Despite regulatory issues and potential security threat that continue to plague blockchain, the
technology is gaining trust in the enterprise by succeeding at pragmatic, well-defined pilots that
show the potential to scale into production, according to a new study.
Based on interviews with 1,386 senior executives, Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey, titled:
‘Blockchain gets down to business’, noted that blockchain technology has become a critical priority
for their organizations in 2019.
53% of senior executives say blockchain has become a critical priority for their organization this year,
10% higher than last year. Deloitte found that senior executives are gaining more experience and
insights into blockchain’s potential contributions and pitfalls as more use cases are evaluated,
piloted, and moved to production.
86% of senior executives interviewed believe that blockchain technology is broadly scalable and will
eventually achieve mainstream adoption. In fact 40% of enterprises are willing to invest $5M or
more in new blockchain initiatives over the next 12 months.
According to the study, enterprises are looking for and finding valuable use cases for blockchain
completely independent of bitcoin and cryptocurrency, including management of loyalty points,
digitizing physical assets, and creating virtual contracts and wallets for finance management and
reconciliation.
Financial services and financial technology (fintech) sectors are leading in blockchain development,
according to Deloitte, which found blockchain adoption accelerating in technology, life sciences,
media, telecommunications, and government.
However, blockchain’s greatest organizational barriers include implementation (which includes
replacing or adapting existing legacy systems), regulatory issues, and potential security threats.
Additional barriers include lack of in-house capabilities, uncertain Return on Investment (ROI),
concerns over the sensitivity of the information, and the lack of a compelling application of the
technology.
Despite that, for the majority of enterprises actively piloting and promoting blockchain into
production, success is defined by greater process efficiency first. 55% of enterprises define
blockchain success by the process efficiencies they can accomplish first, followed by cost saving
(51%) and risk reduction (50%). Deloitte also found blockchain is proving to be an effective platform
for revenue generation, enabling new business models and customer acquisition.
