More than 50 of the world’s largest banks are wrestling to adopt the technology that underpins bitcoin, i.e Blockchain. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase are some well known banks that have signed onto an industry-wide body, R3 to draw up industry standards for bringing blockchain into the world of finance. However, none of them has made any application publicly available to date.

Those banks expect that blockchain will streamline transactions in a way that reduces costs, maximizes security and improves profit by making markets more productive. However, blockchain technology can only work adequately if there is an industry-wide acceptance and standards. For any bank taking the lead towards adopting this technology and revamping their existing infrastructure, it may result in a costly investment and that bank would then have to hope others follow their initiative.

This makes blockchain a technology that is triggers a lot of discussions to which banks are visibly not participating. Although banks are seen attending conferences, partnering with R3 to play around with the technology, none of them is actually utilizing it in the physical world.

Fredrik Voss, VP Blockchain Innovation Nasdaq mentioned the importance of network at the IMN distributed ledger conference in Manhattan. According to him, “The more companies use blockchain, the more useful and profitable it becomes.”

“But since banks are cautious to make the initial investments into the technology, it may be up to IT firms to lead ahead.”, says McNamara, co-lead PwC’s blockchain for finance industry practice. The two important reasons for bringing this into light, as reported by McNamara will be driving market share in the finance sector on the whole and secondly moving out of ‘rack and rack infrastructure and into the cloud.’

“Big names in IT industry like IBM and Microsoft will be the leadfoot of blockchain as they acquire top engineering talents and big balance sheets.”, said McNamara.

IBM and Microsoft collectively have acquired a front role in representing blockchain solutions at Sibos 2016, an annual finance industry conference, in Geneva (26-29 September). These firms have created shared protocols and standard for the adoption of the blockchain.

For Example, Microsoft is joining forces with Bank of America Merrill Lynch to implement blockchain in their trading processes.

Speaking at the conference in Geneva, IBM’s CEO, Ginni Rometty told bankers that blockchain will have a profound change in how the world works: “The blockchains will do for transactions what the internet did for information”

IBM has till now worked with 300 clients to create blockchain for business in different areas like identification management, trade finance, forex settlement and contracts.

If blockchain becomes more widespread, its benefit to render transactions real-time, immutable and secure will finally be recognized. By disregarding the need for keeping different copies of records and contracts, blockchain acts more like a Google document that can be viewed by many people at the same time. The transaction takes place between two parties without requiring the need of an intermediary, and any kind of changes are transparent, permanent and approved by everyone involved. The transactions which take place get added to the chain, forming an excellent and comprehensive record.

This further calls the introduction of “smart contracts” wherein the entire process is automated. The main objective here is to allow two anonymous parties do business with each other, without the need for a middleman. Smart contracts are often created by programmers via the help of smart contract development tools and are written using coding languages Python, Java, C++ and Go. In an economy, where businesses are interconnected and transactions are cross-organized, smart contracts act to ensure that every information entered in the ledger fulfills conditions as cryptographic signatures to assure identity and other agreements as agreed by all.

Despite the increased eagerness and positive sentiment, blockchain keeps on struggling to become a standard platform that supports financial transactions. The technology is apparently perceived as a high risk.

In an interview with Business Insider, Mike Bodson, CEO and President of Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, told, “We all are probably overemphasizing the effect, blockchain will mark on industry in the coming 2 years whereas undervaluing the impact it will have in 10 years.”