Today at the Consensus conference, Deloitte gave a preview of the results of its 2018 blockchain survey. The highlight was that 43% of enterprises consider blockchain as critical, a top five business priority. Deloitte summarized the findings as the year of pragmatism.
“We are at an inflection point — momentum is shifting from a focus on ‘blockchain tourism’ and exploring the technology’s potential to building practical business applications,” said Linda Pawczuk, head of Deloitte’s U.S. financial services blockchain group
Adoption rate
According to the survey, 74 percent report that their organizations see a “compelling business case” for the use of blockchain. About half of that number, 34 percent, say their company already has some blockchain system in production, while another 41 percent of respondents say they expect their organizations to deploy a blockchain application within the next year.
Compared to the recent Gartner survey, the results are far more positive. Gartner found only 1 percent of organizations had deployed and only 8 percent were planning in to do something in the short term.
The survey and geography
Deloitte surveyed more than 1000 executives at corporations with more than $500m revenue across seven countries. Results show that more than 40 percent of respondents plan to spend more than $5m on blockchain projects this year.
The countries surveyed were Canada, France, Mexico, United States, China, Germany and the UK. Geographically they found the US a little less optimistic about blockchain compared to other parts of the world, especially China.
For example, some find no compelling application to justify using blockchain. This accounted for 30% of US respondents and 22% globally.
Challenges and technology
The top three challenges experienced are regulatory issues, implementation and adapting legacy systems, and potential security threats.
The surprise was the split of blockchain types. For in-house applications, centralized databases are more efficient and easier to implement compared to blockchain. Their survey found 44 percent had implemented private blockchains.
In discussions with enterprises, Ledger Insights has encountered private blockchains. Sometimes being private is phase one before becoming a permissioned blockchain.
52 percent of respondents use permissioned blockchains, 44 percent public blockchains, and 35% are participating in a consortium.
