Blockchain Technology is slowly becoming a common phrase in the tech world. Many people still think that the real application of blockchain lies solely in cryptocurrencies. However, that’s not the case in reality. With enterprise blockchain technologies on the rise, people will finally be able to see the versatility of this new tech.

Enterprise blockchains are empowering large industries with the same level of security, ease of use and control, fundamentally changing the course of their business.

They are here to stay, and many are already starting to embrace the new adoption. Even though they have their fair share of criticism, still many startups and vendors are continuing to develop it. This pushes the enterprise adoption forward way faster than expected. Well, who wouldn’t want to secure their position in the future blockchain market, right?

Enterprise Blockchain: All You Need To Know

That’s why we’ll be talking about enterprise blockchain in this guide to help you out better understand the whole concept. So, why wait? Let’s start the session!

 

Table of Contents

Chapter-1: What is Enterprise Blockchain?

Chapter-2: Features of the Blockchain Technology the Enterprise Can Utilize

Chapter-3: Different Types of Blockchain Technology for Enterprises

Chapter-4: Vendors That Provide BAAS

Chapter-5: Examples of Enterprise Blockchains

Chapter-6: What are the Use Cases of Enterprise Blockchain?

Chapter-7: Are There Any Implementation Challenges?

Chapter-8: What Is The Future?

Chapter-9: Final Words

 

Chapter-1: What is Enterprise Blockchain?

Enterprise blockchain is a blockchain network that can be integrated and utilized for enterprise-level purposes. These blockchain technologies are specially equipped to deal with enterprise level organizational demands.

Utilizing blockchain in a corporate environment is blooming at a rapid rate. New projects will soon dominate this sector of the industry. Enterprise blockchain platform will disrupt the typical ways and will take over a big chunk of a portion of the global enterprise marketplace.

What is Enterprise Blockchain?

And why not, blockchain is fully capable of handling organizational level demands. The long blockchain history lets us know about its capabilities. With lots of blockchain projects happening all around us, it’s only a matter of time when the technology is perfected for a global utilization.

Many enterprises are using enterprise blockchain solution to boost their impact on consumers. A popular name such as IBM, Amazon is implementing various blockchain projects and also collaborating with already existed enterprise blockchain platform.

We’ll get to more of it later in the article. For now, let’s see how this new enterprise blockchain platform is revolutionizing.

 

What Is Boosting This Worldwide Blockchain Revolution?

The answer would be – API (Application Programming Interface) economy. API economy is rising tremendously, and many organizations are using this technology for the betterment of their business. Even though this technology is advancing at a greater rate, still it’s not possible to keep pace with the growth of the internet.

Nowadays enterprises need a tremendous amount of data management along with fast transactions worldwide to keep things going and growing. This creates a different kind of business challenges with security, transparency and complexity issue.

• Security: Centralized system of the enterprise architecture give a hacker an advantage to hack into certain users account, applications, and devices. It fails to provide the minimum security needed.
• Complexity: Any global enterprise needs to keep pace with various intermediaries and have harmony in the working environment among them. Managing it creates complex problems along with increased costing.
• Transparency: There isn’t any certain visibility point where the organizations could keep track of their services going to their customers. This increases counterfeit issues and induces a negative impact on the business.

With just only counterfeit the enterprises take a hit of more than $7.5B every year. And it’s just only in the U.S.A! Product suppliers across the globe have to pay interests up to 30%, which increases the overall consumer pricing. So, even though the manufacturer can make budget-friendly products in the end, the consumers can’t enjoy all the benefits.

In this typical catastrophic situation, blockchain technology can save the sinking economic ship. Integrating with these technology enterprises can regain the lost trust of their customers.

Data is the new currency now for the API growth, and with the help of enterprise blockchain solution, now organizations can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

 

Is The Opportunity Big?

If we recall the traditional ways, you’ll see institutions such as government, banks or corporation have always had a major role in managing the risk factors. Now, these organizations can finally use blockchain to get rid of the uncertainty, which will eventually cut down the costs.

This level of transformation will have a major effect on the overall world economy. The programmable economy is the future now. Enterprise blockchain solution will take over it, and it’s expected to grow up to $3T within 2030!

That’s an extraordinary number to reach within just a few more years.

 

Is Blockchain Enterprise Ready?

Many of the blockchain technology available is still on the immature phase. Even though the tech world isn’t unfamiliar with the whole concept still, major organizations aren’t quite sure how it works. It tends to grow still, and the enterprises are struggling to cover the primary challenges:

• Evaluating platforms, organizations are typically looking for a platform where all of their complex needs can be met.
• The blockchain is one kind of transformational network, but still, enterprises want something more defined, especially for industry purpose use cases.

Even though large enterprises want to build this network on their own, true value can be found if multiple blockchain networks work together.

Enterprise blockchains can be the right partner to fill in the gap between organizations and data management. There are many several projects already deployed, and enterprises are more eager to work with blockchain. Let’s jump to the next chapter to better understand the situation.

 

Chapter-2: Features of the Blockchain Technology the Enterprise Can Utilize

In this part, we’ll look into specific blockchain technology features that can be a great starting point for the enterprise. Enterprise blockchain solution could truly shine using all of these excellent features of the blockchain.

• Decentralized Nature Ensures Peer to Peer Network

It’s one of the most features that any enterprise blockchain platform could want for their company. Decentralization is a step further in the future that solves a lot of major centralized systems issues. Typically a normal structure for organizations is the client-server structure, which is quite outdated.

 

How Does The Client-Server Structure Work?

In a client-server network, there’s a centralized server for everyone’s use. Anyone who would connect to the server will have to send out a query to it to get additional information. This is exactly how the internet works these days. For example, maybe you want to search something using the Google, for that you will have to send a query to Google’s server and then it will come back with the results you wanted.

This relationship between the client (you) and the server is called the client-server network architecture. But there are some significant issues with this structure.

As everyone on the network is dependent solely on the server, if something goes wrong everyone will suffer equally. Maybe the server is down for some reason, everyone on the network then won’t be able to access it. And most importantly, the server will deal with lots of sensitive information of the clients.

If a hacker gets access to the server, he/she can easily get all the sensitive information from there. That’s why typical organizations that depend on this type of networking architecture have to spend a lot on anti-cyber-attack schemes to stop hacker at any cost.

