Blockchain Hype : Irrational Exuberance Redux

MIT Sloan Professor Stuart Madnick is not necessarily predicting a repeat of the dot-com bubble. He is concerned, however, that the proliferation of blockchain hype obscures some serious weaknesses in the technology and makes entrepreneurs overeager to adopt it.Madnick is only half joking when he says that the easiest ways to make money with a startup in the current climate is to put “blockchain” in the company name. Bloomberg.com reported on a version of this phenomenon in October 2017, noting that shares of the British investment enterprise On-line Plc surged 394% in direct response to the company's new name “On-line Blockchain Plc.”