Blockchain technology has taken a giant leap since its invention in 2008 as bitcoin’s underlying infrastructure. Today, key players from diverse sectors are exploring blockchain technology's potential and its attributes to revolutionize business processes. From healthcare to finance, various industries are looking for the possibility to integrate blockchain into their business infrastructure. Blockchain’s decentralized nature leads to new business opportunities. It enables businesses to achieve greater transparency, strengthen security, and enhance traceability.
Blockchain's applications do no limit to cryptocurrency exchange only. There are numerous benefits that it provides to today’s businesses through its decentralized and distributed nature. Ultimately, these benefits also equate the reasons to integrate blockchain into your business processes or operations.
With the above-mentioned details, it is significant that blockchain can boost business efficiency and why you should implement it in your business. Now, let's understand the fundamentals of different blockchain networks and their types to ascertain which suits your business best.
Also Read: A Comprehensive Guide To DLTs and Types of Blockchains
After determining the blockchain network type as per your business requirements, the following are the subsequent steps you may need to follow.
Before getting into the blockchain development and implementation strategy, the first step is to determine the use case. Identifying the use case is a process of planning, clarifying, and organizing your business needs for a blockchain solution or application. It answers questions like, why do you require a blockchain solution for your business? What goals do you want to achieve with blockchain implementation in your business?
Often, it happens that a centralized database proves to be more efficient than a decentralized one. Therefore, you must perform a risk and cost-benefit analysis and assess the factors that will impact the implementation.
Also Read: A Consolidated List of Blockchain Use Cases in 2019, Invest in Blockchain
After deciding the right use case and ways in which blockchain implementation can help your business, you can proceed to PoC. Many Fortune 500 companies have already started piloting with blockchain implementation in business and putting money in PoC development.
PoC development is a process that can determine the practical potential and feasibility of your blockchain project for the business.
Steps of PoC Development
The development of PoC begins with outlining a series of questions relevant to your project. The questions usually surround the nature of a business and its requirements. Answers to these questions assist in a step by step development of the PoC. The next step is to lay the fundamental groundwork for your blockchain Proof of Concept. For that, it is critical to have a better understanding of the direction in which you want to drive your project.
Apart from that, there are also some necessary steps you need to follow:
Theoretical Build-up: Guidelines that define the scope and limitations of operations of the project
Prototype: A prototype consists of codes, sketches, designs, and mockups
MVP: Also known as a minimum viable product, it is a minimum set of best features
It is also necessary to analyze the results of the blockchain PoC for your project. Assessing the results of the prototype is important as it can create the difference between millions lost or millions earned.
Indeed, it is one of the critical phases before the implementation of blockchain in your business. It requires a qualitative analysis of blockchain platforms to find out the one that fits your needs appropriately. Considering these areas may help you choose the right blockchain platform for your project.
Activity: How active is the blockchain platform in the community?
Type of network: Public, Permissioned or Private network
Language Support: How many programming languages does the blockchain platform’s SDK support?
Popularity: How popular is your blockchain platform based on its contribution to GitHub and user’s ratings?
GitHub Repo: Names of the GitHub Repo for the blockchain platform’s SDKs
Technical Support: The blockchain platform is backed by a team of technical support specialists.
Also Read: Best Blockchain Platforms For 2019 That You Can’t Afford To Miss
Often, it has been observed that blockchain enthusiasts get carried away and tend to switch the entire system to the blockchain. However, blockchain technology is growing and it still requires legacy systems and integration capabilities with the same. It is because there will numerous businesses that will not have integrated the blockchain in their business processes. You may need to liaise with them frequently. For that, you need to blockchain implementation project must have the capability to interoperate with legacy systems.
Deciding to implement blockchain in your business can either prove to be a boon or a bane. However, delegating this task to a blockchain app development company can save you from all the above steps and hassle.
At Oodles, we provide blockchain app development services for diverse industries. Our team of blockchain developers has the requisite experience in assisting businesses with the implementation of blockchain in their complex processes to optimize or replace them.