 

Blockchains Decentralization Coming To the Rescue

The blockchain is decentralized in nature and doesn’t offer the typical client-server type of system. With the central authority out from the mix, now users can enjoy the benefits of peer-to-peer connection.

As there isn’t any central server, there isn’t any single point of failure issues. All the more, hacking into the system becomes much more difficult as the control remains on the clients of the network.

So, any enterprises can fully trust the system as it gets rid of all the negative aspects of the client-server system.

 

• Immutability Gets Rid of Corruption

What does immutability actually mean? As we are talking about blockchain, in that context, it means that once the block gets added to the ledger, no one can change or alter it. So, there is zero chance of anyone tampering with the information.

Can you see how much value this feature can give the organizations? Typically Enterprises have to deal with not only cyber-attacks but also internal corruption as well. Changing the data and utilizing it for your own benefit is one of the major corruption points.

But if they use this blockchain as the ledger system, no one will be able to change the value and use it for their own benefit. This gets rid of the corruption of these big industries.

But how does the blockchain do it? To have the immutability factor, the blockchain uses a special hash function that lets it use cryptography and encrypt the information in the block.

Hashing will always result in a finite number value. Whatever your input maybe be, it will always generate a fixed lengthen random number. It’s quite critical when you are dealing with loads of different lengths of information.

A new block in the blockchain will always contain the hash function of the previous block.

 

What Happens During an Attack?

Let’s imagine that someone is trying to change the information of a block. When he makes any changes to the block, the hash function of that block changes, therefore, changing the hash function of the next block in line that was storing its function. That will change that blocks data and hash, which will change other blocks as well.

This way the whole chain concept gets disrupted which isn’t possible in any way. That’s why it’s immutable, and no one can change the information without breaking the chain. The addition of zero knowledge proof with blockchain will make it more robust technology.

 

• Greater Transparency Increases Responsibility

Blockchain allows its users to enjoy all the benefits of transparency. When someone says blockchain is transparent what do you think they really mean? In public blockchain, anyone on the ledger can see other nodes transaction history. So, you might think it’s quite easy to know about what someone else is doing in the network.

This statement isn’t entirely true. Even though a person’s transaction history remains visible, his/her identity will remain hidden. This means that everyone will only be able to see the public address of that person instead of their name or other identification.

But that doesn’t mean anyone can hide in shadows, doing all their dirty work. If you can find out an enterprise’s public address on the network, you can easily look at up and see how they are transacting on the system. This way, these organizations are forced to be responsible and not to engage in any illegal activities.

 

Tracking Products

Enterprises can use this feature in another way. Typically offering products to the consumer doesn’t always have a 100% success rate. There are cases of counterfeits getting to the product during shipments and other processes.

To stop this the organization and the consumer can track their products until it reached their customer. In that way, even if something happens, you’ll quickly be able to figure out where and take actions accordingly.

Enterprises deal with transparency issues, and many consumers don’t rely on them blindly due to that. With blockchain technology, they can increase their transparency and attract more consumers being completely honest.

 

• Cheaper Costs Will Save Money

The Blockchain as a Service is quite cheaper to integrate, and many vendors provide it. These are quite cheap compared to other traditional approaches and can save a lot of money in the long run. Why?

Because if you want to develop your very own blockchain network you would need to handle more complex situations such as,

• Learning how the core technology works
• Developing it without any flaws or loopholes
• Hiring the right skilled team to develop and maintain it

In the long run, all of these make up more costing compared to BAAS solutions. Moreover, developing your own blockchain would divert you from your core enterprise goals. So, its best to go for the BAAS solutions instead.

There are several ways how blockchain can easily cut the costs of the enterprises.

First of all, enterprises use a typical client-server network as their internal server. This has some issues such as temperament, vulnerability issues. To deal with these companies spend a lot of money on security farms and software every year.

With blockchain, they will have everything just form one single source. So, there isn’t any extra money needed for getting security protocols.

Also, using these enterprises can now finally send and receive a large amount of money faster. They won’t have to depend on the third party institutions and wait for days to finalize a deal or get funding.

 

Cost Cutting For Financial Institutions

Financial institutions like Banks deal with a different type of issue. Every year they spend $1.6 billion just on their Know Your Customer regulations. This is becoming a burden on the financial enterprises.

With blockchain, they could easily get the information needed for the KYC regulations. Maybe you want to open a new account in a Bank. Your bank will them simply ask for the identification information, and you can send them directly using the platform. Once the process of KYC is completed, they can upload this information on their network.

If you want to open another account in another bank, instead of doing the whole process again, that bank can merely get the KYC information from your previous bank. It will save a lot of money in the long run.

Financial institutions can use blockchain for their internal branching compilation to get things streamlined smoothly. They can also lend their technology to other banks for future advancements. Also, Atomic swap in blockchain is just the right catch for financial enterprises.

 

• Faster Network Increases Efficiency

One of the best features of blockchain is a faster network. You can transact within minutes with this new kind of feature integrated into your enterprise system. Yes, there was some major issue with the previous blockchain technology such as when the network grew, the transaction slowed down drastically.

However, enterprise blockchain solution is more than capable of handling all sorts of enterprise demands. So, here the transaction rate won’t slow you down in any way.

In a typical banking system, it usually takes about two to six business days to gets a transaction processed. To make payments within a short amount of time is quite impossible. In any case, closing a major contract, or getting funding’s for a new project could delay just because the bank took too much time to process them.

But with blockchain, you will finally be able to transact within 20 seconds or less! This is truly a massive success rate in terms of saving money. Just imagine a big project where you are dealing with millions, and you will be able to send it within seconds! That’s a relatively faster output than the typical business ways, isn’t it?

Not only it will streamline the process, but it will also increase the overall efficiency of any enterprise businesses. The enterprises can also offer this facility to their customers and gain more popularity in the market.

Want to know more about Blockchain Technology? Try out our Blockchain Fundamentals Presentation and Join our Webinar course now!

 

Chapter-3: Different Types of Blockchain Technology for Enterprises

There are tons of different types of blockchain technology for enterprises. If you don’t have any solid idea about them from the start, it might be difficult to make the right choice for your organizational needs. To help you out, we’ll be giving you an outline of different types of blockchain. Typically there are three kinds of blockchain technology.

General Classification –

• Private
• Public
• Federated

 

Private Blockchain

In private blockchains, a single organization will have authority over who can join and access the network. Think of it as a centralized-decentralized network.

