BAFT Event Attendees See Future With Billions of Blockchains

A new survey shows financial professionals are increasingly bullish on blockchain and distributed ledger tech, even as they profess to a lack of understanding of the subject matter.

Conducted by think tank and distributed ledger specialist Z/Yen Group at the Bankers' Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT) Global Annual Meeting in Paris this January, the poll found that while 70% of respondents said the financial institution they work for is exploring the technology, 69% reported they don't believe they have a "good grasp" of how it works.

Overall, 73% of respondents reported they had more than 15 years experience in the industry, with the majority working in either a business executive (44%) or product development (46%) role. Just 6% indicated they were responsible for their institution's technology offerings.

Of note was that respondents demonstrated that they believe in a future where there is more than just one central distributed ledger, with just 3% indicating they think a technology like the bitcoin blockchain could serve this function.

Sixty-four percent of survey takers voiced their opinion that there will be thousands or millions of blockchains (48%) or more than 1 billion (16%).

Underscoring this idea is that 71% believe the secure financial telecommunications platform SWIFT believe the service should be extended through the use of distributed ledger tech, with just 18% suggesting the technology would serve as a replacement.

Elsewhere, the survey examined topics such as the perceived impact of regulation on financial technology efforts and the effectiveness of current methods of combatting cybercrime, among other topics.

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