By Despite the challenges to the adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology majority of investors and consumers believe that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology will be widely used in the near future. According to an industry report published by SharesPost in September of this year, both investors and consumers tempered their expectations for the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies. The percentage of investors who believe cryptocurrencies will go mainstream by the year 2020 has dropped from 51% to 27%. While the percentage of consumers who believe cryptocurrencies will go mainstream by 2020 has also dropped from 42% to 37%. More people now feel that 2025 represents a more realistic timeline for the mass mainstream use of digital currencies.
There are, however, some investors and consumers who still believe cryptocurrency and blockchain will never become mainstream. These opinions are not widely held, with only 5% – 6% of consumers disbelieving the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain and only between 3% – 2% of investors disbelieving the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
Key Concerns for Crypto Ownership
The two key concerns regarding the ownership of cryptocurrencies cited by the respondents to the survey were the volatility of the crypto market and the safety and security of their investments.
Investors’ top concern about owning cryptocurrency is cited as being the high volatility of cryptocurrency, which, apart from other things, leads to a too-high dispersion of returns for the cryptocurrency index. Their next concerns were about the issues surrounding the safety and security of the investment, followed by the non-regulation of the cryptocurrency markets.
Interestingly, investors and consumers across board shared the same concerns regardless of whether or not they presently owned cryptocurrency. Consumers also cited a further, albeit slightly lesser concern, in that 15% of consumers were also worried by their lack of understanding of cryptocurrency.
Top Challenges to Blockchain Adoption
While both investors and consumers believe that although blockchain is still an emerging technology with no regulatory constraints, the top challenge that they perceived to widespread blockchain adoption was the lack of understanding of blockchain technology both among investors and consumers.
Among investors, 55% of whom believe that the key to the wider adoption of blockchain technology is education and understanding. This perception was confirmed by consumers, 57% of whom picked a lack of understanding as the top challenge to the widespread adoption of blockchain technology. Half of both investors and consumers also cited the lack of effective use of blockchain as a primary concern.
When asked which sectors investors and consumers believed blockchain technology would impact the most, both investors and consumers believed that blockchain would have its highest impact on the financial services sector. Both investors and consumers felt that blockchain was highly likely to disrupt money transfers, payments, and other asset management sectors. Investors also expected blockchain to disrupt decentralized stock exchanges, while consumers were concerned for cybersecurity and retail banking. Over 58% of investors and 55% of consumers think blockchain will first strike the money transfer segment.
Despite the abovementioned challenges, many believe that the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology is only a matter of time. Evidently, there is still a growing demand for cryptocurrencies, with over half of the investors surveyed and 72% of the consumers surveyed plan to increase their holdings in the next 12 months.
What are your top concerns for crypto ownership and blockchain use? When do you think cryptocurrencies and blockchain will go mainstream? Let us know in the comments below and see whether others agree with your prediction.
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