Blockchain technology has been the subject of incessant hype over the past few years, but it barely even begun to make its mark on the enterprise, according to a new survey from Gartner Inc.

The research firm found that blockchain has been fully deployed by just 1 percent of chief information officers so far. That was the main takeaway from Gartner’s 2018 CIO Survey, which also found that just 8 percent are experimenting or looking at short-term plans for the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

Moreover, 77 percent of the 293 CIOs surveyed said they had either no interest in adopting blockchain at all, or no plans in place to adopt the distributed digital ledger tech.

According to David Furlonger, a Gartner vice president and fellow, the findings prove that blockchain is being “overhyped” and that its developer community has something of a “maverick” nature. “This year’s Gartner CIO Survey provides factual evidence about the massively hyped state of blockchain adoption and deployment,” he insisted.

Furlonger also warned companies against rushing into deploying blockchain technology, since that could lead to failed innovation, rash decisions and wasted investment, potentially causing some to reject what he still describes as a “potentially game-changing” technology. “It is critical to understand what blockchain is and what it is capable of today, compared to how it will transform companies, industries and society tomorrow,” he said.

Furlonger also tried to settle a long-simmering argument among blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiasts about where the technology currently lies within Gartner’s famed “Hype Cycle,” which is used to gauge progress towards widespread adoption. According to Furlonger, blockchain is currently at the “Peak of Inflated Expectations,” which suggests that a lot of the enthusiasm for the technology could soon ebb away at least for awhile.

“How quickly different industry players navigate the Trough of Disillusionment will be as much about the psychological acceptance of the innovations that blockchain brings as the technology itself,” Furlonger said.

Gartner’s technology Hype Cycle: Blockchain is at the “peak of inflated expectations” stage, Furlonger said. Source: Wikipedia

Moving forward, the analyst said, the challenge for CIOs will be to find and retain qualified blockchain engineers who can accommodate future growth. “Qualified engineers may be cautious due to the historically libertarian and maverick nature of the blockchain developer community,” he said.

That challenge was evident in the survey’s findings, which revealed that 23 percent of CIOs believe blockchain requires the most amount of skills to implement out of any newly emerging technology. Eighteen percent more said that staff with blockchain skills are the most difficult to find, while 13 percent also believe the structure of their information technology departments will need to change in order to accommodate the technology.

In the longer term, Gartner is still quite optimistic about blockchain technology. The analyst firm’s previous research suggests that blockchain could become a $10 billion industry by 2022, though for now it remains very much in the “hype” stage.

There are still endless possibilities for the blockchain, which can be used not only for cryptocurrencies but also for such jobs as supply chain tracking and smart contracts for the sale and purchase of assets, remittances, securing medical records and so on.

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