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"Unfortunately, while we successfully developed a viable platform, the need for full global industry collaboration has not been achieved." So... they successfu

"Unfortunately, while we successfully developed a viable platform, the need for full global industry collaboration has not been achieved." So... they successfully built the solution, but then failed to build a suitable problem for it?

europeanguy 4y ago
They built something and turns out that no one wants to use it. Happens all the time. Happens all the time, especially if no one sees a point in using it. In other words, it didn't solve anyone's serious valuable problem. Which is something that those people that have been saying "couldn't you just do the same thing with a database" already knew. Crypto went thru a lot of hype-memes, like NFTs, staking etc etc. But I still remember the older "nonono this is about blockchain as an underlying technology" meme.
marcus0x62 4y ago
Perhaps the same thing, but I think they built a solution in search of a problem.
- HelloNurse 4y ago
  The problem is "producing sticky, heavyweight enterprise IBM products to invoice customers with". This retirement of the product might be more aligned with the expected time between major software replacement initiatives at typical customers than with the hype cycle of blockchains: IBM needs to sell some successor to TradeLens. Or, more simply, Maersk actually needs better software than TradeLens for themselves.
deleted 4y ago
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rippercushions 4y ago
Yup, that's pretty much the question that has bedeviled all blockchain "innovation" since day one. Cryptocurrency still works (for some value of works) because it's self-contained, but as soon as you need to track anything in the real world you run into the oracle problem: how can you trust that what the blockchain says about the world is correct? (Spoiler, you can't.)
_jal 4y ago
Yep. The hype cycle at work; if you bamboozle enough people, even skeptics have to commit resources to the latest stupidity. Otherwise you're left without a "blockchain strategy" and the reason-by-checkbox types will think that's a bad thing. Unfortunately, as Gartner has well demonstrated, that's a substantial fraction of the market, so you can't ignore it.
- tanelpoder 4y ago
  This is a great summary!

europeanguy 4y ago

They built something and turns out that no one wants to use it. Happens all the time. Happens all the time, especially if no one sees a point in using it. In other words, it didn't solve anyone's serious valuable problem. Which is something that those people that have been saying "couldn't you just do the same thing with a database" already knew. Crypto went thru a lot of hype-memes, like NFTs, staking etc etc. But I still remember the older "nonono this is about blockchain as an underlying technology" meme.

marcus0x62 4y ago

Perhaps the same thing, but I think they built a solution in search of a problem.

HelloNurse 4y ago
The problem is "producing sticky, heavyweight enterprise IBM products to invoice customers with". This retirement of the product might be more aligned with the expected time between major software replacement initiatives at typical customers than with the hype cycle of blockchains: IBM needs to sell some successor to TradeLens. Or, more simply, Maersk actually needs better software than TradeLens for themselves.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

rippercushions 4y ago

Yup, that's pretty much the question that has bedeviled all blockchain "innovation" since day one. Cryptocurrency still works (for some value of works) because it's self-contained, but as soon as you need to track anything in the real world you run into the oracle problem: how can you trust that what the blockchain says about the world is correct? (Spoiler, you can't.)

_jal 4y ago

Yep. The hype cycle at work; if you bamboozle enough people, even skeptics have to commit resources to the latest stupidity. Otherwise you're left without a "blockchain strategy" and the reason-by-checkbox types will think that's a bad thing. Unfortunately, as Gartner has well demonstrated, that's a substantial fraction of the market, so you can't ignore it.

tanelpoder 4y ago
This is a great summary!