Doesn’t sound so decentralized now, does it? Well, the core value of blockchain is still there, but you will have your governance with this one. The ledger here is not public property, so you won’t be able to get access to it without any authorization. Moreover, the governing enterprise can override any new blocks on the network, let along even delete them.

So, instead of a public ledger architecture, you’ll get a distributed ledger environment where the ledger might be shared with you.

Everything is similar to the typical blockchain network. Such as you will be dealing with cryptography while transacting, so every transaction will get added to the ledger going through cryptography. So, no one will know about your transaction.

So, in a sense, the basic purpose is still intact.

Ripple enterprise blockchain platform is one of the popular blockchain technology for this kind of use cases. However, Ripple offers a more structured network for enterprise-grade organizations only.

 

Features You Should Consider For Your Company

• Preserves Privacy

Private enterprise blockchain solution will always help to preserve your privacy by any means. Usually, big organizations have to deal with a lot of private information. If somehow they get leaked their competitors will severely take advantage of that. It will damage the sales and reputation of those organizations.

That’s why to preserve them private blockchain implementation can offer you the privacy you need. No one will be able to see your sensitive information, and you’ll be able to enjoy a sophisticated technology.

 

• Power Efficient Compared to the Public Blockchain

If we compare it to public blockchain energy consuming, private blockchains are always one step ahead. Public blockchain takes up a lot of power to perform the consensus protocol on the network. Usually, these platforms have rather power hungry consensus protocol, such as Proof of Work (PoW). However, not every public has the same level of power consumption.

On the other hand, public enterprise blockchain adoption doesn’t need a power hungry consensus mechanism to reach an agreement, but they mainly use some kind of voting mechanism to reach an agreement. That’s why it’s power efficient.

 

• Less Volatile Network

Private networks are less volatile architecture. As there is always a governing organization looking over the network, a chance of volatility is highly unlikely.

 

• Organizational Empowerment

What’s better than to have organizational empowerment? With private enterprise blockchain solution, you’ll be able to achieve exactly that! In public blockchains, there won’t be any authority over the ledger system, or you won’t be able to stop any node from participating. However, as you’ll get the sole power over this network, you’ll have a regulatory standards that other network might lack.

 

Public Blockchain

In a public blockchain, anyone is allowed to join and participate in the network. Everyone is allowed to see the ledger and participate in consensus.

So, if you are into the full decentralization scene, then you should definitely check out public enterprise blockchain adoption. The public version of blockchain was the first ever blockchain technology introduced. With Bitcoins entry in the tech world, other corporations tried to develop the same technology without the flaws of the mother technology.

In a public blockchain, you’ll get equal rights and would be able to join and participate in the consensus mechanism any time you want.

The best part of this enterprise blockchain adoption is that you’ll get a greater level of security than the private blockchain. How? Well, as there won’t be any organizations with sole authoritative power, no one would be able to delete your transaction from the ledger.

Also, the public ledger scheme lets everyone see what’s going on in the ledger. If someone is trying to any inconsistencies, everyone will be able to see it.

 

Features You Should Consider For Your Company

• Greater Transparency

First of all, no other enterprise blockchain adoption can offer this much transparency as public ones. As we said earlier the ledger is fully in front of everyone’s sight. Everyone has to participate in maintaining it and is shared across all the nodes.

So, you’ll be able to see just what is going on at any time you want. This is something the private blockchain lacks.

 

• True Decentralized Structure

The ledger is shared with everyone on the network. Every node will have their very own copy of the ledger. And together with the help of the consensus algorithms, they can update the ledger with greater fairness.

This distributive nature and equal rights give rise to truly decentralized enterprise blockchain adoption. Private Blockchains aren’t fully decentralized comparing it to public ones.

 

• User Empowerment

To use this kind of platform all, you’ll need an internet connection. Go on the network download the blockchain and your wallet, and you’re set to go. This means no evil corporation can stop you from getting all the benefits of this network. If we compare it to the private blockchain, you’ll see how the users on that network don’t get to enjoy all the freedom.

 

• Immutability

Once a transaction gets added to the ledger, no one will be able to alter it. Yes, that’s the most attractive feature of this type of enterprise blockchain platform. So, even if you try to hack into the system, you won’t be able to do any harm.

It offers a greater deal of immutability. But in private network, the governing organization could delete your transactions, and you won’t be able to do anything about it.

 

Private vs. Public Blockchain: Which One Should You Pick?

It actually depends on your requirements entirely. If you are a CEO of an organization and want to have an internal network system for only your employees, then private enterprise blockchain solution is the better call. Here, you’ll be able to give special authority access to your employees according to your ranks, and with cryptography, you’ll be secure enough to transact on the channel.

On the other hand, if you want an application type platform with transparency for consumers, then the public network should be your pick. This enterprise blockchain solution is equipped with all the facilities you need and your consumers would be able to trust your brand easily. Also, full honesty is always a great way to gain more popularity.

 

Federated Blockchain

You must be thinking how does the federated blockchain fit in this equation, right? Well, federated blockchain comes with the best of both private and public blockchain. However, you may find some major similarities with the private blockchain with this one.

With federated blockchain, you’ll get a decentralized private environment. What? Confused? In federated blockchain instead of one organization maintaining the network, there would be multiple organizations. The presence of multiple parties’ o the network establishes the decentralized structure of the public blockchain.

You could imagine this type of enterprise blockchain adoption to be at the center point of every organization linked to it. It would be a system where multiple organizations can interact with each other share information if needed.

Also, if any party tries to abuse the network other corporations can ban them from the network.

 

Features You Should Consider For Your Company

• Cost Cutting

Federated type enterprise blockchain will cut costs to a great extent. These blockchains are designed for industrial purposes and so coupling them with your existing ones is easier than public or private enterprise blockchain. So, this type of enterprise blockchain adoption would be the most efficient investments.

 

• Offers Lower Transaction Fees

Even though public blockchains seem to claim that they offer the lowest transactional costs, however in reality that’s not the case. When too many users get on the network, the network relatively slows down, and processing transactions become tough.

In that scenario, the transaction fees rise to a great extent. However, in federated blockchain that’s not the case. This enterprise blockchain is designed to sustain under pressure. So, the initial cost of the transaction won’t increase drastically here.

