Gartner has predicted that 90% of the current implementations of blockchain technology in the enterprise world will need to be replaced by 2021.

Being one of the more cutting-edge technologies for enterprises to adopt, one might think that early adoption of the technology, which supports such cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, would mean a company would be fairly future-proof.

However, Gartner forecasts a need to replace existing blockchain-based systems in order for forward-thinking organisations to remain cooperative and secure some 18 months from now, as well as avoid their systems from becoming obsolete.

"Blockchain platforms are emerging platforms and, at this point, nearly indistinguishable in some cases from core blockchain technology," said Adrian Lee, senior research director at Gartner. "Many CIOs overestimate the capabilities and short-term benefits of blockchain as a technology to help them achieve their business goals, thus creating unrealistic expectations when assessing offerings from blockchain platform vendors and service providers."

These problems stem from the blockchain market being composed of fragmented systems and services that often overlap with each other or work in a complementary fashion, which according to Gartner makes choosing the right blockchain for a business a challenging proposition for an IT department.

"Compounding this challenge is the fact that blockchain platform vendors typically use messaging that does not link to a target buyer's use cases and business benefits," explained Lee. "For example, transactions' was the term mentioned the most in relation to blockchain, followed by secure' and security.' While these may be functions of blockchain-enabling technology, buyers are still confused as to how these functions are achieved or what benefits blockchain adds compared to their existing processes."