Eric-
Both.

I like to think of public Blockchain being the enablers for B2C use cases currently (will change in future). The Enterprise shied away from internet initially, and it will shy away from value transfer on public Blockchains given the uncertain regulations as we start 2018. Although eventually, I mean in 10-12 years time frame they may come around a full circle and find the security and much improved scalability more appealing for enterprise collaboration and customer engagement. So to directly answer your question, in 2018 B2B use cases on private chains and B2C on public chains.

Most if not all industries will experiment with Blockchain in 2018 (it started with Banking in 2016, and 2017 was more diverse industries). But again, I rather interpret the applications as cross-industry, horizontal use cases - supply chain, data sharing etc. Hope that helps!

I would say public as this is open, anyone can join (e.g. Bitcoin) and is good when a network needs to be decentralized. On the other side, private blockchain has the advantage to enable more controls on privacy and could cut cost and have a faster speed. I guess different industries will try to go with this technology in 2018.

In my view and many other pioneers of the cryptocurrency and blockchain space believe that private blockchains defeat the purpose of the technology as presented by Satoshi Nakamoto... Private blockchains are a different animal all together and were orchestrated by banks to keep them in business... Private blockchains also facilitate a few select people to control the masses... I think 2018 is the year public blockchains re-gain the focus and will capture the mainstream attention...

I agree with Rohit. Bot will be explored equally however I think private chains will be more popular in B2B area and the simple answer to that is privacy and security. A lot of companies operate in syndicate having their network of companies and it would be interesting to see how blockchain can help in increasing the business multi-folds.
In public chains the major concerns that need addressing is scalability and security so it will still be explored and we may see some new innovations in handing these issues

I would broadly agree with comments from other members - B2B for private and B2C for public is definitely looks as the way forward. Private blockchain may see more traction given that lots of enterprises have done experimentation until Dec 2017 and may give a push to roll out some solutions in limited (private small consortium) capacity.

Re: Industry - I think the question is not about experimentation but about on-ground working solution. Though BFS have started as a forefront runner to explore blockchain, my understanding is that we would see scaled implementations from other industries.

• Primary rationales to support my statement is because of stringent regulations in BFS. Also, huge investments have already been pumped in BFS since many decades to have entire application landscape (certainly with huge scope to optimize).
• Other industries have relatively less complex regulations, which could help them to roll-out something quicker. Additionally, IT system adoption has been relatively slow many other industries e.g. Healthcare, Manufacturing, etc.
• Supply chain could be my best candidate to bet on where we should see major development using blockchain tech, just my thoughts