How Soon will Blockchain be Widely Adopted?

The recent survey from Deloitte questioned 1,053 senior blockchain executives to find out where several industries were headed.

Deloitte’s survey took place online between March 2018 and April of 2018. The participants were located in the US, UK, Mexico, Germany, France, China, and Canada.

Deloitte hypothesized five years ago that blockchain was going to be the next big thing. This survey shows that this statement was correct, especially for the digital and tech-savvy actors.

Let’s take a closer look at the key takeaways from the survey.

The “Issue” with Adopting Blockchain isn’t an Issue at All. Or is It?

The survey results propose the idea that the US is having an issue with adopting blockchain. However, it might not be an issue at all given the upsurge of interest from startups.

In its statement, Deloitte points to the fact that the survey focused only on already established organizations. It doesn’t include any startups, or “emerging disruptors” as Deloitte calls them. Deloitte recognizes the possible survey flaw and mentions that they received “critics” when they brought up this point.

Still, the researcher asserts that startups building their business models around blockchain aren’t experiencing the same struggles as the already established companies when it comes to adopting new technology.

It looks like blockchain expertise continues to spread in the US region. Since there are companies that have successfully implemented blockchain and been using it for a while, we can’t say that the landscape is not entirely unknown now.

Finally, the currently accumulated experience can help those who are still thinking about opting for this technology in their endeavor towards blockchain adoption.

39% of Businesses Plan to Spend More than $5 Million on Blockchain

The results of the survey show that 39% of the respondents report their companies will be investing more than $5 million in blockchain alone in the upcoming year.

Furthermore, another 39% believe that the possibility of widespread blockchain usage is overestimated. Also, 84% think that blockchain will eventually become mainstream, and 68% believe that they will lose ground to competitors if they don’t adopt this technology.

Surprisingly that at least a small portion of those who speak in favor of blockchain’s excessively increased importance, however, admit it’s needed to stay on track. This brings us to the conclusion that blockchain unavoidably moves towards large-scale adoption even if some actors have their doubts in it.

Automotive Industry Disruption is Most Expected

59% of the participants believe that their industries will be disrupted if everyone were to use and implement blockchain. The dominance here belongs to the automotive (73% of respondents thinks this industry will be disrupted by blockchain), oil&gas, and life sciences (72% per each) industries.

Greater Speed is the Most Valued Benefit of Blockchain

Speaking of the most important advantages of blockchain over existing systems, the majority of respondents (32%) say for its speed. Among other strengths, people call new business models and revenue sources (28%), a higher level of security (21%), and lower costs (16%). Only 3% of the respondents are not sure about any blockchain advantages or don’t see them at all.

Such benefit as security is noted by the majority. 84% of participants believe that using blockchain will make their systems more secure.

Moreover, the majority of the participants (43%) attributes blockchain technology to its top five strategic priorities. They are followed by 29% saying blockchain is important but not critical. 21% believe blockchain relevant but not important. 4% say it is not relevant, and the final 4% are not sure or have no conclusion about blockchain relevance.

Again, this proves that blockchain now actively moves to widespread adoption at least as a strategic priority. The trend is expected to grow with more businesses with a practical interest in blockchain to come.

Blockchain Talent Hunt is on the Rise

Currently, in the US, China, and Canada, companies are beginning to hire an increasing amount of individuals with blockchain experience. In China, 86% of companies are currently investing in hiring staff for blockchain-related positions, followed by Mexico (56%) and Canada (51%).

Surprisingly, the United States has the lowest number of companies currently hiring or planning to hire employees with blockchain experience – 24%.

Overall, the above figures are positive. From them, we can conclude that blockchain specialists are and will be highly demanded in the nearest future.

Blockchain will Have Mainstream Adoption by 2025. But What are the Barriers to It Now?

However, there are several barriers that blockchain companies face. Mostly, those are regulatory issues (39% of respondents view them as a serious drawback), adaptation to the current legacy system (37%), and potential security threats (35%).

Also, deciding on where to use this technology within their company seems to be mixed across the board as well. 39% state that their business as a whole is looking to use blockchain, and another 39% say that they were looking to use it within their information technology department.

This way, blockchain will equally be the solution for the entire industry as well as for the IT area. For now, we can’t say for sure which industries will be entirely disrupted by blockchain. However, information technologies in general will definitely benefit from it.

Level of Understanding Varies by Industry

The survey also shows the disparity in how participants understand blockchain depending on their industry. As a result, more than half of the respondents from the oil&gas and automotive industries (61% and 53%, respectively)  tend to believe that the sole purpose of blockchain if financial sector.

However, the majority of other main industries convinced in this fact just a bit less with the rate of believers hovering between 40% and 50%  

Surprisingly, people from the financial sector itself seem to be more open-minded about possibilities for blockchain application outside finance with only 38% saying against this statement.

Overall, we can argue that there are still many stereotypes about blockchain as a tool for financial operations only (since it started as such). This belief stems from the lack of knowledge and, perhaps, real-world examples. As a technology, blockchain is still very nascent and only paves its way toward the usage in the industries other than finance.

With more versatile use cases and, what’s more important, practical results to come, the misconception about blockchain’s limited application area might vanish over time.

What Industries have already Implemented Blockchain?

Among those who already implemented blockchain technology, consumer products/manufacturing, life sciences, and oil and gas companies mostly believe that they are among the leaders in adopting and using blockchain when compared to their competitors.

When asked to think about how much money companies invested into blockchain in the last few years, the percentages are drastically different:

When asked about the level of blockchain awareness, the automotive industry again demonstrates its dominance with 57% of its actors getting educated about this technology. Meanwhile, the consumer products/manufacturing industry notably lags behind with only 23% of those educated about blockchain.

The above figures prove that for now, the automotive industry has the highest commitment in blockchain both in terms of education and investments.

With continually emerging blockchain news from this domain (like Volkswagen’s blockchain application, Iota and Jaguar’s soon-to-come blockchain reward program), automotive companies might have the right to say for themselves as blockchain leaders.

Research to Be Continued

The findings of the survey show that the technology landscape is shifting towards blockchain adoption but not as fast as one might expect. Companies around the world are only beginning to understand that blockchain is the key to the future with many of those who still have doubts.

The growing demand for blockchain specialists and massive investments in the domain are undoubtedly positive factors that might eventually result in the widespread blockchain usage at the enterprise level.

Although many industries still believe that blockchain can drive only finance operations, the automotive already proves otherwise with all its heavy involvement in this area.

Overall, this situation will continue to change drastically and dramatically, with more industries and companies diving into blockchain.