This research paper examines why blockchain technology has yet to achieve widespread, sustained success despite significant investment, innovation, and early promise. Drawing on a multi-stakeholder discussion among practitioners, investors, academics, and policymakers—supported by an extensive review of academic literature—the study identifies seven systemic barriers to adoption, including the decentralization paradox, technical trade-offs embodied in the blockchain trilemma, enterprise adoption constraints, misaligned investment models, regulatory uncertainty, and persistent confusion between infrastructure- and application-layer development.

To clarify these challenges, the paper introduces a novel taxonomy distinguishing between organizations that use blockchain as an enabling tool and those whose business models are built on blockchain itself, arguing that these two categories face fundamentally different success criteria and risk profiles. The analysis concludes that blockchain’s limited success is driven less by technical immaturity than by misalignment between its decentralized ethos and prevailing business, governance, and investment structures. The paper closes with practical recommendations for entrepreneurs, investors, enterprises, and policymakers, outlining pathways toward more realistic expectations, tier-specific evaluation frameworks, and sustainable models for blockchain adoption and impact.