Deloitte survey reveals the increase in blockchain adoption among companies

The 2020 Global Blockchain Survey showed that blockchain technology is becoming more of a priority among companies that already have a broad understanding of it

In a recent survey conducted by Deloitte, the auditing giant discovered that almost 40% of respondents from major technology companies around the world are still invested in blockchain, and almost nine in ten believe that blockchain will become even more important in the next three years.

Deloitte’s 2020 Global Blockchain Survey, conducted from February 6 to March 3 this year, showed that 39% of 1,488 senior executives and practitioners across 14 countries said that they have already integrated blockchain into production processes at their companies in one way or another. This is a 16% increase on last year’s figures. When taking into consideration companies with over $100 million in revenue, the percentage rises to 41%.

The auditing giant reached out to survey respondents from a wide array of countries, including Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Mexico Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). The criteria is for the respondents to have, at the very least, a “broad understanding of blockchain, digital assets, and distributed ledger technology.”

The report noted that almost 89% believed in the capacity of digital assets to be very or somewhat important to their industries in the next three years. Meanwhile, a clear majority (53%) report that digital assets will be very important.

According to Deloitte, there is a possibility that these high numbers may be related to hiring practices. The company reported that 82% of their respondents said they are looking at hiring staff “with blockchain expertise” within the next 12 months. Nearly the same percentage (83%) said that they would lose a competitive advantage if they did not start adopting blockchain.

Despite these numbers, not all responses to blockchain innovation were positive. The survey also recorded 54% of respondents who believed that “blockchain is overhyped.”

Deloitte noted how blockchain adoption was more accepted in some countries than others. One example is while 31% of respondents in the United States reported already having blockchain in production, the numbers nearly doubled (59%) in China.

Of the companies surveyed from China, 94% reported being “strongly” or “somewhat” confident that digital assets will serve as an alternative or replacement to fiat currency in the next five to 10 years.

While this survey was conducted in the early stages of the pandemic, a similar survey in April reflected that interest in blockchain from China was still relatively strong. Over 70% of respondents still remain optimistic about its potential.