PwC Blockchain Survey Shows Increasing Corporate Acceptance Despite Trust Issues

A new blockchain survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows increasing acceptance by companies, but there are issues with trust.

Over the last few years, many financial institutions threw a lot of shade at cryptocurrency. They called Bitcoin a scam, and the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem a bubble waiting to happen. However, their disdain for BTC did not carry over to its underlying blockchain technology. A new survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows an increasing number of companies are accepting blockchain technology, but not everything is coming up roses.

Survey Says…

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) surveyed 600 business executives who hold technology responsibilities where they work. The executives were spread across 15 regions, and 31 percent of them work in an organization that generates an annual revenue of at least a billion dollars.

The survey found that a full 84 percent of the corporations are involved in blockchain technology. The degree of involvement varied quite a bit. 20 percent of the companies were engaged in research, while another 32 percent were in the development stage. 10 percent of the respondents indicated that they had launched a pilot blockchain project, and 15 percent had their blockchain up and running live.

The executives told PricewaterhouseCoopers that there were some tangible benefits of the new technology that they were looking to exploit. Some of these features include greater transparency, reduced costs, and the removal of intermediaries. They also cited faster transaction times as a positive feature but complained above scalability, especially when it comes to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transactions.

Blockchain Issues

However, not everything is all wine and roses, according to the survey. The executives cited 7 issues with blockchain technology. The number one issue, coming in at 48 percent, is regulatory uncertainty. Of this issue, the survey notes:

The majority of regulators are still coming to terms with blockchain and cryptocurrency. Many territories have begun studying and discussing the issues, particularly as they relate to financial services, but the overall regulatory environment remains unsettled.

The second biggest issue with blockchain is trust, coming in at 45 percent. The PwC survey says:

Blockchain, by its very definition, should engender trust. But in reality, companies confront trust issues at nearly every turn. For one, users must build confidence in the technology itself.

Just behind trust is the ability to bring networks together (44 percent). The remaining issues include: separate blockchains not working together (41 percent), intellectual property concerns (30 percent), inability to scale (29 percent), and audit/compliance concerns (20 percent).

The interesting feature of this survey is that while corporations have some problems with this innovative new technology, they’re rolling up their sleeves and immersing themselves in it.

What do you think of the PricewaterhouseCoopers survey? Let us know in the comments below.

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