Blockchain use at companies remains in the experimental stage, but chief information officers that want to understand the digital ledger’s enterprise potential should create a team and start downloading basic tools now, say IT leaders exploring the technology.

The appeal of blockchain is that it’s an online, ongoing ledger of transactions – any transactions, not just financial. Tight security comes from encrypting data in each block, as well as requiring all the other computers, or nodes, on a given blockchain to verify transactions. “This market is at the concept stage,” said Jeremy Millar, a partner with Magister Advisors, an M&A advisory firm. “These are long-run plays. But a really important long-run play.”

Financial services firms have jumped in, building pilot systems to process banking, trading and other asset transactions. CIOs in all industries should be investigating blockchain because of its potential to increase efficiency in conducting transactions with outside parties and speed up how quickly transactions are completed, said Chris Perretta, global head of enterprise data and technology at State Street Corp.

State Street is starting to experiment with blockchain in three ways: internally as part of core software development; with clients in private trials; and as part of a handful of consortia of the world’s biggest banks and technology companies. “No one doubts the usefulness of blockchain because it’s working now in the Bitcoin world,” Mr. Perretta said, referring to the virtual currency that is based on blockchain technology. “It’s not like the technology has to become; it’s there.”

The first step is to assess your organization’s tolerance for risk, Mr. Millar said. If the appetite isn’t there for trying something unproven on the enterprise scale and lacking in standards, gather intelligence rather than build pilots, he said. Watch how experiments go in the financial world and be ready to answer questions when senior-level peers start asking, he said.