The latest survey conducted by Deloitte indicates that traditional banks and financial institutions must prepare for the massive adoption of cryptocurrencies, which will dominate the entire financial system in the next 10 years.
Deloitte, a prestigious global auditing, consulting and advisory firm, applied its fourth annual survey "Global Blockchain Survey", which reveals interesting data on the current and future direction of new technologies, such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies, The Global Blockchain Survey targeted 1.280 senior executives and professionals in the financial services industry (FSI) located in 10 countries around the world, including Brazil, mainland China and the Hong Kong administrative region, Japan, Singapore, Germany, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
On results The survey’s findings show that traditional banks and financial institutions must prepare today to embrace an inevitable digital future. The company indicated that 73% of respondents believe that if banks do not choose to innovate and optimize their financial services with technologies such as blockchain, distributed ledger technology (DLT), among others, then they will lose the competitive advantage over companies that do offer services based on these technological innovations.
For the auditing and advisory firm, the emergence of cryptocurrencies and digital assets is accelerating the transformation of the financial industry and replacing traditional practices with more efficient, secure and transparent methodologies. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain are breaking new ground in the financial sector and their innovative products are driving economic growth globally, said Deloitte.
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Blockchain, a scalable and reliable technology
The results of the Deloitte survey underline the important role that blockchain technology is currently playing as a key driver of change. Overall, 81% of respondents considered blockchain to be a scalable technology that has already managed to gain widespread adoption worldwide.
Source: Deloitte.
96% of survey participants with extensive knowledge of what blockchain is say that the technology is already widespread around the world, playing a significant role in building a more complete and open financial infrastructure. It is worth remembering that blockchain technology has also found highly valuable use cases in other industries, such as education, healthcare, art, tourism, fashion and design, among many others.
On the other hand, 78% of respondents believe that cryptocurrencies and digital assets enable high-value business use cases, so it is only a matter of time before they are implemented within their companies. 80% stated that they are discussing the integration of new solutions and projects based on blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies with their partners and clients or, failing that, have already integrated solutions based on these disruptive technologies. Likewise, 80% of respondents believe that blockchain and cryptocurrencies will bring with them new sources of employment worldwide.
Cryptocurrencies and fiat money in 10 years
For 76% of respondents to the Deloitte survey, cryptocurrencies and digital assets will replace the use of fiat money, the money we currently know, in the next 5 to 10 years. For most, the innovation that accompanies crypto assets will continue to grow and evolve, allowing for much faster, more transparent and secure payments, making the use of fiat currencies redundant in the future.
Source: Deloitte.
FSI professionals point out that traditional banks and financial institutions must begin to act to offer custody and management services for cryptocurrencies and digital assets to their respective clients and users, in order to remain relevant within the financial sector in the future. The change that these new technologies are currently producing is more than noticeable in payments, whose nature is undergoing a transcendental change with the implementation of digital assets.
Access to financial services and products is also changing radically. An example of this is the DeFi, a new decentralized financial ecosystem that allows millions of people to access decentralized loans and other services without the intervention of third parties. Therefore, more than 40% of respondents agree that custody, new payment channels, and diversification of services and investments are some of the cryptocurrency use cases with the greatest potential that traditional system entities can adopt in order not to be left behind in digital innovation.
Regulation, the biggest obstacle to crypto adoption
Overall, 6 out of 10 respondents agree that the lack of clear regulation has been the main obstacle to the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Also, the majority pointed out that legacy infrastructure is another factor that has prevented mass adoption of crypto assets worldwide.
Respondents also expressed concern about cybersecurity risks, noting that data security and privacy is the area requiring the most attention within the industry to protect investors and users.
Linda Pawczuk, a director in Deloitte’s Financial Services Industry (FSI) practice and leader of Deloitte’s FSI Blockchain group, said that cryptocurrencies have caused a significant shift in the global financial ecosystem over the past year, forcing traditional entities to redefine and reinvent themselves to find innovative ways to stay relevant within the financial industry. Richard Walker, a director at Deloitte in the United States, noted that although many still consider cryptocurrencies as a rival, the reality is that this industry is creating new opportunities for banks and financial institutions to reinvent their business models and become more efficient.
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