Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for Business Solutions

• Mudit Kumar
• October 19, 2020
• Leave a Comment

You may link distributed ledger technology like blockchain with the notorious Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Yet there is more than that about it. Particularly when it comes to making business use of it. But how does it function? And most significantly, how blockchain solutions are going to benefit your business thrive in digital transformation? Let’s begin by making a significant distinction between blockchain and distributed ledger technology. The article highlights less of a dispute, more of a tale of roots.

Distributed Ledger Technology 

Distributed ledger (DLT) technology is an overarching terminology used to explain systems that digitally store data transactions between participants. They are decentralized databases where these transfers are trusted and can not be tampered with, from token sales to supply chain transactions. They’re practically hack-proof ledgers.

Blockchain grew to prominence with its usage of cryptocurrency purchase chains as the first full-fledged DLT. However, the advantages of implementing blockchain enterprise solutions in the last decade, including handling data and business operations more accurately and conveniently, are reaching the main stage. But, first, let’s discuss two types of blockchains: public and private.

Public and Private Distributed Ledger Technology (Blockchain)

Anyone can access the network in a public system; they can also read and write transactions. Such systems are autonomous, which means that there is no individual with complete authority. Once the system’s data gets checked, no entity can modify it. For crypto-currencies, public blockchains are popular.

Contrarily, Private networks impose limits on who’s eligible to join, unlike public blockchains. Users with certificates issued by a certification authority are approved. Different rights are then allowed to users, whether it is read-only or whether they can input transactions on the data chain.

Also, Read | A Comprehensive Guide To DLTs and Types of Blockchains

What’s Better for Your Business

Private blockchain networks have immense advantages for companies, whether it is speeding bookkeeping or accounting, reducing indirect costs of production processes and large-scale software, or maintaining authentic transfers of data. And by the minute, they are becoming more and more famous.

Total investment on private blockchains will hit $US 12.4b by 2022, according to the IDC Worldwide Blockchain 2018-22 prediction. 

Also, Read | Public and Private Blockchain | an Analogy to Help You Choose the Best

Advantages of Distributed Ledger Technology (Blockchain)

Immutable Infrastructure

When entries get submitted to the distributed ledger and become evidence of a permanent archive, any effort to alter the information gets prevented. It is because the alteration can get revealed by the series of cryptographic signatures. It provides a strong defense against mistakes or theft, or systemic attacks against information.

Transparent Ecosystem

The right to audit the data stored on it (as well as verify the digital signatures) is open to any entity or device that can access the distributed ledger. On the distributed ledger, participants have access to the same information. Notice that this does not imply that all data must be public or accessible to each user by default because permitted distributed ledgers can come in use to manage access to storage data. Furthermore, the data reported on the distributed ledger can itself be a digital signature of other data, so the database provides the framework to show the credibility of data that is known to several parties but not necessarily reported on the database.

Also, Read | Driving Efficiency, Security, and Transparency in Logistics with Blockchain

No Intermediaries

The function of the distributed ledger does not rely on anyone’s organization’s systems, ownership, or market continuity. It suggests that such an entity cannot have a detrimental effect on the functioning of the distributed ledger. It includes adding new charging methods, implementing technological improvements to the architecture of the database, or adding a reliance on technical structures that could lead to a system breakdown in the governing institution, resulting in an interruption of the whole ledger.

Scalability

The distributed ledger possesses the capability to ‘horizontally scale’ to satisfy demand growth across applications and encourage greater resilience. 

Security 

For stored data protection, distributed ledgers profit from powerful cryptographic techniques. Shared and distributed information available across the system gives increased protection against point threats, including denial of service or efforts to change the ledger’s content. 

Platforms for Distributed Ledger Technology-Based Solutions

Hyperledger Fabric

Using the Hyperledger Fabric project sponsored by the Linux Foundation, businesses can build proofs of concepts such as document processing, verification, KYC (Know Your Customer), reliability of the supply chain, and banking/finance. Fabric can also support smart contracts and approved distributed ledgers.

Ethereum 

Ethereum is the second best-known and valuable cryptocurrency. It offers a framework for implementations as well as a way of exchanging value as cryptocurrency. Smart contracts are supportable by Ethereum and are comparatively small code functions explicitly performed by the nodes supporting the Ethereum network. Furthermore, other tokens are developable on the foundation of Ethereum technology. As the profit from the scalability and availability of the Ethereum network, these smart contracts are flexible and highly accessible. For example, smart contracts may come in use to activate payments for goods subject to external requirements, such as getting the proper transport and customs clearance paperwork in order, as well as retaining the complete transport requirements as calculated by the corresponding IoT.

Ripple

Ripple describes itself as the financial payments industry blockchain approach designed to overcome the challenges that delays involved in inter-bank payments and settlements. It, like with Ethereum, has two facets, one as a blockchain of its right that helps users to pass funds directly to other users. The second element is RippleNet, which banks, exchanges, and corporates use for the business transition to business funds. Ripple has configurations that can accommodate considerably higher transactions per second, dramatically faster transaction processing times, and much lower fees than Bitcoin, as stated earlier. Therefore, this is theoretically more beneficial for IoT transactions with smaller value and microtransactions, including data billing.

IOTA

IOTA defines itself as a next-generation blockchain based on its utilization of the IoT as a ledger of things. It utilizes a revamped distributed ledger architecture recognized as a tangle 32. It is massively scalable, as well as prevent the expense of replicating all data to all nodes. The IOTA Foundation has partnered with organizations like Orange, DT, Volkswagen, Fujitsu, Microsoft, and Bosch. 

IOTA solutions can power micro transfers, data transfer, polling, and transmitted messaging. For IOTA tokens, no mining is necessary, and there is no charge for entry to the IOTA DLT. It is because participant nodes check two random unconfirmed entries on the tangle in the network.

Conclusion

If you can justify using a DLT for your business, and the use case is right for it, then go ahead. You will be able to securely store computer transfers, conceal them from unauthorized users, and use cryptography to make them hacker-proof. Only remember to assess the advantages that you need with the right security tools to secure your DLT-based solutions. You can outsource this responsibility to Oodles. We have experiential knowledge and experience of working across several blockchain technologies and delivering projects that directly or indirectly impact the bottom line of business.