Enterprise Blockchain Hype Continues to Become Reality
The thing about the hype cycle in tech is it will eventually die down. The question is, will it die down because the hype has turned into reality, or because it has been replaced by other, newer trendy innovations. The precipitous rise of Bitcoin kicked off a massive blockchain hype cycle that could easily have died down quietly, but the idea that the distributed ledger technology can be used for much more than cryptocurrency not only kept the hype cycle alive, it has driven it even higher. Now, that hype is clearly becoming reality.
In nearly every sector, businesses and developers are finding ways to leverage blockchain to create more secure and efficient processes. In fact, Juniper Research reports that 65 percent of enterprises are either thinking about or are already involved with blockchain projects. That’s an increase of 11 percent over last year. Additionally, companies that have already invested heavily in blockchain, to the tune of more than $100,000, say they expect to spend at least that amount in the coming year. The increased investment by adopters will not only drive growth, but serves as a proof point for blockchain as a business technology, with initial deployments already leading to new projects and deeper integration into business processes.
Equally important to the continued growth of the market is the expansion of use cases into different markets. Currently, 15 percent of proposed projects are related to payments – a drop of 19 percent – signifying increased breadth of deployments and development.
Driving much of the enterprise blockchain growth is the increased traction Ethereum is seeing, thanks to its distributed application (dApp) ecosystem, which has emerged thanks to Ethereum’s ability to create standards for tokenization. IBM is also a key driver of the momentum building around blockchain, noted as the preferred blockchain technology provider for projects by 65 percent of enterprises. To put that into perspective, second-place Microsoft is being chosen by only 7 percent.
If you’re considering blockchain projects for your business, or want to know how blockchain can help your business, hear from many of the innovators in the space driving blockchain innovation at The Blockchain Event, January 30-February 1 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Among the featured speakers are IBM and Oracle, two leaders in enterprise blockchain, along with several companies that have already built blockchain application for their businesses.
Edited by Erik Linask
