New research amongst institutional investors from the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) reveals that 63 per cent believe senior executives at large established businesses have a poor understanding of blockchain.
Only 7 per cent described their understanding as ‘good’, with the remainder describing it as ‘average’.
According to the research, 76 per cent of professional investors interviewed don’t feel senior executives at large established businesses are particularly committed to blockchain, but overall they expect global spend on blockchain technology to increase by 108 per cent this year. Over one-in-20 (6 per cent) anticipate spend in this area will increase by more than 200 per cent during this time period.
When it comes to which sectors professional investors believe blockchain will have the biggest impact on over the next five years, 69 per cent cited financial services and banking, followed by 45 per cent who said digital identity, and 34 per cent who said healthcare.
Building on this, when asked which sectors will see the biggest increase in the usage of blockchain over the next two years as opposed to just exploring and researching its potential, 33 per cent of institutional investors expect to see a ‘dramatic’ increase in the use of this technology over this time period within financial services and banking, with a further 41 per cent anticipating a slight increase.
The corresponding figures for digital identity – the sector investors expect to see the second largest impact – are 20 per cent and 38 per cent, and for healthcare, which is expected to see the third biggest impact, they are 16 per cent and 37 per cent.
Sandra Ro, CEO of the GBBC, says: “Our research suggests there is still a huge task ahead for the blockchain industry to educate senior executives at large corporations about the benefits of this new technology. Despite this, investors still expect companies to invest huge amounts of money into how they can capitalise on blockchain, but they anticipate it will vary greatly between different sectors. Indeed, our research reveals that 39 per cent of professional investors believe blockchain will do to banking what the internet did to media.”
