, Columnist
A Rude Awakening for Blockchain's Dreamers
This is no banking revolution, more of an IT upgrade.
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The finance world's attempt to build a white-collar version of blockchain -- the shared-ledger technology that underpins rebellious virtual currencies such as Bitcoin -- has generated Silicon Valley quantities of buzz. There hasn't been much genuine risk-taking, though, nor have we seen much of a result.
This year will bring a needed dose of reality. It might even herald a shake-out of an increasingly over-hyped sector as the banking industry tries to get myriad projects out of the lab and into the real world.