Blockchain technology is to be used by majority of financial institutions within three years.
That was the finding from two IBM studies which surveyed 200 banks and 200 global financial institutions respectively.
Many believe that the open ledger technology which underpins virtual currency Bitcoin has the potential to regulate the incredible volumes of data being generated, protect consumer privacy and improve governmental and industrial transparency.
And the studies found that commercial blockchain solutions are being adopted throughout the banking and financial markets.
Fifteen per cent of banks and 14 per cent of financial market institutions intend to implement them next year, while 65 per cent of banks will be working on such solutions in the next three years.
鈥淭here are many advantages to being an early adopter of blockchain technology,鈥� said Likhit Wagle, IBM鈥檚 global industry general manager in banking and financial markets.
鈥淭o start, first movers are setting business standards and creating new models that will be used by future adopters of blockchain technology.
鈥淲e鈥檙e also finding that these early adopters are better able to anticipate disruption, fighting off new competitors along the way.鈥�
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The studies found that 83 per cent of those adopting the tech expect it to improve reference data, 80 per cent think it will lead to better retail payments and 79 per cent expect improved consumer lending.
In July, IBM launched a cloud service for companies to test blockchain projects in a secure environment.
Earlier this year digital minister Matthew Hancock said the Government was looking at making use of the technology to track public money such as student loans.
And it appointed its first official blockchain provider in August after start-up Credits was awarded a place on the G-Cloud 8 contractor framework.
Blockchain has been described as the 鈥渟ilver bullet鈥� needed by the Internet of Things industry.