Executives leading the charge for the adoption of cutting-edge blockchain technology in the banking sector concede that the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown a spanner in their works, one they hope will be temporary.

David Rutter, chief executive of R3, a blockchain developer working for a number of big banks, said “the velocity of the work is going to be impacted by this, like almost everything else”. But he sees a silver lining in the capacity of crises to “drive the type of radical change that we’re trying to promote”.