Bitcoin is one of the few intriguing and revolutionary technologies which is becoming popular in the last few years. From a functional standpoint, it has challenged the most fundamental principles of the world’s financial systems by providing a decentralized, secured and trusted model to process financial transactions. To enable its magic, Bitcoin relies on an architecture powered by a robust technology known as the blockchain.
What next after Bitcoin?
Blockchain has many practical applications apart from Bitcoin, which has become the most important implementation so far. The blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that underlies cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and platforms like Ethereum. It provides a way to record and transfer data that is transparent, safe, auditable, and resistant to outages. This feature of the blockchain can redefine the foundational patterns of enterprise applications. However, in order to implement blockchain solutions in enterprise, they need to have a series of key capabilities to get past traditional IT compliance and regulatory practices.
Key factors to implement Blockchain in an enterprise scenario
The following list includes some of the key capabilities required to adopt the blockchain in mainstream enterprise scenarios
• Development Platform : The blockchain is a very complex architecture modeled in terms of transactional exchanges. To address that, we need programming frameworks and languages that allow average developers to build general-purpose applications against the blockchain.
• Monitoring Tools : In order to be adopted in enterprise settings, the blockchain community should produce solutions that can actively monitor the health of a blockchain network and recover from unexpected failures i.e its runtime behavior.
• Private Cloud Deployments : Wide adoption of block chain in private cloud topologies is dependent on its seamless integration with technologies such as Docker, VMWare vCloud, Open Stack among other mainstream enterprise infrastructure platforms.
• Standards : It is important for organizations to implement standards as and when they start adopting block chain solutions. Standards can facilitate the interoperability between different blockchain platforms while also taking care of important security and compliance requirements of enterprise solutions.
• Interoperability with Established Enterprise Platforms: Blockchain solutions will be required to integrate with established enterprise platforms like databases, line of business systems etc.
Various Applications of Blockchain which is redefining future scenario
Networking and the IoT:
Samsung and IBM are using blockchain technology for a new concept called ADEPT, which will create a decentralized network of IoT (Internet of Things) devices. As it operates as a public ledger for a large number of devices, it could eliminate the need for a central location to handle communications between them. The devices in turn could communicate to each other directly to update software, manage bugs, and monitor energy usage.
Keyless Signature
Public Kye Infrastructure (PKI) is one of the fundamental technologies powering data signatures. The characteristics of the blockchain can help to overcome some of the limitations of PKI models with a keyless security infrastructure (KSI). A KSI model uses only hash-function cryptography, allowing verification to rely only on the security of hash functions and the availability of a public ledger commonly referred to as a blockchain.
Data Archiving
Decentralized and autonomous data archive models, such as the ones provided by the blockchain, can be an interesting alternative to centralized data storage solutions. This model will eliminate the dependency on a centralized authority and will allow distributed and trusted storage across nodes in a blockchain network.
Decentralized B2B Auditing
Using the blockchain, each party in a B2B process could autonomously track the events related to a B2B transaction without the need to rely on a centralized authority. Additionally, the security capabilities of the blockchain will facilitate the implementation of more sophisticated reconciliation and auditing processes.
Distributed File Storage
Cloud file storage solutions such as Box, Dropbox or One Drive , despite their popularity, face challenges in areas such as security, compliance and privacy in order to be adopted in enterprise environments. This is because enterprises need to trust a third-party cloud system with their confidential documents. Blockchain technology allows cloud storage to be more secure and robust against attacks. Storj is one example of a cloud storage network using the technology.
Security Trade Settlement
The blockchain offers an interesting alternative to traditional CSDs(Central Security Depositaries (CSDs) as a decentralized ledger that can keep records of transactions without relying on a central authority. The query capabilities of the blockchain will allow the settlement of trades in minutes or even seconds and at a fraction of the cost of the current CSD solutions.
Anti – Counterfeiting
Counterfeiting remains one of the biggest challenges in modern commerce with segments like luxury goods, pharmaceutical or electronics , constantly affected by it. The decentralized and security capabilities of the blockchain can enable an interesting alternative to traditional anti-counterfeiting platforms. In this model, brands don’t have to trust a central authority with their product authenticity information.
eGovernment
The blockchain capabilities provide a robust option to enable the digital collaboration between government agencies and citizens. In this model, different government agencies can store records in blockchain nodes so that it can be accessed and verified by other government parties and citizens in a secure and trusted way. Dubai, for example, is aiming to put all its government documents on the blockchain by 2020.
