The Trick to Selling Blockchain Solutions? Don't Say 'Blockchain'

"We try not to mention blockchain or DLT too much in case it complicates matters," he said.

Seeing successful firms without blockchain front and center could be viewed as refreshing, or perhaps a source of misgiving.

Forrester Research projects there will be a pruning, with 90 percent of blockchain projects with a flabby business focus ultimately shutting down in the coming years.

As the blockchain gold rush gathered pace around him, Guardtime CEO Mike Gault said he got caught up with the perceived benefits of aligning his company with the blockchain movement.

"We called ourselves a blockchain company unashamedly. We were sitting in conferences listening to all this blockchain mania starting to happen and we looked at each other and said, 'Wait a minute, isn't this what we do?'".

So how does the idea of side-stepping the blockchain evangelists resonate with a bank's blockchain department? Turns out, the sentiment appears to be trending.

Sointu is perhaps not a typical blockchain evangelist, however.

After being brought in at Nordea midway through last year, he gathered the blockchain team under one roof and shut down almost all the prototyping.

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