Almost two-fifths of senior corporate executives know next to nothing about blockchain, according to a survey of US companies by Deloitte – and the financial service sector lags behind other industries.

Failing to understand a game-changer?

This highlights a gap in understanding of an emerging technology that many see as a disruptor and game-changer – particularly in industries such as consumer products, manufacturing, technology, media and telecoms. While 39 per cent of senior executives at large US companies had little or no knowledge about blockchain technology, many of those who do have an understanding of it say that it will disrupt their industry.

Deloitte's David Schatsky said: “It is fair to say that industry is still confused to a degree about the potential for blockchain. More than a quarter of surveyed knowledgeable execs say their companies view blockchain as a critical, top-five priority. But about a third consider the technology overhyped.”

Financial sector lags behind

The survey also shows that the financial sector is lagging behind other industries such as technology, consumer, manufacturing and telecoms, with just 12 per cent of firms having already started to use blockchain technologies as part of their business processes, compared to 30 per cent in other industries.

Those who do and those who don't

In its anonymous online survey of 308 blockchain-knowledgeable senior executives at organizations with $500 million or more in annual revenue, Deloitte divided respondents into those who claimed to be knowledgeable about blockchain (61 per cent) and those who didn't (39 per cent). The results found that:

• of those who are informed about blockchain technology, 21 per cent (from a wide range of industries) indicated that their firms have already started to use blockchain technology in their business processes;
• 25 per cent plan to do so within the next year;
• of those 21 per cent whose companies have already started to make use of blockchain, 28 per cent have already invested $5 million or more in blockchain technology, while 10 per cent have already invested $10 million or more (in actual figures, this means 11 and 4 firms respectively out of a total number of 308 respondents);
• 25 per cent of respondents expect to invest more than $5 million in blockchain technology during the next calendar year;
• 12 per cent of executives in financial services companies said their company has deployed blockchain in production;
• this compares with 30 per cent of executives surveyed in the sectors of: consumer products, manufacturing, technology, media and telecoms;
• however, 24 per cent of financial services firms plan to go live with blockchain in the coming year.

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CTMfile take: This really shows that, despite the hype surrounding blockchain technology in the banking and financial services industry, there is a significant percentage of senior executives who don't claim to have even a basic understanding of how the technology works. Which would be fine except that distributed ledger technology has the potential to be a game-changer in many sectors and there is probably an advantage in having an understanding of how it could be deployed in your business. It also shows that, despite the hype among banks, other industries are currently far more open to using blockchain technology.