Economic and social sustainability of legacy blockchain for non-crypto use cases: a reality check
Fazal Raheman · International Journal of Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies · 2023
Predicted to be a $3+ trillion industry by 2030, blockchain has still not achieved commercial viability beyond its stupendous success in enabling a multi-trillion cryptocurrency industry. Very high transaction cost and vulnerability to centralisation limits blockchain' s full potential. As cryptocurrency thrives, blockchain struggles to find its rightful place. This paper looks at the public blockchain and its failed attempts at non-crypto use cases to arrive at an accurate diagnosis of what's ailing. Based on a de novo review of the literature, this study formulates and supports a hypothesis on blockchain's economic and social unsustainability. Although economic sustainability trumps environmental sustainability all the time, peer-reviewed literature is mostly silent on its economic sustainability, no one conducts environment damaging activity unless there is economic benefit. So far non-crypto use cases of blockchain have shown little or no economic benefit. Testing our hypothesis may help blockchain researchers define the future generation sustainable decentralised solutions.