 

• Network Regulations

As several organizations are working together, there will be some type of rules for everyone to follow. This creates a balanced environment of public and private infrastructure. All the nodes on the network need to follow the regulations to get a part of the agreement process.

 

• No Criminal Access

Public blockchains are great, but they offer anonymity that the criminals can utilize gravely. The last thing you want right now is to provide a good communication ground for the criminals within your organization.

Every node on the network is familiar with other nodes, and this enforces the no criminal access. Criminals are utterly discouraged for the authentication process and will leave this enterprise blockchain adoption alone.

 

Permission-Level Classification –

According to the permission type, the blockchain can be characterized as two different kinds of entities. They are:

• Permissioned
• Permissionless

 

Permissioned Blockchains

This kind of enterprise blockchain adoption works in a closed environment. In this one, nodes won’t be able to get access to the network feely and see what’s on the ledger. Only selected nodes will be able to get an entry on the network.

Centralized organizations mostly prefer this type of enterprise blockchain, as they will be able to have power over the network. On the other hand, there is a permissioned public blockchain. These networks have a permissioned environment, but anyone who meets any specific criteria to join the network can fully see the ledger and make a transaction as they would do in public enterprise blockchain adoption.

But to get access, they need to have a certain qualification.

 

Features You Should Consider For Your Company

• Suited for Organizations

Permissioned enterprise blockchain is extremely suitable for organizational purposes. Big enterprises can have the full access they need, and they could select the internal environment themselves. Setting parameters for accessing the node will be up to them, and they can control any specific targeted audience for that.

 

• Transaction Rates are Low

Permissioned enterprise blockchain adoption offers the lowest level of transactional fee. Why? Well, it’s because as an internal server these networks won’t have to deal with a lot of audiences. Also, they don’t run on power consuming consensuses that ultimately slows down the public blockchain.

That’s why the transaction fees on this type of environment are close to being free. Many permissioned platforms offer zero transaction fees for their users.

 

• Isn’t Required to Have a Native Asset

Permissioned enterprise blockchain doesn’t necessarily need to have a native token or asset for their platform. Many enterprise-grade blockchains offer the platform as a modular system where you’ll be able to plug and play or create your own new asset.

This could use an existing one if needed, but to maintain the network they don’t have to completely rely on the native asset.

 

• Trusted Environment

To work with this environment, you would need to trust the nodes you’ll be sharing the network with. It’s kind of like organizations where everyone plays their own role and trusts other coworkers to do the same. This creates greater bonding among the working nodes.

 

Permisionless Blockchains

In this type of blockchain network, every node on the network can freely participate in the consensus process. There aren’t any restrictions on participation. Permissionless enterprise blockchain system lets every user have their very own address and continue interaction with the network freely.

Everyone here has permission to start a transaction and add values to the ledger. Obviously, organizations with a more open environment will love this type of enterprise blockchain adoption. There is also a different type of permissionless private blockchains.

In this type, nodes from an organization will have specific access to the ledger and then be able to freely transact with one another. There won’t be any defined set of rules. The only criteria would be to be connected to that organization as an employee or vendor to get access to the network.

Mainly the authority will determine your entrance, and after you’re in, you are completely free to do your bidding.

 

Features You Should Consider For Your Company

• More Power for the Nodes

If you are in love with full freedom, then you’ll love this kind of platform. Permissionless enterprise blockchain adoption is fully capable of giving the full power to the nodes rather than the organization. The organizations won’t be able to affect the outcome of their nodes, and they won’t be any strict policy to restrict users.

 

• Open Privacy Level for Everyone

No matter what kind of permissionless the environment you are in, you will always have an open privacy level. This increase the transparency within an organization that has been dealing with internal corruption. As anyone can see the ledger, the corrupted personal won’t be able to get away with their crimes.

All the nodes know each other, so a bad player will ultimately get caught.

 

• Free Participation in Voting or Consensus

Usually, in private blockchain, only selective nodes could participate in the voting or consensus protocol of the network. However, in permissionless, every participant on the network can participate in that.

 

• Trust-free Environment

Yes, organizations will know which node is which, but in this type of enterprise blockchain, you won’t have to establish trust among nodes. They are free to doubt others and call out bad actors whenever necessary. That’s why you get a trust-free environment with it.

Blockchain is a one kind of distributed ledger technology and there are many other kinds of DLTs suitable for enterprises. Make sure to check out their comparison too!

 

Comparison of Different Types of Blockchain Technology

	Permissionless Public	Permissioned Public	Permissionless Private	Permissioned Private
Participation	Everyone is free to download and act as a node	Only users meeting with previously defined criteria can download and act as a node	Everyone in the private network can act as a node	Only selected nodes in the private channel can act as a node
Energy Consumption	High	Medium	Low	Low
Security	Very High	High	Medium	Low
Speed	Very Slow	Slow	Fast	Very Fast
Trust Level	Trustless	Trustless	Trusted	Trusted

 

Chapter-4: Vendors That Provide BAAS

Before we move onto vendors that provide BAAS, let’s take a look at what the whole concept of BAAS is all about.

What is Blockchain as a Service?

BAAS or Blockchain as a Service is a special kind of enterprise-grade blockchain solution that other customers can utilize to host, build, and own their developed decentralized apps, functions and other kinds of smart contracts.

But here the customers won’t be looking after the core infrastructure; rather the BAAS provider would monitor and maintain the network for them. It’s an utterly interesting approach to accelerate the growth of blockchain technology and also initiating a massive level of implementation.

The basic architecture of this new concept is similar to SaaS (Software as a Service) framework.

Nowadays many industrial giants are more than eager to learn about the blockchain technology and implement it into their existing framework. But the complex nature of the technology is making them think twice before taking a step. Also, the lack of adequate skillset in those industries become a hurdle for them to maintain the operational aspect of the network.

Multiple tech giants are offering these enterprise blockchain solution, along with small-time startups.

 

How Do These Solutions Work?

The principle is quite simple really. The provider will set up the infrastructure if a customer requests one for a certain amount of fee. Once the customer makes the payment, the provider sets up the enterprise blockchain technology and starts to maintain the network. The BAAS provider will handle any kind of complex structure of the technology for the client.

The BAAS vendors that provide enterprise blockchain adoption for other big industries keep the artifacts running always. Other support schemes are also necessary if you want to prevent any event of hacking. They include proper allocation of resourceful hardware, offer high-end security protocols, manage bandwidth, and greater hosting requirements.

