A recent PwC global study shows four out of five executives (84 percent) surveyed report blockchain initiatives underway in their companies. Over 300 enterprise companies are already trying to build, regulate, define or integrate DLT, through participation in consortia or pilots of their own. Likewise, the number of blockchain-related job postings has been increasing by 3x in 2017, with currently 14 job openings for every one blockchain developer.

What is inhibiting blockchain products from being operationalized? Is it technological, economic, political?

What many enterprise digital executives are still struggling to see, however, is that blockchain represents a fundamental change to their business. In and of itself, this helps explain that while a majority (74 percent) of our survey respondents report that their organizations see a "compelling business case" for the use of blockchain technology, only 34 percent say their company has initiated some sort of blockchain deployment.

During this talk, we will explore the reasons why great blockchain concepts are having a tough time getting beyond the conceptual phase.

Mathieu Glaude is the President and CEO of Northern Block, a Toronto-based blockchain product venture company building decentralized applications, enterprise solutions and developer tools for blockchain ecosystems. Mr. Glaude brings extensive expertise to product development in the enterprise technology space. Prior to Northern Block, he worked for Capital One Bank where he led many large scale customer-facing software development initiatives. Additionally, Mr. Glaude owns a private equity fund focused on making seed investments in companies in the blockchain and emerging technologies sectors.