team provides provocative questions for enterprise leadership and practical analysis of blockchain opportunities and such challenges as governance, standards, scalability, interoperability, and integration.

Jun 28, 2021 - This project reports on the state of the enterprise blockchain space. It begins with commentary on the state of the world writ large—from the pandemic’s effects on the economy and the global need for vaccinations to the K-shaped recovery and the consequences of helicopter money (e.g., inflation). It covers a series of developments relevant to enterprise users: the price volatility of cryptocurrencies, the shortcomings of consensus mechanisms for enterprise needs, the growth of stablecoins, the status of tokenless blockchains and blockchain-as-a-service offerings, and the latest on central bank digital currencies (e.g., China’s digital c...

May 25, 2018 - This project explores how blockchain is transforming education with a focus on higher ed—vocational schools, community colleges, universities, and corporate training and development—from establishing student identity, protecting their privacy, financing their coursework, measuring their progress, and recording their credentials of achievement through open data exchange protocols. The development of microcredentialing capabilities, pay-as-you-learn funding models, and massively open online courses, plus the co-creation of open educational resources, are making the meta-university and lifelong learning affordable and accessible for more stu...

Nov 23, 2017 - This project examines the quantum threat to blockchain technology, with its heavy reliance on public-key cryptography. It underscores the urgent need for quantum-resistant algorithms, international standards for cryptosystems, and a large-scale retooling of information and communications technology infrastructure worldwide. The authors distinguish types of quantum adversaries and analyze our options—from patching methods to building quantum-resistant blockchains from scratch.

Apr 22, 2019 - Updated in collaboration with the IBM Institute for Business Value, this project explores how blockchain is transforming education with an emphasis on lifelong learning and the reskilling of the workforce. It covers not just traditional educational institutions but also corporate training and development, where innovators are using blockchain to establish student identity, protect privacy, finance coursework, measure progress, and record badges of achievement and skills mastery. The implementation of microcredentialing capabilities, pay-as-you-learn funding models, and massively open online courses, plus the co-creation of open educational re...