Applying Blockchain? Don’t waste your time!
Blockchain is the flavour of the month and is a technology that sits in the eye of a monumental hypestorm. It’s all the rage, and no corporate wants to miss out on the excitement. In some views, blockchain is the cure to all problems facing IT (or even society overall!), and should be applied liberally at all possible points.
OK, blockchain is a revolutionary, world-changing technology, and in my view, it will eventually fulfil its hype and deliver profound value for corporates as well as for the man in the street. However, at least at this point, blockchain is best used selectively, sparingly, and cautiously. Inappropriate application of blockchain will lead to wasted effort, frustration, and disappointment.
It is vital to use blockchain for the right projects
Blockchain is great for the right applications and delivers splendidly on its core propositions, which are principally immutability and transparency. Immutability means that information written to a blockchain can never be changed, and transparency means that information written to the blockchain is available to everyone.
These two performance characteristics bring great value to a variety of uses: banking, supply chain management, peer value transfer, identity management, notarizing, etc. So: used properly, in the right situation, blockchain is an awesome technology that practically works magic – but, how does one decide on the right situation to add blockchain tech to a project?
“You Don’t Need a Blockchain” (look it up online) is a concise interactive tool to help managers consider whether to employ blockchain in a project. The presentation appears a bit flippant, but the logic behind the tool is sound: it’s based on the deeper US Department of Commerce document, “Blockchain Technology Overview”
Managers planning to incorporate blockchain in a project should review both sources.
Use blockchain for the right parts of projects
Once an IT project manager sees clear value in blockchain technology and has soberly decided to employ it, another line of thought can tempt them: “in for a penny, in for a pound”. That is, once a project uses blockchain in some capacity, it’s easy to believe that one might as well use blockchain throughout the project. That’s not a wise approach.
For most conventional IT functionality, blockchain is a staggeringly poor choice. Without conventional technology ameliorating them, most IT functions, such as database operations and file storage, are expensive, of limited capacity, and perform poorly on the blockchain.
Blockchain tech is also evolving extremely fast. This is both a benefit and a hazard: New tools and techniques are being developed daily. Some of these new techniques are exciting and powerful, but importantly, displace old techniques and can even cause old facilities to be abandoned. Building a project on this dynamic base adds uncertainty to a project – and that’s not a benefit!
Solution: set up clear interfaces that isolate blockchain functions
For these reasons and more, I recommend the use of conventional IT technologies for most elements of a project, and enlisting blockchain tech precisely and exclusively where it provides unique value. Building well-defined interfaces between components will make for a more robust system that can survive the changing tech environment.
Personal and Connected
Broad adoption of blockchain helps everyone in the blockchain community and should be a core goal of all blockchain market participants. At Coinweb, we are building two important technologies to accelerate mass adoption of blockchain technology, including crypto currencies, by making blockchains more personal and connected.
Our Hyperlayer enables blockchain applications to interoperate across several chains. Each blockchain has its own operational characteristics: they vary in speed, security, cost, etc. Applications that employ the Coinweb Hyperlayer will seamlessly harness the best blockchain for every function. This creates an optimal hybrid solution, by making blockchains more connected.
With the Hyperlayer providing cross-chain interoperability, we are improving blockchain usability through the Coin Name System (CNS). Currently, people who participate in blockchain operations such as payments identify themselves and their counterparties using hash addresses, like 1BvBMS EystWet qTFn5Au 4m4GFg7 xJaNVN2. Hash addresses are not memorable, are easy to confuse, and are difficult to validate and authenticate.
With the Coinweb CNS, people use the blockchain using easy, email-like names – like pd@coinweb. This significantly improves security, reliability, and convenience for every user. It makes a more personal blockchain.
It’s dangerous to go alone – take this!
We at Coinweb are working hard to make blockchain mainstream. Thankfully, we’re not alone, and if you want to learn more about blockchain, many enthusiasts are eager to share their knowledge with you. I recommend actively participating in the blockchain/crypto community to keep current with the latest tools and techniques. We sponsor periodic meetups around London – learn more about them at https://coinweb.io.
As part of our work encouraging mass adoption, we are working with a select set of partner companies to accelerate and amplify their ability to benefit from blockchain technology though our 360 Accelerator. If you are an established company considering a blockchain project, we’d like to hear from you.
Paul Davis was an early pioneer of Microsoft Windows and went on to manage the development of Word for Macintosh. He is currently Strategy Director for Coinweb, Inc. [email protected]