Use Term ‘DLT,’ Not ‘Blockchain’ – Forrester Researchers
According to a Forrester Research report posted last November 7 by Martha Bennett, Charlie Dai, Pascal Matzke, Michael Glenn, and Ian McPherson, companies like Accenture, Panasonic, and Microsoft are dropping the term “blockchain” and are using the term distributed ledger technology or “DLT” instead. The team believes that DLT is a more descriptive and catchy term.
The researchers push for the use of “DLT” instead of “blockchain” after conducting their study that reveals the term “blockchain” is now an over-hyped form of marketing bait.
The report says that companies are overhyping the idea of blockchain, resulting in the loss of its true usefulness. Firms usually do this by repackaging their existing services and calling it “blockchain.” Bennett’s team calls this practice as “blockchain washing.”
Some companies that have capitalized around the hype of blockchain are IBM and Long Blockchain Corp. IBM made use of the hype by taking advantage of blockchain marketing. During the recent season of the World Series, IBM aggressively advertised its blockchain services in TV commercials.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, the company Long Island Iced Tea rode the blockchain trend by changing its name to Long Blockchain Corp. soon after the company started to invest in Bitcoin mining machinery. Because people were excitedly curious about blockchain, the company’s stock price rose up to 500% following the name change.
However, the term “blockchain” can also steer away from an audience because of its negative connection with the “Wild West” of cryptocurrency. The decentralized blockchain system of crypto is compared to the lawlessness of the Wild West because it is unregulated, giving investors more risks.
For companies that are aiming to use the term DLT or distributed ledger technology, it will be a difficult digital marketing path to take as Google searches for the term “blockchain” still overpowers the search for “distributed ledger technology.” “Blockchain” produces 234 million website results while “distributed ledger technology” has only 17.2 million results.
