A Guide to Blockchain Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Development

There is an increasing rise in blockchain innovations across industries. The probability is that you might have thought that emerging technology could disrupt your business as well. Also, you know the range of benefits that it provides. However, you do not understand in which direction to drive blockchain experimentation and implementation in business. Additionally, it is highly unlikely that you have an unlimited budget for trying out new ideas with blockchain application development that may or may not provide results as you would have hoped. So, how can you begin exploring the potential of blockchain technology in your business without costing a fortune? The answer is developing custom blockchain-based PoC (Proof-of-Concept). 

What is a Proof of Concept 

A Proof of Concept (POC) is a method that businesses, usually startups, use to determine a project's application and functioning. They use it to pilot the feasibility of projects across industries, including financial services, insurance, healthcare, and more. A business can develop a PoC as a prototype having no supporting code. Or, it can use it as an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) with minimum features.

Essentially, a PoC is a prototype that organizations use internally to gain insight into the working of a particular project. It does not require them to invest in resources, time, and cost heavily. In the blockchain development space, it can be an efficient launching pad to enter the market. It applies to not only startups but enterprises as well. 

Benefits | Blockchain PoC Development

PoC development is the door to enter the blockchain market for businesses skeptical of adapting to a new technological dawn. PoC Development for a blockchain project will enable an enterprise to attain the following advantages. 

• Pilot the blockchain solution before making it available to the masses
• Determine possible constraints and pain points that may occur in the execution of the project in the future
• Prevent cost, resource, and time exhaustion 
• Determine that all involved stakeholders comply with your idea and show interest in investing in it

Developing a PoC is an efficient way to adopt before proceeding with blockchain solution customization or development from scratch. 

Also, Read | The Process of Blockchain Application Development In 8 Steps

Reasons to Invest in Blockchain PoC Development

Before hiring a blockchain development company to work on your PoC project, it is necessary to consider the following requisites. It will ensure whether you should proceed with the development or not. 

• You are a startup planning to enter the blockchain market with a limited budget
• Looking to demonstrate your idea of decentralization to investors or early users 
• Planning to exploit the applicability of blockchain technology to improve the efficiency of business processes

Saying yes to any of the above requisites means blockchain PoC development is an efficient alternative to begin. 

More Reasons to Develop a Blockchain PoC

If you want to find whether implementing blockchain in your business can achieve the following objectives or not, opting for blockchain PoC development is the right way to determine. 

• Establish transparent governance in business operations that depend on trust ensured by third-parties  
• Enable real-time traceability and monitoring of operations that involve manipulation of data by multiple parties  
• Create an immutable record of each party's activities that will eliminate intermediaries used for ensuring trust 
• Enhance data integrity of your business processes 
• Eliminate intermediaries and centralized control while providing a single source of truth across the ecosystem
• Digitally transform business operations that include manual validations  

Also, Read | A Comprehensive Guide to Blockchain Application Development

Now, along with complete cooperation from all partners, you need to have a solid strategy. 

But how are you going to come up with this precise and clear plan? Well, you require a project development process for that.

The Blockchain POC Project | Development Considerations

POC Feature Requisites

Decide on Transaction Rate

The transaction cost depends on which business you are going to use it in. If you're a business like a bank that has to deal with all sorts of cash transfers daily, so you'd need high transaction rates. 

Moreover, it will be the best bet to go for a thousand transactions each second. You will still need to make sure, though, that the network can support the high transaction volume and would not break down.

If you are SMBs, you do not need that many transfers every day, be prudent to settle for fewer. When you don't need it, you won't need an excessive number of features.

Define Consensus Mechanism

The consensus model proves to be a critical feature that you need to consider with proper planning. Also, without favoritism, there must still be a way to find an understanding with the consumers.

There are several frameworks out there for consensus. However, with its collection of benefits and drawbacks, every single one of them has its applications. So, balance out which consensus protocol, based on your proposal, will be suitable for your blockchain proof of concept.

Also, Read | Understanding the Blockchain and Decentralized Consensus

Decide on Privacy Aspects

A big challenge is a privacy. If you're a business that doesn't want to make it available for all to see, you'd have to include choices for secrecy. In this case, it will work very well to use the authentication method.

Besides, if you are concerned with classified information detection or preservation, then privacy is a big concern. With privacy channels provision provided by different blockchain platforms, you can permit which user can access confidential data. 

Consider Scalability Challenges

Your network of blockchain needs to be scalable. It's one of blockchain technology's weaknesses. That's why it becomes sluggish to lose its quicker performance as too many people start using the network. 

But you need to enhance the scalability of the project along with features if your blockchain Proof of Concept has to be a success. 

If you realize the user question, it won't be a challenging job to incorporate the functionality that fixes the problem.

Also, Read | Secure and Efficient Healthcare Data Sharing (POC) using Corda Blockchain

How to Measure the Success

After that, you will need to discuss and describe the metrics. Also, you need to concentrate on OMTM or one metric that counts for two key reasons. First, during the prototyping process of the blockchain proof of concept, these measurements can direct the development team. In comparison, for these metrics, any single initiative has to have a clear relationship. Second, in the case of developing an efficient blockchain proof of concept, you will need to specify how you would get your returns. Since it's just an investment, and you need to know if you're going to benefit from it.

Success metrics  

Determine as to if the Proof of Concept blockchain would be economically feasible. Since after the blockchain project proof of concept is complete, you will need to decide whether or not you want it to go to the production stage. Also, once you move it to the manufacturing stage, you will still need to calculate the potential returns.

You need to know if there is a professional knowledge of the blockchain in the team. And if you decide that your enterprise is not yet ready for the blockchain project to be implemented, you need to have experience dealing with it. This way, you can do so until the organization starts the blockchain initiative.

If you are looking for more information on Blockchain PoC development, connect with our blockchain experts for a cost-effective consultation.