What Do Businesses Need To Do When Applying Blockchain?

Blockchain is one of the most important technologies to emerge in today’s world, with many experts believing it will change our world in the next two decades as much as the internet has over the last five.

To be well-prepared for the application of blockchain technology in production and operation, in this article, there are 6 main steps that you should check out!

6 STEPS BUSINESSES NEED TO DO WHEN APPLYING BLOCKCHAIN

Before reading this, you should understand what Blockchain development is, and the practical applications of Blockchain technology. To sum up, there are five important benefits of Blockchain:

• Enhanced security
• Greater transparency
• Instant traceability
• Efficiency and speed increase
• Automation

STEP 1: Understand Blockchain Features

Here are the main 6 features of Blockchain Technology that you need to know:

Feature 1: Cannot be corrupted

Every node on the network has a copy of the digital ledger. To add a transaction every node needs to check its validity. If the majority thinks it’s valid, then it’s added to the ledger. This promotes transparency and makes it corruption-proof.

Feature 2: Decentralized Technology

This network is decentralized meaning it doesn’t have any authority or a single person looking after the framework. Instead, a group of nodes maintains the network making it decentralized.

Feature 3: Enhanced security

As it eliminates the need for a central authority, no one can just simply change any characteristic of the network for their benefit. Also using encryption ensures another layer of security for the system.

Feature 4: Distributed Ledgers

The ledger on the network is maintained by all other users on the system. This distributes computational power across the computers to ensure a better outcome.

Feature 5: Consensus

Every blockchain thrives because of the consensus algorithms. The architecture is cleverly designed, and consensus algorithms are at the core of this architecture. Every blockchain has a consensus to help the network make decisions.

Feature 6: Faster settlement

Blockchain offers a faster settlement compared to traditional banking systems. This way a user can transfer money relatively faster, which saves a lot of time in the long run.

STEP 2: Identify the Use case

If you do decide a blockchain solution would work best, it’s important to understand the scope of the solution. In identifying your use case, you would need to ask yourself certain questions such as: “Why exactly do I need a blockchain?”, “Why does my business need a blockchain solution?” “What are my targets, aims, and objectives if I decide to apply a blockchain implementation?”. Carefully establish exactly what functionality you want to get from the blockchain and create scoping and project documents. Enterprises provide analytics to estimate the applicability and suitability of blockchain.

You have to select some relevant blockchain use cases which you would have to evaluate, research, and thoroughly explore before you utilize them in the implementation of your blockchain as the picture gets wider and clearer to you.

STEP 3: Create a Proof of Concept (POC)

After you identify the different options for your use case, the next step is to create a valid Proof of Concept. In case you are wondering what POC means, it simply refers to a strategic procedure that is used to evaluate how realizable the blockchain implementation would be for your business.

Before you create your Proof of Concept, it is necessary that you understand the rigid planning phase that precedes it. Again, you would need to consider certain relevant questions that would aid you in a step-by-step evaluation of your Proof of Concept: “What business problem am I trying to solve through this blockchain implementation?” “What are the positive results I want to see in my business?” “How can I use blockchain implementation to transform my business?” etc.

These questions would be based on your business and what it requires. You would have to consider questions regarding the competition and the challenges of your business.

Importantly, it is key to state that “direction” is essential in creating your Proof of Concept. You should be able to grasp ahold of the potential outcomes of your actions. In short, your actions and decisions should be tactical and deliberate.

Creating a Proof of Concept involves the following steps:

• Develop and follow a set of guidelines that explain the extent of your business project
• Create a prototype that would entail sketches, design, code, architecture, etc.
• Test your prototype. It is very important that you test your prototype
• Analyze your MVP with the minimum set of top features that you want. MVP simply means a minimum viable product.

STEP 4: Predict any possibility of the risks

• Insufficient Skilled Blockchain Developers

This is a major problem that is associated with the implementation of blockchain. The industry is still experiencing a low influx of experts and smaller businesses are being forced to offer competitive incentives so as to attract and keep the limited skilled blockchain experts.

• Varying and Unstable Blockchain Regulation

Different participants in the blockchain industry are still unable to agree on regulations that will guide the implementation of blockchain technologies. The issue is not in adopting regulations; however, the challenge is with what kind and how much should the regulation take effect in the activities of blockchain implementation.

This is why all blockchain stakeholders need to influence the government and other regulatory authorities on a consensual rule that will be beneficial to all.

• Problem with Scalability

A lot of blockchain developers are currently tasked with resolving the contention between maintaining the normal benefits of DLT and at the same time ensuring that its scope is vast at high speeds. Indeed, the entire potentials of the blockchain technology industry are still very much unscalable.

