A new survey suggests that attitudes towards adopting the blockchain for businesses are shifting with respondents giving favorable results.
KPMG, a company providing audit, tax and advisory services, released its ‘2019 Technology Industry Innovation‘ survey, which looked at responses from over 740 global leaders in the technology industry from 12 countries.
According to the figures, 41% indicated that it’s “very likely/likely” that they will implement the blockchain into their company within the next three years, whereas 28% said that it was “not likely/not at all likely.”
A further 48% noted that it is “very likely/likely” that the blockchain will change how they conduct business in the same time period, with 27% stating that it was “not likely/not at all likely.”
Speaking about the results, Damien Ducourty, co-founder of B9lab, a provider of blockchain education and training, said that the technology has the potential to change a number of industries.
Incumbents can choose to be part of the potential transformation and shape the change or try and streamline their existing practices, he added. It seems many companies are keeping their options open by doing both.
However, while 23% of global leaders said that one of the top benefits of adopting the technology was improved business efficiencies, 24% stated that a challenge to adopting the blockchain was down to unproven business cases. Even though companies, regulators and financial technologies have spent countless hours and money exploring its potential, a lot of the use cases are still just that…potential.
Back in January, it was even indicated in a report from McKinsey & Company, an American management consulting firm, that the blockchain had yet to become the game-changer many had expected. At the time, the authors said that “…the stuttering blockchain development path is not entirely surprising.”
“There needs to be investment around usability and operational support before the potential can be realised,” continued Ducourty. “It’s not just down to the technology, there are questions of demand, funding and also the supply of people to actually do the work.”
Yet, while the blockchain may still be in its infancy the fact that so many enterprise companies are turning their attention to it should mean something. Take, for instance, JPMorgan, Alibaba and the World Bank, which are just a few who are beginning to realize the benefits of the technology.
According to KPMG’s figures, in the next three years, the blockchain is expected to have the biggest impact within the Internet of Things (IoT) processes at 27%, trading at 22%, reduced cyber risk at 20% and contracts at 18%.
For Jehan Chu, co-founder and managing partner at Kenetic, a crypto-focused investment firm, and co-founder of the Social Alpha Foundation, a not-for-profit grant making platform focusing on social impact initiatives and projects, this is just the beginning.
In the nine years since bitcoin was invented, blockchain experiments launched a thousand ships, he said. In 2019, we are seeing the first of those ships land, and we expect waves of successful proofs of concept to demonstrate true value and utility from payments to data security to supply chain which will turn the tide towards mainstream adoption.
Author: Rebecca Campbell
Read more at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccacampbell1/2019/03/01/kpmg-blockchain-adoption/#2b82bb3d3b5d
