Deloitte, a Big Four accounting firm, polled finance experts on their thoughts on blockchain and digital assets.
According to Deloitte’s annual global blockchain poll, 76% of finance professionals believe digital assets “will serve as a strong alternative to, or outright replacement for, fiat currencies in the next 5–10 years.”
Deloitte, together with KPMG, EY, and PwC, is one of the “Big Four” accounting firms. For the past four years, it has performed a blockchain survey. The survey conducted in 2021 is the first to directly address the business operations allowed by blockchain.
More than 1,000 finance professionals from Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States were polled by the firm. It was carried out between March 24 and April 10, when the bitcoin market was at its peak this year.
According to 81 percent of respondents, the technology is “broadly scalable and has achieved mainstream adoption.” 73 percent believed that their company should use blockchain and digital assets and that they would lose a competitive advantage if they did not.
But it wasn’t all sunshine and roses.
Existing financial infrastructure was cited as one of the most significant barriers to the acceptance of digital assets by 65% of finance experts. Another hurdle, according to 63 percent, is cybersecurity, while 60 percent see regulatory barriers.
Concerns are understandable considering that legal frameworks and technical infrastructures have yet to catch up with crypto, a fledgling technology that was invented just over a decade ago. And there have been numerous cybersecurity breaches to deter high-stakes enterprises.
Despite the difficulties, crypto has a considerable following among banking experts. When asked how they planned to use cryptocurrency, 43 percent of those polled said their company would use it as a payment option in the future, and 45 percent said they would tokenize their assets.
According to the survey results, 44 percent of respondents stated cryptocurrency would provide their organisation with access to decentralised finance, which is a collection of non-custodial financial applications and protocols utilised by cryptocurrency owners.
Would the professionals’ responses have been different if the poll had been conducted during the spring crash?