P2P Commerce
Traditional ecommerce business models are based on the presence of a centralized entity that control activities such as order processing, inventory management, catalog access, etc. In order to buy and sell goods, ecommerce marketplaces need access to sensitive user information such as credit card information, user profile data etc. This information often becomes the target of cybersecurity attacks and other challenges. The blockchain can enable the first effective peer-to-peer (P2P) ecommerce network in which buyers and sellers can interact directly without the need of a central authority that eliminates many of the restrictions of ecommerce models such as fees, regulated transactions etc.
Banking and Payments
It is predicted predicted that blockchain can be used to give access to financial services to billions of people around the world, including those in third world countries who don’t have access to traditional banking.
Many banks like Barclays are also working on adopting blockchain technology to make their business operations faster, more efficient and secure. IBM predicts that 15% of banks will be using the blockchain by the end of 2017.
Supply Chain Management
With blockchain technology, transactions can be documented in a permanent decentralized record, and monitored securely and transparently. This can greatly reduce time delays and human mistakes. It can also be used to monitor costs, labour, and even waste and emissions at every point of the supply chain. The distributed ledger can also be used to verify the authenticity or fair trade status of products by tracking them from their origin. Some blockchain companies working in this sector are Provenance, Fluent, SKUChain, and Blockverify.
Forecasting
The blockchain is set to change the entire approach to research, consulting, analysis and forecasting. Online platforms like Augur are looking to create global decentralized prediction markets. These technologies can be used to place and monitor bets on anything from sports to stocks to elections in a decentralized way.
Private Transport and Ride Sharing
The blockchain can be used to create decentralized versions of peer-to-peer ridesharing apps, allowing both car owners and users to arrange terms and conditions in a secure way without third party providers. Startups working in this area include Arcade City and La’Zooz.
The use of built-in e-wallets can allow car owners to automatically pay for parking, highway tolls, and electricity top-ups for their vehicle. UBS, ZF and Innogy are some of the companies developing blockchain based e-wallets.
Voting
Probably one of the most important areas of society that the blockchain will disrupt is voting. It can be used for voter registration, identity verification and electronic vote counting to ensure that only legitimate votes are counted, and no votes are changed or removed. This would be a massive step toward making elections more fair and democratic. Democracy Earth and Follow My Vote are two startups aiming to disrupt democracy itself through creating blockchain-based online voting systems for governments.
Healthcare
Blockchain technology can allow hospitals to safely store data like medical records and share it with authorized professionals or patients. This can improve data security and can even help with accuracy and speed of diagnosis. Gem and Tierion are two companies that are working in this direction.
Energy Management
Energy management has been a highly centralized industry for a long time. Energy producers and users cannot buy it directly from each other and have to go through the public grid or a trusted private intermediary. TransactiveGrid is a startup using Ethereum that allows customers to buy and sell energy from each other in a peer-to-peer way.
Online Music
Several startups are coming up with ways for musicians to get paid directly from their fans, without giving up large percentages of sales to platforms or record companies. Smart contracts can also be used to automatically solve licensing issues, and better catalog songs with their respective creators. Mycelia and Ujo Music are two startups creating blockchain-based solutions in the music industry.
Retail
When you shop, your trust of the retail system is tied to the trust of the store or marketplace. Decentralized blockchain-based retail utilities work differently: they connect buyers and sellers without a middleman and associated fees. In these cases, trust comes from smart contract systems, the security of exchanges, and built-in reputation management systems. One such startup is OpenBazaar.
Real Estate
Some of the issues in buying and selling real estate are bureaucracy, lack of transparency, fraud, and mistakes in public records. Blockchain technology can speed up transactions by reducing the need for paper-based record keeping. It can also help with tracking, verifying ownership, ensuring accuracy of documents, and transferring property deeds. Ubitquity, is a blockchain-secured platform for real estate record-keeping that is an alternative for legacy paper based systems.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding has become a popular method of fundraising for new startups and projects in recent years. In blockchain-based crowdfunding, trust is created through smart contracts and online reputation systems, which removes the need for a middle-man. New projects can raise funds by releasing their own tokens that represent value and can later be exchanged for products, services, or cash.
Summary
The blockchain represents one of the most important advancements in computer science of the last few years. Similar to Bitcoin, we should expect to see spectacular platforms in the enterprise software space powered by the blockchain.