New research amongst institutional investors from the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC)—the leading association for the blockchain ecosystem—reveals 63% believe senior executives at large established businesses have a poor understanding of blockchain.
According to the research, 76% 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% this year. Over one in 20 (6%) anticipate spend in this area will increase by more than 200% 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% cited financial services and banking, followed by 45% who said digital identity, and 34% 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% 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% anticipating a slight increase.
The corresponding figures for digital identity—the sector investors expect to see the second largest impact—are 20% and 38%, and for healthcare, which is expected to see the third biggest impact, they are 16% and 37%.
Sandra Ro, CEO of the GBBC, said: “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% of professional investors believe blockchain will do to banking what the internet did to media.”