Why do you need a blockchain?

People understand today there is no doubt that the blockchain will have a tremendous influence on a wide range of industries, from capital markets to the music business. Although some examples seem obvious, this technology is still surrounded by a veil of hype and uncertainty. There is a dilemma: to implement or not to implement the new, but already such a promising technology at the stage of preliminary approval?

According to Juniper Research, six out of ten large corporations or actively consider or are actively implementing the blockchain. Among the companies which have reached the stage of Proof of Concept ("proof of concept"), 66% expect that the blockchain will be integrated into their system by the end of 2018. The study says that these companies get the most benefits because 1) transparency of transactions; 2) independence from current legacy systems storage; 3) high volumes of transmitted information.

what are the advantages of the blockchain?

Studying the causes of the introduction of the blockchain, it is easy to notice that there is an inherent risk that managers are willing to explore new technologies, take the concept of not exploring alternative options. According to the study, that systemic changes rather than the technology can provide better and affordable solution.

For many corporations the motive of the study of potential uses of the blockchain is to find inefficiencies in current processes. This approach is guaranteed to give some results, but often the solution is to really redesign outdated processes in accordance with the digital world, not to explore new and unknown technology.

One of the reasons why the blockchain is often engaged as a solution to many problems is that multi-level use of the technology of the blockchain is very easy to imagine. But the deeper we go into specific cases, the more it becomes obvious that the application of the blockchain to well-known problems is too theoretical solution.

The Blockchain, in its simplest form, is an alternative to traditional databases. The blockchain is very different from databases, but the most important difference is the decentralized nature. While a conventional database needs a Central management body to maintain and control data, the blockchain provides a decentralized approach to storage and data validation. However, this nuance requires sacrifice. The blockchain in its current state (public versions) have problems with scaling, which makes it slower than normal databases. In addition, users must pay a fee for each "transaction" in the database, and the Commission fluctuates and changes.

To confuse things even more, the term "blockchain" has become blurred as popularization. The topic has become so popular that it lost its specific meaning. Blackany resolution work with the participation of famous personalities, stake holders in a given sector and private blackany managed by one organization. Such approaches have become particularly popular in the financial industry, as it focused on efficiency and continuity, and not on transparency and anonimnosti. But if you look to the intrinsic properties of private or allowed of the block chain, they resemble separated database, so critics accused them that "the blockchain" is quite different than split the database.

The Solution to digital identity in Estonia — an example of using the blockchain for marketing purposes, because the company developing the technology underlying the solution, rebranded its proposal and instead of "hash likovnih temporary marks" appeared "blockchain technology", right in the midst of blockcanvas hype. Due to last year's hype on the topic of cryptocurrency, there's no shortage of companies who seek to call themselves "blockchain" in order to improve their own assessment.

Given all this, is to ask a few simple questions that will help you in the choice to use the technology of the blockchain or just stick to the good old database.

First of all, if everything is working, nothing to fix. If you are satisfied with your database today, it makes no sense to replace it. Potential transition will lead to a rethinking of everything, a census of most of the operating elements and the bet on a new technology that will require many years before becoming Mature.

You rely on a third party to implement the transaction or to create a trust between multiple stakeholders? If the use of a trusted third party to establish and maintain trust between the stakeholders you need to consider the technology of the blockchain. But.

If, on the other hand, the most important factor will be the speed of transactions and yet will have to wait.

You need to process highly dynamic data with a clear audit? Blockchain offers flexibility, allowing different parties to enter new data into the system, which is also supported by various custodians.

All So much easier, the Internet has a lot of ready-made circuits that operate on the blockchain and you can use. In the world cryptotokens there are lots of solutions that are designed to simplify the work of the various businesses.

Despite the fact that the blockchain is still very young technology, these applications quite a lot and they are very promising — for example, the distribution of royalties in the music industry, cross-border transactions, management of timeshares, medical records and more. For example, a decentralized Facebook would be able to avoid a number of scandals associated with the freely propagating misinformation or influence on public opinion and identity theft.

In Short, as with many new technologies in the blockchain you can see a panacea. But to risk a working system and ignore common sense would be unwise. In times when the cryptocurrency produces even Olga Buzova, there is a chance to break something that works.