Leveraging Blockchain’s Potential: The Paradox of Centrally Legitimate, Decentralized Solutions to Institutional Challenges in Kenya

Blockchain technologies and business models offer a multitude of decentralized and distributed services, but our understanding of the conditions necessary to reach the emerging technology’s full potential is incomplete. The benefits are perhaps most pronounced in developing economies where high institutional misalignment, or even dysfunction, leaves much room for improvement, but we know even less about these contexts due to a dearth of primary research. In this article, we survey thirteen key entrepreneurs and managers in Kenya to identify and observe the current challenges associated with unlocking the potential of blockchain-enabled services. We identify three conditions that need to be met: sufficient technical capacity, appropriate regulative interventions, and most importantly, the adoption of decentralization logics. To truly leverage blockchain technology, market and institutional actors need to collaborate to overcome the paradox of centrally legitimate, decentralized solutions.