Given the opportunities blockchain tech offers, organisations need to understand the various aspects of embracing this innovative technology

The Blockchain is not just an innovative technology; it is a vision that organizations aspire to transform into reality. With all the hype about Bitcoin, Blockchain tech is getting much lesser attention that it deserves. The fact is that the technology goes far beyond being the catalyst behind the digital currency marketplace, as it ushers a new revolution for banking, insurance, real estate, healthcare, e-commerce and many other industries.

No wonder, organisations from across these domains are looking to embrace Blockchain as a part of their existence. Before delving deeper into what goes into Blockchain transformation, it is important to understand the technology and the way it works.

Blockchain: The technology that is poised to change the world

Distributed, encrypted, and immutable — these catchwords define Blockchain pretty well. In simpler words, it is a distributed ledger that maintains the records of digital transactions in the form of “blocks” across multiple computers.

Each of the blocks gets connected to the chain as these are added to it in a chronological order. With this shared architecture, the data blocks are accessible to all the users and there are no intermediaries. Along with transparency, Blockchain offers unmatched security due to its robust encryption and the absence of a centralised architecture.

Now that the fundamentals of the technology have been explained, let us understand how an organisation can implement it.

Building A Blockchain-based Application: The Process

Blockchain spells new opportunities for mobility, commerce, healthcare, banking, and any other industry that one can imagine. It is but natural that organisations would want to make this transition. So it becomes imperative for them to understand the aspects of embracing this innovative technology.

Here are the steps that make the strategic plan for those embarking on this amazing journey:

1. Identify the goal

Before initiating the development phase, it is important to understand the business model, its elements, challenges, and objectives. External factors such as market competition, trends, and opportunities are also to be borne in mind. The organisation needs to weigh the costs and benefits of the ideated solution as well as analyse its expected efficacy. This will enable them to establish whether the investment is actually worthwhile or not.

2. Visualise a use case

The industry-specific use cases of Blockchain are many, and there is a need to have a tangible one as the project objective. For instance, data authentication and smart payment processing are seen as the most popular use cases for a banking Blockchain solution. Similarly, smart contracts work for the real estate segment and patient record management is something that most healthcare providers would envision as a part of their Blockchain-based business application. Having a concrete use case is essential to weave the solution around.

3. Choose a suitable consensus mechanism

Being a decentralised system, Blockchain requires the entire user base on the network to authenticate every transaction. The process, known as consensus, is the backbone of the technology. Proof of work is the original Blockchain consensus mechanism that is used by Bitcoin. As the technology evolved, many other mechanisms such as Proof of Stake, Proof of Elapsed Time, Federated Byzantine Agreement, Round Robin and Federated Consensus have surfaced. The developer needs to choose the one that is apt for the project’s use case.

4. Select an appropriate platform

There is an abundant choice in free and open-source Blockchain platforms today, with advanced options such as BigChainDB, Corda, Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, Multichain, Chain Core, Quorum, Stellar, and more. In the next step of Blockchain development, the developer has to pick a platform that is relevant to the use case and consensus mechanism chosen for the project. Security and stability are the key parameters to be borne in mind while making the selection.

Also read: Blockchain, Echelon and experiments: Here is what to expect from e27 content team

5. Design the architecture

Next is the architecture design for the solution, which includes elements such as the infrastructure, software, and hardware configuration. The solution may be architectured on the cloud, on-premises, or a hybrid model depending on the organisation’s need. Options such as operating system, processors, disk size, and memory are to be considered for deciding the hardware and software configuration of the solution.

Blockchain solutions can further be classified as permission-less (Bitcoin), permissioned (voting systems), public (Ethereum), private (contract management systems in pharma companies), or hybrid (KYC application shared among several banks).

6. Configure applications

Once the architecture design is finalised, the application has to be configured. This has to be done with careful planning because it is difficult to alter certain elements once configured. These elements include permissions, atomic exchanges, asset issuance and reissuance, native assets, consensus, signatures, parameters, key management, key formats, address formats, and hand-shaking.

7. Build the API

While pre-built APIs are available in some Blockchain platforms, developers need to create them for others. APIs are required for diverse purposes, such as generating of key pairs and addresses, data authentication through hashes and digital signatures, smart contracts, storage and retrieval of data, smart asset lifecycle management, and audit functions.

8. Admin and UI design

Once the backend of the application is done with, the front-end design is to be chosen next. The developer has to consider the options in front-end programming languages such as Java, Javascript, HTML5, CSS, Ruby, AngularJS, NodeJS, and Python. They also need to decide the servers (Web servers, mail servers, FTP servers) and external databases (MongoDB, MySQL).

9. Enhance the applications

Now that the basic model of the Blockchain application is ready, it can be further enhanced by integration with futuristic technologies. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Bots, Cognitive Services, Cloud, Data Analytics, and the Internet of Things are some of the technologies that can be implemented in the application to take it a step further.

Conclusion

Besides adhering to these key stages of Blockchain application development, there is a suggestion that developers must follow. They are recommended to work with the MVP model rather than take up full-scale development of the solutions directly. The reason is that this technology is still in its evolutionary phase and the MVP approach effectively reduces the risks and costs. Any glitches, performance issues, crashes, and latency are easy to identify and resolve in the MVP model. Of course, the application can be scaled later as the business and its requirements grow with time.

—-

e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Featured Image Copyright: sashkin7 / 123RF Stock Photo

The post 9 stages of implementing a blockchain solution appeared first on e27.