Gartner Survey Reveals the Scarcity of Current Blockchain Deployments

Only 1 percent of CIOs indicated any kind of blockchain adoption within their organizations, and only 8 percent of CIOs were in short-term planning or active experimentation with blockchain, according to Gartner’s 2018 CIO Survey. Furthermore, 77 percent of CIOs surveyed said their organization has no interest in the technology and/or no action planned to investigate or develop it. 

Mr. Furlonger added that rushing into blockchain deployments could lead organizations to significant problems of failed innovation, wasted investment, rash decisions and even rejection of a game-changing technology. 

Figure 1 – Blockchain Adoption, Worldwide

The rocky road to blockchain
Among 293 CIOs of organizations that are in short-term planning or have already invested in blockchain initiatives, 23 percent of CIOs said that blockchain requires the most new skills to implement of any technology area, while 18 percent said that blockchain skills are the most difficult to find. A further 14 percent indicated that blockchain requires the greatest change in the culture of the IT department, and 13 percent believed that the structure of the IT department had to change in order to implement blockchain.

 "The challenge for CIOs is not just finding and retaining qualified engineers, but finding enough to accommodate growth in resources as blockchain developments grow" said Mr. Furlonger. "Qualified engineers may be cautious due to the historically libertarian and maverick nature of the blockchain developer community" 

CIOs also recognized that blockchain implementation will change the operating and business model of the organizations, and they indicated a challenge in being ready and able to accommodate this requirement. "Blockchain technology requires understanding of, at a fundamental level, aspects of security, law, value exchange, decentralized governance, process and commercial architectures" said Mr. Furlonger. "It therefore implies that traditional lines of business and organization silos can no longer operate under their historical structures" 

Financial services and insurance companies lead the way

From an industry perspective, CIOs from telecom, insurance and financial services indicated being more actively involved in blockchain planning and experimentation than CIOs from other industries.

While financial services and insurance companies are at the forefront of this activity, the transportation,  government and utilities sectors are now becoming more engaged due to the heavy focus on process efficiency, supply chain and logistics opportunities. For telecom companies, interest lies in a desire to "own the infrastructure wires" and grasp the consumer payment opportunity. 

Business, governance and operating models, and designed and implemented predigital business will take time to re-engineer. This is because of the ramifications blockchain has concerning control and economics. "While many industries indicate an initial interest in blockchain initiatives, it remains to be seen whether they will accept decentralized, distributed, tokenized networks, or stall as they try to introduce blockchain into legacy value streams and systems" Mr. Furlonger concluded. 

Gartner clients can learn more in the report This research is part of the Gartner Special Report[url=https://www.gartner.com/technology/research/blockchain/] “Blockchain-based Transformation.” This collection of research highlights the scope of blockchain’s transformation, how it impacts various industries, and the current state and evolution of these technologies. 

Gartner CIO Events

Gartner analysts, and industry leaders will discuss key issues facing the CIO during the Gartner’s CIO Leadership Forums and CIO & IT Executive Summits. Follow news and updates from the events on social media using #GartnerCIO.

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT), is the world’s leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. We equip business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities and build the successful organizations of tomorrow.

Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven research steers clients toward the right decisions on the issues that matter most. We’re trusted as an objective resource and critical partner by more than 12,000 organizations in more than 100 countries—across all major functions, in every industry and enterprise size.

To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of business, visit www.gartner.com.