Tech giants will not be silent about blockchain for long

The technology behind bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has captured the imagination of fintech experts and pundits more than almost anything else in recent years. It is no wonder. Blockchain holds the keys to changing the financial system from the ground up: With the distributed-ledger technology, validation is performed via a peer-to-peer network that eliminates powerful intermediaries that authenticate or settle transactions.

The hunt for the killer blockchain application is in full swing. The emergence of the technology saw something akin to a Cambrian explosion for blockchain startups. Now, more than 300 of them are vying to be the global economy’s “next best thing,” posing an obvious competitive threat to traditional financial institutions.

Banks, payment processors and credit card companies worry that brainy entrepreneurs, who transform high IQs into billions of dollars, could cast a pall over their core business. But it is not fintechs they should be worried about. It’s the tech titans in Silicon Valley that should keep them up at night.

Management theory makes the distinction between de novo market entrants and diversifying market entrants. The former are complete newcomers; they include fintech companies. But diversifying market entrants are firms that have been successful in other arenas. In most technological shifts, it is diversifying entrants that grab market share because they are experts in capabilities that suddenly become relevant to the new product or service generation. And unlike startups, they come with legions of experts, a global network and stuffed pockets. When the camera maker Polaroid failed, it was not de novo entrants that took over. Rather, it was Canon and Nikon that brought to the table their experience with optoelectronics. But how do you spot diversifying entrants in advance? A good start is to identify which competencies will become central once the blockchain hits the market.

For example, a technology like blockchain, challenging one of the world’s largest industries, needs more than just programmers and algorithms. The storage, archiving, communication and file serving needed to run distributed ledgers gobble up hard-drive space at unprecedented speeds. Moreover, blockchains have an end of life. When they go out of business, they still need to be accessible.

These requirements call out for the capabilities of the cloud-computing giants, such as Amazon, Microsoft and IBM. Banks must not underestimate what these companies can contribute to the blockchain; they offer more than just raw server resources.

At the same time, pure cloud companies will never be able to cut into banks’ core business; they are too far away from the end customer. The really dangerous diversifying entrants will come from somewhere else: internet giants such as Google, Apple and Facebook, which already collect massive amounts of data.

Globally dominating data-collecting companies — search platforms, social networks, e-commerce giants — are neglected in the discussion about blockchain. Internet firms haven’t shown a lot of interest in lowering the blockchain gauntlet onto the banking world. But they will.

Data behemoths are pointedly silent about the new technological development. Yet their core competencies will be crucial in a blockchain-based banking world. According to a Finextra Research report, companies such as Google and Facebook are perfectly suited to outdo banks in driving blockchain mass adoption (particularly in payments) due to their large global customer base. Already, large data collectors are entering payments with Android or Apple Pay and the companies are positioning themselves where they are the strongest: at the front end.

The likes of Google know what we search, what we write in emails, with whom we interact, and which places we frequent. And they know how to turn that data into dollars. Blockchain technology trims transaction costs to the bone, and financial services can be offered for free. This model plays into the hands of data behemoths, whose business models are already geared to making money out of free services. Selling highly accurate personalized advertising in two-sided platforms is in their DNA.

Secondly, globally recognizable and trusted brands are another major asset of the tech titans. Google, Apple, and Amazon have been at the pinnacle of global brand valuation lists for years. The gap between these top three and other brands is stunning. Their brands are worth, respectively, $109 billion, $108 billion and $106 billion. People spend hours staring at their logos while checking emails, searching the web, chatting with friends or shopping online. AT&T comes in fourth with “only” $87 billion.

Silicon Valley’s behemoths are also competing to place their brands on payment interfaces.

To be sure, banks are likely to stay on top of global finance for some time to come. But, as it is the painful case with most technological leaps, the barriers to entry for nonbank competitors will eventually disappear. By how much will depend on identifying the right challengers on time and fending them off. Banks are well advised to keep a close eye on the blockchain activities of data behemoths.