If you start using these BAAS services, you’ll be able to focus on your business more than enterprise blockchain implementation. So, you’ll always be benefited from using those services.

 

A Simpler Context

For example, think of BAAS providers as web hosting providers. If you want to start your own website and build your business to get hits every single day, you’ll need to host it on a server. Obviously, you can host or manage your own server rather than going for a provider.

But then you would have to hire staff to maintain and look after your hosting needs and ensure that no can break through your firewall. It all seems really exciting, but in the end, you’ll have more things to worry about on your plate, so you won’t be able to focus on your work.

That’s why getting the right solution for your website would be to host your website on a third party provider like HostGator or BlueHost. The providers will take care of your needs, and you won’t have to hire employees or worry about security.

In the same way, BAAS providers will give you their expertise, all you have to do is invest. BAAS might be a bigger step towards deeper enterprise blockchain implementation in different sectors in the industry. Instead of developing their own blockchain projects they can now just outsource them from these enterprise blockchain vendors.

Examples of Baas Vendors and Enterprise Blockchain Platforms

BAAS Providers

1. Oracle

Giving you the most comprehensive DLT cloud platform, Oracle is developing a new kind of BAAS service for enterprise users. You’ll be able to join other organizations and deploy your enterprise blockchain implementation along with updating the ledger. With Oracle, you’ll be able to reliably share information with your business partners, suppliers and banking partners.

Oracle is offering the blockchain cloud service that would let you utilize all of the features above. The platform will run on composable architecture model, which will enable specific enterprise blockchain implementation goals for your business needs.

Every service they provide will get updated over time, so you won’t have to worry about keeping up with the competition. The core of the platform happens to have multiple layers along with many sub-services and interfaces for customizable plugins.

 

How Does It Work?

Oracle’s enterprise blockchain solution offers a network of nodes that validate and update the decentralized ledger along with responding to queries from the smart contracts. This vendor added the smart contract feature with the cloud service to boost the enterprise blockchain implementation.

Other external application would invoke the transaction process and start queries using the client’s REST API calls or SDKs, which will select the nodes to run the smart contracts.

After the consensus of the cloud service agrees on the transaction, it will get the group into data blocks. These blocks are cryptographically secured, and none can tamper with it. The service admins will be able to use the blockchain cloud service for their organization and configure it as they need.

People often confuse their services and thing that Oracle is trying to create a business network on their blockchain. But that’s not entirely true. They are only providing the platform to other customers who would like to establish enterprise blockchain implementation.

 

Key Properties of Blockchain Cloud Service

• Transparent and Shared: Every participant would be able to see consistency data. They would also be able to get the replication of updates along with getting access to them if they are authorized.
• Accurate and Undeniable: The consensus will depend on the decision of a subset of nodes on the blockchain, and after it gets validated, no can deny its existence.
• Unchangeable: Just like public blockchain, no can alter the transactions from the ledger.
• Encrypted: Every record or data on the network is encrypted so that it preserves the confidentiality of a company.

 

2. IBM

IBM is also providing world-class blockchain solutions for enterprise use. The IBM Blockchain platform is a one of a kind BAAS offering on IBM Cloud infrastructure. It’s one of the fully functional, integrated, enterprise-ready blockchain solution on the market. With this, it’ll be much easier for enterprise blockchain implementation as they can develop, govern and operate the platform.

The platform is accelerating the development of new blockchain projects collaborating with Hyperledger Fabric Architecture.

Whatever the demands or the use cases may be of your business, IBM’s solution will get you up and running in no time. It’s quite fast to integrate and will offer an immense level of privacy, performance, and security for your demanding environment.

Do you know what the best part is? You’ll get a wide range of membership plans to choose from. Each plan offers new features to cope up with your need. So, even if you are a small company or a larger enterprise, you can just select the one that goes with your budget. The starter plan is the most economical one, and it won’t limit your capabilities in any way.

 

The Blockchain Platform Features

• Developing New Apps

It offers a wide range of development environments for your applications. You can go for the shared, local or online environment. But you’ll need advanced tools too, right? Don’t worry, IBM has your back. Every setting is equipped with high-end development tools, so all you need to do is plug in and start creating new apps.

 

• Governmental Power

You can govern your platform after the enterprise blockchain implementation. A new set of activation tools are always available for transaction channels, smart contracts, members, and new networks. If you are working with multiple parties, you’ll get all their updates on your activities panel and as notifications.

 

• Highly Operational

The network is always on high performance, with seamless network access. You’ll get any new updates available instantly and wouldn’t need to upgrade your system for a long time. IBM will take care of everything else.

 

3. Amazon

Another great enterprise blockchain solution is Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS provides one of the simplest ways for enterprise blockchain implementation. With Amazon’s solution, you will be able to build your very own scalable solutions and ensure the prominent growth of your company.

Amazon happens to offer every kind of solution for both centralized and decentralized network. If you want a centralized database structure, then AWS can provide you with a cryptographically, high performing ledger. So, you won’t need to deploy enterprise blockchain implementation in this one.

However, if you want a decentralized environment with verifiable capabilities, then AWS can offer you the best of the best blockchain solutions. All of the networks are fully managed, so you won’t have to hire more workforce to maintain the framework.

Every service is easy to set up and deploy; moreover, it’s super economical. AWS’s Blockchain Templates are the main ingredient of your blockchain need. Let’s see what this service actually offers.

 

AWS Blockchain Templates

This type of templates would allow you to create blockchain adoptions within a concise amount of time. With the help of AWS blockchain templates, you would finally be able to focus on your decentralized application development rather than setting up the network.

 

What’s The Benefit?

• Faster Deployment Time

It’ll take just a minute to deploy your blockchain network. You can try out Amazon ECS or ECS2 templates to jump-start your enterprise blockchain implementation.

 

• Choice Option

You’ll get two very popular frameworks to choose from your enterprise needs. Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum offers a bit different outcomes, so it’s best first to check out what they are offering and then make the decision.

 

• Managing Tools

All the templates will give you managing equipment and using them you will be able to monitor the outcome and manage the whole network. These tools are best if you want to have an internal network of your company on the blockchain.

 

• Pay For What You Use

You’ll be only paying for the resources you’ll be using. There aren’t any additional hidden costs that might become a burden after getting all set-up.

