Deloitte this month published the results from their “2019 Global Blockchain Survey.” The findings show that while financial technology companies continue to lead the pack in developing blockchain applications, executives in other sectors “have come to recognize the technology’s real-world potential.” As such, there’s positive growth, as well as valuable new insights, when comparing this year’s study with the last year.
Deloitte conducted their survey between February 08 and March 04, 2019, polling 1,386 senior executives from Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Honk Kong, Israel, Luxembourg, Singapore, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. These were executives at companies with $500 million or more annual revenue for US respondents and $100 million or more outside the US. Additionally, surveys were administered February 18 and March 08, 2019 to executives of 31 “blockchain emerging disruptors” with revenues less than $50 million.
The survey indicates a shift in the way people are thinking about blockchain technology, noting that the question for executives “...is not longer, ‘Will blockchain work?’ but, ‘How can we make blockchain work for us?’” As such, there has not been a shortage in investment, with the survey indicating a steady ~40% willing to invest $5 million or more in new blockchain initiatives in both 2018 and 2019.
The survey also indicates a growth in the prioritization of blockchain technology among executives. When asked, 53% of respondents “say that blockchain technology has become a critical priority for their organizations in 2019.” Last year, this figure was 43%. As well, when asked if they “see a compelling use case for blockchain,” this year 83% see a compelling case which is up from 74%.
This does not necessarily translate into an attitude strong enough to take a deep dive in adoption. The survey finds “Though a majority of respondents call blockchain a top-five priority, only 23 percent have already initiated a blockchain deployment— down from 34 percent.”
There is, perhaps, a more long-term approach for executives who see the technology as having a use case but may want to see the technology in a more mature form before initializing adoption projects. For instance, “Three-fifths of respondents want blockchain to prove itself with measurable, positive results over the next three years” and “nearly 60 percent of respondents are confident in blockchain’s long-term potential due to the implementation of new solutions.” Among the emerging-disruptor sample, four-fifths say they “expect to see results from blockchain implementations within three years” and among the enterprise executives, three-fifths expect to see results within the same time frame.
All in all, “the trajectory for blockchain in 2019 and going forward appears to point in a clearly upward direction” where this year “blockchain gets down to business.” My takeaway from this survey is a cautious but optimistic group of executives who are looking to strategically integrate blockchain technology rather than follow hype.
