More than half of the world's large corporations are looking into blockchain (distributed ledger technology), according to a study by U.K. research firm Juniper Research.

The research, released on Monday, found that 57 percent of large corporations – defined as any company with more than 20,000 employees – were either actively considering or in the process of deploying blockchain.

And two-thirds of companies surveyed by Juniper said that they expected the technology to be integrated into their systems by the end of 2018.

"It is clear that companies across the board have a significantly greater understanding of blockchain technology than was the case 12 months ago," the report said.

"This stems in part from a surge in R&D (research and development) both internally and in partnership with third parties, with a recognition that blockchain has the potential to be deployed in a variety of use cases."