 

4. Microsoft

The tech giant Microsoft has also joined the league of BAAS providers. With their new blockchain solution Azure you’ll be able to set up and run the platform within a day!

The best part is that Azure Blockchain Workbench just takes a few clicks to set up! This workbench is more suited for testing or developing new projects, rather than using just for a ledger system. The platform is designed in a specific way to ensure you need really less time to develop any new project.

Obviously, from Microsoft, you would expect the best of the best outcome and Azure will surely give you that.

Costing and time for development will reduce to a great extent for the prebuilt integrations on the Azure cloud platform. While setting up, you’ll get a wide range of blockchain tools at your disposal. All you need to do is choose the ones you need and start up your enterprise blockchain implementation. Every feature would only need a single click to configure, so it’s an easy peasy task.

After that, comes the topology selection. If you choose the Dev/Test topology, you’ll get only one node (Virtual Machine), and you can start right after.

The single member topology is for single organizations only. With this, you’ll get multiple nodes across multiple sections for your production.

In multimember topology, you’ll be able to stimulate the production from multiple organizations. It kind of works like a consortium solution. Depending on the number of the nodes deployed, it’ll take you more or less than 15 minutes.

 

What Are The Features?

• Voice and SMS interfaces will ensure tracking of produced goods.
• The integration of the Internet of Things will be able to track down all your shipments and products or any other kind of documents.
• ERP systems will be able to manage core processes that will interact with the core participants.
• Faster deployment will enhance efficiency to a great extent.
• Low costs reduce the overall costing of deploying new business or changing the previous old network system of the organization.

 

5. Alibaba

The Alibaba Cloud solution is here to deploy your enterprise blockchain. This platform provides an enterprise-grade platform for all kinds of blockchain deployment. Alibaba Cloud Solution will get you closer to popular enterprise blockchain platform on the market.

Maybe you don’t have the time or energy to develop your very own blockchain, but with Alibaba, you can enjoy the luxury of operations, deployment, and maintenance. AI enterprises could certainly benefit a lot if they want to try out AI blockchain scheme.

 

Benefits of Alibaba Cloud BAAS

• Higher Security Protocol

Alibaba offers a new level of security strategies and has multi-tenant isolation, that’s why the security levels are huge.

• Greater Stability

As the interface offers a reliable data storage unit, scaling up isn’t an issue. It will be able to provide high-end performance even in hard times.

• Simple and Easy

Offers a load of enhanced administrative functionalities that will help you build your blockchain platform within a few clicks. So, it’s quite simple to handle.

• Open Ecosystem

The blockchain ecosystem is open and supports a wide range of applications and data. That’s why it’s a great option for enterprise blockchain implementation.

 

Is There Other Features?

• Advanced Technology: Alibaba cloud collaborates with Hyperledger Fabric, Quorum to provide you with those enterprise-grade services.
• Quick Mode: One-click deployment gets rid of any complex configurations for enterprise blockchain implementations.
• Managing Consortium: Develop consortiums, add new participants any time you want and it will help you manage all participants.
• Manage Organizations: Manage your own organization using the platform, get a clear view of everyone’s activity on the network.
• Security for Governance: Will provide CA certifications and build the technology on Intel SGX.
• Manage Chaincode: Alibaba will let you manage Chaincode such as smart contracts with multiple parties at once. With their comprehensive tracking system, keeping track of all smart contracts will be extremely easy.
• Application Access: The platform can go with the standard Fabric Client SDK. This environment will help you to integrate any type of application with the new blockchain network.

 

6. Baidu

Another awesome vendor that started their BAAS business is the Chinese web service and search engine Baidu. Most recently the company released their whitepaper on their newly developed blockchain platform – Xuper Chain.

 

Xuper Chain Network

Their brand new super chain platform is capable of handling any kind of enterprise needs. Baidu is apparently offering the most number of transactions per second – 10,000. But how does it support this huge amount of transactions every second? Well, they use a stereoscopic network and inter-chain parallel technology.

Other than this the platform is suitable for a whole lot of different scenarios and services.

According to them, this platform is capable of changing the supply chains, food safety, finances, IoT and many other sectors.

 

Xuper Chain Features

• Immense Security Level: Xuper Chain offers a relatively secured ecosystem; it will mostly deal with sensitive information such as product lineup, Intellectual Properties and many more. That’s why integrating this platform with your enterprise project could be the next big milestone for you.
• Management System: As an owner of an enterprise you would likely to be in charge of all things. To put in an administrative position the network offers you management access. With this access, you’ll be able to see every action in the network and ban bad performers whenever necessary.
• Pluggable Applications: Want to run any kind of applications on the network? Don’t worry, Xuper Chain will let you do the same thing. Just try out any pluggable apps on the network and add more feature to the whole scheme.

 

7. Huawei

Just recently Huawei started its journey of being one of the BAAS service providers in the market. They previously launched the service for commercial purposes in China on October 10^th. However, on November 15^th, they opened it up for global usage.

Huawei Cloud is now available on its global website and mainly for global developers’ and enterprises usage. The developers can use this cloud platform to develop, deploy and maintain the decentralized applications rather quickly within their budget.

 

Advantages of Huawei Cloud Platform

• Easy and Open for Everyone: This platform is built on the Hyperledger Fabric 1.1 along with Kubernetes, which features a simple configuration process, few minutes deploy time, and multi-angle.
• Efficient and Flexible: The unique part about this BAAS service is that it offers a wide range of consensus algorithms, that’s why it can reach transactions up to 5000 per second. Moreover, it comes with dynamic joining, flexible switching protocol, and physical resource management.
• Cost-Efficient: Deploying costs are too low for this BAAS service. Just pay for what you’ll be using and not for anything else. Other than this, you’ll also enjoy the lower value of O&M and auto-scaling options.
• Privacy Protection and Robust Security: Manage all your nodes, permission level and keys with ease form only one panel. Encrypting processes are multi-layered with privacy assurance. The cybersecurity infrastructure doesn’t let any external or internal hacking happen.
• Full Proof Authentication: Advanced level of authentication that ensures that only the selected nodes can enter the network. This way only you will have the sole power to give access to another node and prevent third-party nodes from ever entering.

 

8. Accenture

One of the practical forefront runner if blockchain creation is Accenture. Accenture showed a great level of interest right from the start of blockchain technology and why not? They both perfectly correlate with each other.

