Enterprise Blockchain Is Having an Optimistic Year

A new survey from Deloitte Insights examines the state of global blockchain adoptions and how companies all over the world are viewing the technology. The distributed ledger technology is finding footing in enterprise use cases beyond cryptocurrency and is making its way into supply chains, cybersecurity, and even automotive applications. The new research from Deloitte highlights a growing confidence in the technology, but also highlights some challenges and major concerns.

Deloitte polled 1,386 senior executives at companies in a dozen countries (Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Luxembourg, Singapore, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States).The US-based companies posted an annual revenue of $500 million or more and those outside the US posted revenues of $100 million or more. The majority of respondents came from technology, media, and telecommunications (26%), financial services (15%) and manufacturing (12%).

Despite blockchain being most known for facilitating cryptocurrencies, payments and digital currencies were only the fourth and fifth most-cited use cases respectively that organizations have for blockchain. The top use cases were data validation (43%), data access and sharing (40%), and identity protection (39%).

The survey says organizations are looking at blockchain primarily as a means of improving process efficiency (55% of respondents) but cost savings (51% of respondents), risk reduction (50% respondents), and time savings (48% of respondents ) were also cited as metrics of success in implementing blockchain.

“Though blockchain hasn’t reached its full potential, savvy executives surveyed for Deloitte’s 2019 global blockchain survey are confident about new and evolving use cases; they continue to see the technology as a connecting platform that can enable many business processes,” the report's authors state. “...The question for executives is no longer, 'Will blockchain work?' but, 'How can we make blockchain work for us?' “

View more insights from Deloitte's report in our infographic below:

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Chris Wiltz is a Senior Editor at  Design News covering emerging technologies including AI, VR/AR, blockchain, and robotics.