Adoption of blockchain is blocked in financial sector

Gartner Symposium

Gartner Symposium

from MTHULISI SIBANDA in Cape Town
CAPE TOWN, (CAJ News) A GLOBAL research and advisory company has cited the lack of interoperability standards as the major hindrance to pervasive blockchain deployment across financial services ecosystems.

Gartner cited this as an impediment, for at least three years, alongside governance and integration issues.

“Blockchain standards for financial services companies are currently fragmented and immature,” said Fabio Chesini, senior research director at Gartner.

“We are three to five years until standards mature and settle,” he added.

The executive made the sentiments ahead of the annual Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, taking place in Cape Town this week.

A blockchain, initially refers to a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography.

According to Gartner bank Chief Information Officers (CIOs) can choose from numerous blockchains, available from either enterprise-grade approaches such as Corda, Hyperledger, and Digital Asset.

Public blockchain standards include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, EOS and Tezos.

Chesini said CIOs must be mindful of the nascent and fragmented state of blockchain standards.

He said it was unlikely there would be a single de facto standard like in the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, at all levels.

“Given how new and fragmented the state of blockchain standards is, we expect no more than four standards to lead the market in the next three to five years.”

Chesini pointed out blockchain governance is important because it regulated activities occurring across the ecosystem and provides legal assurances that their arbitrary decisions would not be made as an abuse of power against other participants.

According to Gartner, to achieve the true potential of blockchain, implementations must be seamlessly integrated with already installed software solutions.

The Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo is rated world’s most important gathering of CIOs and senior technology executives.

– CAJ News

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