However, Accenture’s approach to this situation is a bit different than others. They focus mainly on the consultancy section, but they also have blockchain solutions made just for you. There are also other blockchain consulting firms on the market.

You will get a complete overview of the blockchain technology and how you could integrate it into your system. Moreover, figuring out the perfect way to launch and capturing the market would be a huge boost for your enterprise company.

 

What Do They Offer?

• Analyzing Strategies: Their skilled professionals will analyze all of the sectors and blockchain strategies to help you integrate the blockchain solution within a cost-effective range and deploy with ease.
• Applicability of Blockchain Platform: Obviously not every company can offer all the application with their enterprise blockchain adoption. So, you would need to know where to focus your target more, and Accenture would help you out with that.
• Advanced Training: Don’t know how to deal with blockchain solutions? Accenture’s BAAS would get in the business and train you for handling the new addition in no time.
• Development Environments: The environment platform will have all necessary blockchain toolset to help developers innovate new projects.
• Blockchain Solution Design and Implementation: Just let them what your requirements are. They will design a suitable model for you, and if you give them the green signal, they will help you to implement it as well.

 

Chapter-5: Examples of Enterprise Blockchains

There are many enterprises implementing blockchain. Let’s see some of the popular examples.

• Hyperledger

One of the major enterprise blockchain platform is Hyperledger. Linux is the founder of Hyperledger, and it started its journey back in 2016. Hyperledger is one of the well-known cross-industry open-sourced blockchain platform most suited for enterprise use cases.

One of the major aims is to provide enterprise-level distributed ledger technology across a wide selection. At present Hyperledger has done a massive amount of collaboration that grosses out to be more than 185. They are covering almost all potential sectors such as the Internet of Things, finance, supply chain, banking, technology, and manufacturing. This enterprise blockchain has eight different types of projects going at once, and from all of it, Hyperledger Fabric is well known for industrial usage.

As this enterprise blockchain has a modular architecture, you can finally enjoy plug-and-play feature with different membership attractions.

 

What Does It Offer?

IBM and Digital Asset is the original contributor of this permissioned enterprise blockchain. With a modular architecture, it provides a delineation of roles within the nodes on the network. You’ll also be able to enjoy configurable consensus protocols along with advanced smart contract processes.

However, you would need to provide authentication information on the network to get access to your account. The smart contract in this enterprise blockchain is called “Chaincode.” This one supports JavaScript and Go programming languages and separate Java for modular purposes. That’s why it’s more flexible in terms of other popular smart contracts out there.

Let’s see what potential offers they have as an enterprise blockchain:

Permissioned Blockchain System

This enterprise blockchain provides a permissioned framework where every participant will have a known identity. If you are dealing with data protection issues and need to have a known identity on the network, then it would be great to go on with this one.

Another fact about this type of enterprise blockchain is that they are geared to deal with loads of data push for organizations. Organizations need to deal with a lot of data on a daily basis and enterprise blockchain is more than capable of handling it.

 

High Scalability with Greater Performance

As we said earlier this enterprise blockchain deals with modular architecture. This architecture divides up the transaction process into three separate segments. In the first one, it would be dealing with logic processing and node agreement process. In the second stage, the ordering of transaction would start. At the very last step, the transaction will get verification.

This process increases the scalability and reduces the level of trust in the environment.

 

Need-To-Know Data Availability

Enterprises always deal with privacy issues. As they tend to be competitive revealing what they are dealing with could damage their reputation along with giving the competitor an advantage over them.

That’s why they need to have confidentiality for certain kind of documentation. Hyperledger Fabric allows data partitioning on the network. So using this enterprise blockchain organization could have special accessibility.

With a certain level of clearance, a node will be able to access them. So, people who need to know about them will be able to get them. It won’t be public property.

 

Rich Queries Languages

Businesses can’t understand the coding language, so querying the ledger would be a tough cookie for them. That’s why this enterprise blockchain offers a complete set of simple query language that the business can use to search through the ledger.

This feature gives a new level of opportunity for enterprises.

 

Modular Architecture

Any designer on the network would be able to plug in his/her preferable components and work on them. This gives a different edge to this enterprise blockchain platform. Now developers have the freedom to add any type of feature to their own project if the platform can’t back him up fully.

 

Safety Measurement for Sensitive Data

Enterprise blockchain will deal with lots of sensitive information. That’s why there need to be security measurements to provide safety for that information. The Hardware Security Module offers a unique set of keys for encryption and offers a higher level of security.

 

• Enterprise Ethereum Alliance

This is another one of the most mature enterprise blockchain platform out there. Vitalk Buterin is the founder of this wonderful enterprise-grade blockchain. This enterprise blockchain offers a robust level of functionality, and that’s why it’s widely used for many industrial use cases.

Ethereum is one of the largest used blockchain platforms out there. Just like Hyperledger Fabric, this enterprise blockchain worked on countless projects and enhancements.

On the other hand, Ethereum runs an enterprise consortium that’s dedicated for solely funding new enterprise-grade projects and collaborations. EEA enterprise blockchain has over 250+ members, and it’s a non-profit company.

On the other hand, these 250+ members connect them with more than 500 startups, technology vendors, enterprise, academics and many more. Even though it’s widely used you have to realize that this company is basically a permissionless blockchain. But it does have a special architecture for restrictive access too.

Also, it’s kind of energy consuming platform, but it still does offer a lot of benefits that helps to overlook this one flaw.

 

What’s the True Aim of EEA?

This special enterprise blockchain is aiming for building a private option of the core Ethereum technology for specific organizational demands.

Let’s take a closer look at the core targets –

• Innovate, Build, and Support a wide range of Ethereum base projects that offer more value to the tech world and offers a better reference to architectural design.
• Help build organizations their own Ethereum blockchain and add more specific features according to each enterprise. This means, a bank can have their own blockchain for managing transactions, so can another participant who needs supply chain management.
• If one member of this enterprise blockchain alliance creates a new code base application that can be useful for several other projects, it will be shared for doing that. This coordination promotes the development of technological facilities.

 

What’s The Vision?

According to the EEA, they have five visions for the future –

Open Platform

Establishing as an open source platform, not only a product.

 

Authority

EEA will have the authority to define operational and developmental guidelines for all Ethereum projects of the EEA members. As open-source platforms have to meet up with certain standards, it’s best to define it from the start.

