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Néanmoins, le blockchain semble (être) en passe de devenir l’une des technologies les plus puissantes et les plus adaptées.
This question extends to a similar expression "semble (être) sur le point de X" for instance, but I have seen or heard native speakers around me include "être" almost as often as they drop it.
Which makes me wonder which is more common in speech as well as in writing? I mean, when "sembler" is followed by a prepositional phrase "en/sur/etc ..."?
I think it strongly depends on whether the speaker consider that the expression includes être. It you consider it's a verbal semi-auxiliary être en passe de, then semble être is correct, if you consider it's an adverbial construction en passe de, then you wouldn't include être because it's entirely redundant with sembler.
Clearly the variation indicates usage is not settled on this issue.
