CoinDesk Research: Ethereum Hard Fork Had Little Impact on Sentiment

CoinDesk’s Q3 2016 State of Blockchain report summarizes key tendencies, information and occasions from the third quarter of 2016

This article highlights findings from our quarterly ‘Spotlight Study’, primarily based on a survey of 240 startup execs and enterprise blockchain leads. For extra of our quarterly and annual experiences, go to CoinDesk Research.

Read your entire Q3 2016 State of Blockchain report.

Despite being labeled as one other Mt Gox, the demise of ethereum’s first main venture (the DAO) in addition to subsequent, controversial makes an attempt to save lots of its buyers, had little to no affect on the platform’s use or notion, a brand new CoinDesk examine has discovered.

Conducted in October 2016, CoinDesk Research discovered the bulk (63%) of entrepreneurs and enterprise executives surveyed reported no change of their use of ethereum following the hack or laborious fork, with almost half (48%) indicating it didn’t negatively affect their notion of the rising expertise.

Perhaps most notably, respondents indicated they imagine ethereum’s developer group to show stronger governance practices than bitcoin, essentially the most broadly used public blockchain and most useful digital currency forward of ethereum and ether, respectively.

In complete, 37% reported ethereum had higher governance than bitcoin, whereas 22% stated bitcoin displayed higher governance.

Of observe is that 34% stated each displayed critical governance challenges, a determine that would clarify the continued curiosity in non-public blockchain efforts.

The findings are notable as CoinDesk Research additional revealed that the DAO collapse and laborious fork had a measurable affect on customers.

Of these surveyed, the occasions had a damaging affect on one-third of respondents, and of these affected, 75% reported that they misplaced cash.

A small share of respondents (11%) even misplaced confidence in ethereum utterly following the laborious fork, with some (20%) reporting a venture setback on account of the dual incidents.

However, these weren’t the one findings from the intensive survey. Below, we spotlight the 5 greatest takeaways from our analysis:

1. Hard fork gained over critics

While we all know the choice to separate the ethereum protocol successfully cut up the blockchain group, what was most notable was that few respondents modified their view over the course of the occasions.

CoinDesk Research discovered that 8% of respondents modified their view after the laborious fork, however that of those that did, 88% now view the choice to laborious fork favorably.

The outcomes means that regardless of claims by some ethereum customers that the fork violated the reliability of its blockchain, this argument has maybe not resonated broadly.

In complete, 45% of respondents agreed with the laborious fork, with 33% disagreeing and 23% reporting that they have been not sure of how one can really feel in regards to the occasion.

2. Governance issues stay

Governance was the first concern for individuals who expressed damaging sentiment in the direction of both the laborious fork or DAO hack.

Almost half of these negatively impacted by the occasions have been involved with present and future governance of the protocol. Others expressed robust issues over compromised immutability and worry of impending regulatory danger on account of the fork.

three. Bitcoin advantages from ethereum struggles

While the DAO hack and laborious fork definitely had a damaging affect on ethereum, these occasions had a cloth affect on the notion of different initiatives, the survey discovered.

Notably, 39% of respondents imagine the DAO hack and laborious fork solid a optimistic mild on bitcoin, with some referring to the protocol as “production-ready” whereas emphasizing its “stability and predictability” compared to ethereum.

Conversely, half of respondents instructed the laborious fork “broke immutability” and “set a bad precedent” for the one-year-old protocol.

four. Users count on huge modifications in 2017

Yet, the survey did level to potential issues forward.

The outcomes present 40% of respondents imagine that it is considerably or very doubtless that ethereum might be able to implement a wholly new blockchain protocol (Casper) someday subsequent yr.

Other huge technical challenges are anticipated to be overcome as properly, as one in three respondents anticipated ethereum to be geared up with state channels, an in-development characteristic that may enable for better scalability.

However, the roadmap for such advances stays unclear, with main technologists spearheading the work reporting disagreements on the perfect path ahead.

As recognized in CoinDesk Research’s ‘Understanding Ethereum‘ report, a number one concern for the platform has lengthy been the sky-high expectations of customers, which appear to repeatedly outpace the modest declarations from builders that the tech stays bleeding-edge.

5. Two distinct customers emerge

CoinDesk Research additionally discovered proof that ethereum shows two distinct courses of customers, these utilizing its public blockchain and people utilizing non-public alternate options.

As the expertise is open-source, many enterprises have taken to replicating ethereum’s expertise for his or her non-public use. Notable is that each teams emphasised completely different qualities about ethereum when reporting their satisfaction with the platform.

Overall, enterprise customers have been extra more likely to emphasize its attraction to builders, in addition to its flexibility and maturity, whereas public builders have been extra apt to quote its technical options, corresponding to a Turing-complete programming language and good contract capabilities.

For extra findings and takeaways from our full Q3 report, together with metrics on enterprise blockchains and industry-wide funding, obtain your copy of the full report here.

Images by way of Caroline Terree for CoinDesk; Skinned knee image by way of Shutterstock