For Most CIOs, Blockchain Isn’t In The Cards, Gartner Finds

The International Data Corporation (IDC) released data in January highlighting the immensity of blockchain investment: Analysts calculated global spend on the technology to hit $2.1 billion this year, up from $945 million last year. The figure is expected to grow to a whopping $9.7 billion by 2021.

Despite the hype, new data from Gartner’s 2018 CIO Survey suggests that most companies have no plans to use or even develop a blockchain solution.

Reports in ZDNet on Thursday (May 3) said the Gartner research highlights the lack of interest among chief information officers with regard to blockchain technology; CIOs surveyed by the company revealed just a 1 percent adoption rate of the tool.

Similarly, only 8 percent of CIOs said they are in the short-term planning or experimentation phase with blockchain technology.

In fact, more than three-quarters of survey respondents insisted their businesses have no interest in blockchain at all – and have no plans to develop or use blockchain tools. Forty-three percent, meanwhile, said blockchain may be on the radar for their organizations, but they still have no plans to deploy it.

“It is critical to understand what blockchain is and what it is capable of today, compared to how it will transform companies, industries and society tomorrow,” said Gartner vice president David Furlonger. He warned, however, that a lack of adequate planning and education could lead company executives to dismiss the technology altogether and miss out on potential future benefits.

Despite Gartner’s focus on the potential of blockchain for the enterprise, the survey could signal that future proliferation of the technology is by no means inevitable.

“The hype is only as good as the numbers it can deliver,” wrote PYMNTS’ Karen Webster earlier this week. “And we are in the very, very, very early stages of finding and determining blockchain tech’s true potential.

“Today, the hype machine, which is the fuel of the investments in blockchain and crypto, rooted in a world run by algo-driven, permissionless networks, appears to be little more than a bunch of academic white papers and blog posts that sound great in the echo chambers,” she added.