Despite a difficult past year for crypto and blockchain, new research from web3 platform CasperLabs has found that 87 percent of businesses say they are likely to invest in blockchain in 2023.
‘The State of Enterprise Blockchain Adoption in 2023’ questioned 603 enterprise “decision makers” across firms from the United States, UK, and China.
It found that sentiment towards blockchain remained strong in these countries despite market downturns. On top of the 87 percent that are likely to invest this year, almost 90 percent of businesses said they have already started to use blockchain in some capacity.
Interest was particularly pronounced in China, where more than half of respondents said they are very likely to invest in blockchain this year. This is in part because 81% of the survey’s respondents expect technology budgets to increase in 2023 despite economic issues.
Ralf Kubli, a board member of the Casper Association, said: “It’s hugely encouraging to see businesses understanding that blockchain is not a competitor but a solution.”
For businesses that are already using blockchain technology, security and copy protection were cited as its main benefits. In IT-based operations, respondents are using blockchain for internal workflows, supply chain efficiency, and software development.
“Business adoption is often the main driver of bringing new technologies into the mainstream, and blockchain is no different,” said Medha Parlikar, CTO and co-founder of Casper Labs. “Perhaps the most important takeaway from this report is enterprises, governments, and Wall Street are recognising that blockchain is not here to tear down and replace their current tech stack, but to help them operate more efficiently within their existing infrastructure.”
A revealing aspect of the report was its findings that enterprise leaders knowledge of blockchain technology still falls short. Whilst almost three quarters said they feel confident in their knowledge of the technology, more than half said the terms ‘blockchain’ and ‘crypto’ are interchangeable.
Similarly, CasperLabs reported that the biggest hurdles to adoption are limited developer knowledge, lack of tools, interoperability, and blockchain cynicism.
However, 98 percent of respondents expressed they would be more likely to adopt blockchain if they learned more about the technology and understood how their peers were using it.
