Blockchain investment at all-time high with little to show for it

Blockchain start-up investment has never been more fashionable. That’s the reveal from Outlier Ventures, who recently published a report analyzing blockchain investments going back to 2013.

In their study, Outlier Ventures reveals that $23.7 billion has been invested in blockchain companies since 2013. More than half of that amount came in 2018 alone, with nearly $14 billion being raised. Another $3.7 billion has been raised so far in 2019.

The details of the investments is perhaps more revealing. Outlier notes that 55% of the investment funding rounds were for seed funding. They have thoughts as to why companies are struggling to get additional investment:

This financing has not converted to follow on-rounds, and indicates that while early stage funding is relatively easy, many traditional VCs are waiting for evidence of product-market fit and clearer signs of revenue before making further investments.

Their theory is that while blockchain companies have succeded in getting initial funding, they haven’t had much help with actually building their project. “The challenge is more about expertise and guidance at early stages, especially when it comes to areas unique to Web3 such as token design,” they conclude.

There’s another way to look at this. The vast majority of blockchain projects are almost like hobby projects, and they are not built to scale to the needs of the market. Although developers are working on neat ideas that can secure initial funding, they fail at being adopted because they can’t scale to the needs of adopters.

That’s precisely why investment firms should look to developers who work on the only blockchain that can scale massively to the needs of businesses and the public, Bitcoin SV (BSV). BSV projects are not just ideas being built in a vacuum; the talented developers working on the real Bitcoin are working on business plans that can be rolled out immediately for public use. They are the most likely candidates to take a round of funding and realize something of utility in short order.