• Security Issues

It should be noted that the basis of blockchain technology was security. However, with the increasing practical effects of the 51% attack theory, the blockchain industry is vulnerable to formidable threats from hackers.

• Energy Consuming Consensus Protocols

The solution to energy-consuming consensus protocols is for stakeholders to develop new and innovative modes of consensus for progressive decision-making acts. A breakthrough in this challenge has been predicted to bring about a potential evolutionary process that will take DLT to the next level.

STEP 5: Choose the suitable Blockchain platform

It is important that you are deliberate and careful in selecting a blockchain platform for your business. This is a strategic step in which you would have to consider factors such as your budget and thorough research making.

In selecting the blockchain for your business, you should be aware that you can choose from a variety of blockchain platforms. We have already introduced TOP 7 Blockchain Platforms to consider in 2022 in detail:

1. Ethereum
2. Hyperledger Fabric
3. EOS
4. Corda
5. Tron
6. Solana
7. Polkadot

STEP 6: Cooperate with Blockchain solution consulting business

When your company wants to apply Blockchain into your business, you should carefully choose your Outsourcing partner. When it comes to choosing your Software Development Outsourcing, there are 6 steps to choose the right team:

Step 1: Define your Goals

It is very important to be clear with goals and to communicate these goals first internally, within your own company, then externally, with the outsource software development provider you choose to hire.

Step 2: Choose the Outsourcing Model

There are 4 main types of Outsourcing models:

1. Outsourcing

The developers (or designers, testers) work from the vendor’s office and are the vendor’s full-time employees. The vendor provides all the working conditions for staff, including the office space, equipment (hardware and software), and all the office perks. The vendor also bears all the development-associated risks (e.g., delays, bottlenecks, lack of staff, poor quality of product).

Developers and teams can work on several projects at the same time. The model suits both long-term and short-term projects.

2. IT Staffing

This is a software development outsourcing model presupposing hiring developers from scratch, on the client’s demand and in line with their individual requirements. The vendor doesn’t interfere with the development process, only providing the office space and equipment for the client’s developers.

3. Dedicated Team services

A dedicated team is usually compiled from the existing staff the vendor possesses based on the client’s specific project requirements. The team works exclusively on the client’s project 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and is managed either by a Project Manager or by the client directly. This model suits long-term projects the best.

4. Staff Augmentation

If you need temporary workers to assist the client’s in-house team during the high season or to replace an in-house employee who left for some reason, this is an ideal model. It presupposes allocating coders from the vendor’s staff, ideally fitting the short-term development projects or tasks.

Step 3: Research Vendors: Determine the Outsourcing Location

There are a few things you should research and consider: research specific countries that have a good outsourcing culture, which company has high-quality with low-cost labors, how much it costs you from details to total, the effective policy, etc.

You should narrow it down to 4–5 companies that you thought were suitable for your project, take deep research about these potential companies, and then do the comparison.

Step 4: Choose the partner & test the employees

After doing deep research about vendors, you should decide to collaborate with the one that suits your company the most. Checking the staff is absolutely normal if you want to make sure that your project will be done by adequately skilled professionals.

Step 5: Make friends with your team

• Give the staff access to systems they’ll need
• Tell the team about the company, its internal culture, and rules
• Set a clear schedule of conversations
• Inform the team about the management pipeline
• Choose communication channels — email, messengers, etc.
• Don’t forget that you’re working with people — organize a water cooler chat
• If that’s relevant, make the team acquainted with other members of your in-house team — your assistant, managers, etc.

Step 6: Start deploying!

Choose practical task management systems, and invest in regular, healthy communication. If you like the way your team works and you want it to take more initiative — praise the workers and encourage them. If you don’t like something, also voice that. The longer it takes to give negative feedback, the harder it will be for the team to redo the work, which is time-, money-, and resource-consuming. Thus, it’s critical to react to everything on time.

If you want to know more about how to hire a Software development outsourcing, visit and read this blog for more information. We have listed out the benefits of an Outsourcing company, 4 main types of Outsourcing model as well as steps guiding you to choose a suitable IT Outsourcing team.

CONCLUSION:

Blockchain development is thriving, businesses remain open-minded about how this technology may become a driving force in future business transformation. Without doubts, we strongly believe that this article will greatly help you in achieving your vision in the blockchain business regardless of any blockchain implementation challenges.

Inspired by what we wrote? Do not hesitate to contact us via: hello@spiritlabs.co for a free consultation!

REFERENCES:

Article: Blockchain Implementation for Your Business by TechFunnel Contributors

Article: How To Implement Blockchain To Empower Your Business? by Diego Geroni