What are some bad Blockchain use cases?
Any tool looking for a
problem to solve places constraints on the engineering of any solution. A
tool-first approach leads to a higher potential of flawed engineering.
Identifying the problem first, the looking at the available tools to solve any
given problem represents a better approach.
One of the things we seek in
this brave new world of blockchain-based technology is the examination of what
problems can be solved with the technology as part of the discussion but not
necessarily the technology itself leading the discussion.
This will require a
consultative approach to use cases representing opportunities. First, coming to
a deep understanding of the problem itself, then evaluating the options for
solutions of the problem. This is why we take a blockchain agnostic approach
when it comes to available platforms.
The full potential of
blockchain technology is likely to be realized outside financial services and
government. Blockchains are a foundational horizontal platform technology that
could be used in any industrial sector including agriculture, utilities,
mining, manufacturing, retail, transport, tourism, education, media,
healthcare, and the sharing/P2P economy.
Generic applications in these
sectors include:
Supply chain and logistics: tracking physical
assets through changes in ownership and handling can be recorded and
communicated through data stored on a blockchain. This implicitly creates provenance
information for goods, and provides improved logistics visibility and supply
chain quality. Key events within the supply chain could be linked to automatic
payments with the use of smart contracts.
Internet of Things (IoT)
storage, computation, and management: devices connected to
the internet can use the blockchain as a persistent and highly-available
storage solution, can use smart contracts to provide a global distributed
computing capability, and can rely on the blockchain as a secure channel for
receiving information about software and configuration updates and
dynamically-delegated access control (including physical access control, for
locking devices).
Metered access to resources
and services: monitoring and payment for usage of utilities or services can be
provided by IoT devices and associated smart contracts.
Digital rights and IP
management: a blockchain can provide a trusted registry of media assets or
other intellectual property, and can provide the ability to manage, delegate,
or transfer access and rights information for those assets. Media files are not
necessarily stored on the blockchain itself. Instead, cryptographic hashes,
meta-data and other identifiers stored on the blockchain might be integrated
with bulk off-chain storage.
Data management: a blockchain can create
a metadata layer for decentralized data sharing and analytics. Although large
datasets themselves are unlikely to be stored there, a blockchain can help to
discover and integrate those datasets and data analytics services. Access
control mechanisms implemented on a blockchain may allow public data sources to
be integrated more easily with private data sets and analysis services.
Attestation and proof of
existence: a
blockchain can be used to record evidence of the existence of data or
documents, by creating a timestamped record of a cryptographic hash of the
contents of those documents. This can be combined with records of the
attestation or witnessing of corresponding physical documents by trusted third
parties. However, it can be significantly harder to demonstrate the uniqueness
or non-existence of such document records, unless there is a widely-accepted
strict normal form for their contents.
Inter-divisional accounting: multi-national
companies or large enterprises with separate divisional business units, often
have jurisdictional or governance needs to control their own internal
accounting, and yet also sharing accounting information with other divisions. A
straightforward application of blockchain technologies on a shared private
network can create a shared distributed ledger of inter-divisional accounts at
the interfaces between divisions. Here the role of non?repudiation is for
improved audit and change management of accounting information.
Corporate affairs (board and
shareholder voting and registrations): the voting authorities
of board members or shareholders in companies could be recorded and proxied on
a blockchain. Smart contracts on blockchains could use that record to
adjudicate votes conducted on the blockchain for specific motions. (As
blockchain transactions are not necessarily hidden, cryptographic mechanisms
may be required to prevent potentially undesirable strategic voting behaviors.)
These use cases represent a
few areas where blockchain represents an opportunity to solve existing
problems. In many of these cases, blockchain becomes a layer below existing
systems of record and workflow processes. In those cases, blockchain will be
better suited as an integration approach.
In other cases, blockchain may
represent an entire disruption to the application layer itself, becoming an
entirely disruptive rip-and-replace. Much of the current development fervor
around public chain efforts involves wholesale replacement use cases, even to
the point of relying upon new, unstable code and protocols. The potential risk
must be evaluated against the use case to determine whether or not the business
process requires an evolution, or a revolution.
At 10XTS, were at the leading forefront of research and
evaluation to help make those kinds of decisions and ultimately build the
proposed solution going forward.
The majority
of products that we purchase arent manufactured by any single entity. Instead,
there remains a significant number of logistics and raw materials suppliers for
a specific product before it comes to the market. Probably the biggest problem
with such a system is if one single component fails, the entire brand has to
experience negative outcomes. With the help of blockchain, its possible to clearly pinpoint the stage where the product has
reached within the chain.
These days,
most people different types of storage services which arent immune to
institutions that can force them to disclose the information. However, on the
blockchain, data remain decentralized and stored in different high encrypted
devices on a network. This leads to reduced risks of potential data breaches.
These days,
more and more businesses are planning to adopt blockchain to reap the advantages of the technology. As a result, theyre
looking for the right talents to help them drive results. If you too are
interested in learning blockchain, herere the skills you should focus on.
One of the
greatest benefits of blockchain is data. To become a successful blockchain developer, youd need to someone who can understand data and make
use of it to be presented to a wide range of people across the business.
Inthe future, blockchain is going to impact every industry and every organizational role. Therefore,
its highly crucial to understand a business thoroughly as the technology works
in a way where every entity has a unique access and view.
Ifyoure interested to step into the field of blockchain, this is the best time. The fundamental tools of building blockchain applications remain the same virtually. And you can easily find a good number of reputable institutes that offer specialized courses on the technology that would make your journey of becoming a blockchain developer much easier.