 

Provide Governmental Support for Enterprise Development

This enterprise blockchain is capable of facilitating and governing all the cross deployment projects and inspect their business requirements thoroughly. Such as, if a bank implements any kind of blockchain solution, then the EEA can help out other members to do the same thing. It will save a lot of cost in the end.

 

Evolve From the Existing Public Platform

Even though EEA will work with private enterprise blockchains, but it can still evolve using the features of the already existing public blockchain. This way, any progress in the other platform can be leveraged in the opposite one. Both of the platforms benefit this way.

 

Utilizing Standards

The public blockchain of Ethereum is alive form 2015, it’ been already four years. The new EEA will utilize the standards from the public space and study the experience to implement a better version in the future.

 

• Corda

R3’s Corda enterprise blockchain is one of the commercial versions of Corda. It’s an open source platform specifically geared towards enterprise users. Corda Enterprise is the official name of Corda’s enterprise version, and it’s completely compatible with Corda.

If your enterprise business revolves around network infrastructure and quality of service, then you should definitely check out Corda.

You’ll get a choice of getting an enterprise-grade or open source platform for your every need. It doesn’t matter what your organizations size maybe, Corda enterprise blockchain is there to give you the boost you may need.

It was launched in 2015, and after that, it covered a lot of fields of use for the enterprises. Now, R3’s Corda has over 60+ members in their consortium. Initially, Corda was introduced as a solution for financial institutions, but now they have growing use cases on healthcare, government, supply chain, and trading.

An organization can utilize this permissioned enterprise blockchain as it will only be accessible to those with special clearance so that the environment won’t be public property.

 

Capabilities of the Corda Enterprise

The Application Firewall of Blockchain

One of the most crucial features of Corda is the world-class blockchain application firewall. This firewall will provide the necessary amount of support needed for enterprises with a complicated business scheme.

This firewall will ensure secure access for applications to the blockchain framework and will reject any unauthorized third party connections trying to get in. It will provide users with access management scheme along with applications that function on the blockchain.

Using this enterprise blockchain organization can integrate a data center within their network, but they will also be able to communicate with the outside presence without harming their sensitive information.

So, Corda provides a secure encrypted channel between outside nodes and internal data center.  One of the unique feature that you won’t see in other enterprise blockchain platform.

It would be a great addition to any organizational institutes. For example, this firewall could stay just behind a traditional bank’s firewall, just in front of all the sensitive information. But it will let users interact with their personal information with proper authentications. This enterprise blockchain protocol unlocks a massive level of interests in the finical sectors along with other data management businesses.

 

Other Attractive Features

Other than the firewall there are many more applications for the enterprises. Corda enterprise blockchain is geared with all the tools to be optimized with the IT environment. That means with this you’ll get governance, high-availability, monitoring disaster and recovering them, 24 hours customer support, high performing nodes, release schedules and many more.

Nonetheless, Corda enterprise blockchain also supported SQL and Oracle server databases. In this way, the integration of Corda enterprise blockchain became more streamlined.

Another key factor of this enterprise blockchain is the interoperability. In real life scenarios enterprises have to deal with more than one application at a single time. But all the existing enterprise blockchain technology is more geared for single application solution.

But with Corda, they can access more than one application at a time, which increases the overall growth of a company.

 

• Ripple

This enterprise blockchain grade company started the journey back in 2012. However, previously it was known as Opencoin. In 2015, they finally renamed it as Ripple. Ripple’s main concern was to connect corporations, banks, asset exchanges, and payment providers through their personal RippleNet channel.

RippleNet is an almost free global transaction platform. With Ripple, you’ll be able to make global payments using its native currency the “Ripples” or “XRP,” right after Ether and Bitcoin. This enterprise blockchain is surely one of the fastest platforms than all other existing ones so far. With this, any enterprises can settle their payment within just 4 seconds!

Ripple is working with more than 100+ organizations with 75+ being formed various deployment niche. But transactions aren’t the only reason why Ripple is enterprise blockchain grade material. There are other features of Ripple that goes perfectly with the organizational needs.

 

Discover New Marketplaces

Many financial and other corporations struggle to explore or identify their boundaries or business models. Sticking with the traditional model becomes outdated in no time, leading to decreased revenue. Ripple wants to make changes in this section.

The enterprise blockchain company would help enterprises discover new marketplaces and streamline new form of business form that. It would ensure companies to meet up with the customer expectations quite easily and offer full satisfaction.

However, real-life payment systems aren’t easy to grab on to. As for now, Ripple enterprise blockchain is working with two dozen countries, but there’s a lot more to go. The main focus is Asia, and other unbanked regions to accept their currency as an official one would be a tough call. But it’s in the right place already.

 

Ensure More Customers

Usually, payment providers will only be successful when they are able to reach a massive amount of consumers in a short amount of time. Ripple here, offers a better solution through their RippleNet where they would be able to connect with more users on a daily basis.

Users can pay with their fiat money or XRP, which allows more freedom to form their side.

 

Security Protocols and Safety Issues

Ripple enterprise blockchain offers one of the best security protocols in the market. As originally they were geared for financial sectors, they toughened up their security measures form the start. Now many enterprises such as supply chain industries, healthcare, the government are able to use that security protocols for their own benefits.

 

Simplifying the Process of Payments

This enterprise blockchain is always exploring new ways to transform the typical payment system and simply it for both offline and online cases. Use cases such as capital efficiency, payment tracking, and rich data transfers are few of the popular ways.

If you combine it with a lower rate of operational cost, the solution becomes a global phenomenon. Ripple’s xVia solutions introduce a new way to the people.

This tool offers instant transfers along with an authentication procedure for a fair transaction.

 

• Quorum

J.P. Morgan developed Quorum using Ethereum as the root. This enterprise blockchain was explicitly designed to handle all environments that deal with high-throughput and high-speed transactions within a concise time. However, this enterprise blockchain permissioned and you will only be able to access it with a private authentication process. The main reason for Quorum to be this much fast and scalable is due to the fact that it doesn’t run on the typical proof of work consensus algorithms. Rather it uses voting and other light consensus mechanisms to reach an agreement.

It will grow alongside Ethereum and maybe excel in other ways. As it only modified the Ethereum code just a little bit, it’s able to adapt to the upgradation of Ethereum in no time. Moreover, it’s completely open sourced and promotes newer inventions.

 

Why The Developers Created Quorum?

If you’ve been around blockchain for some time, you’ll notice how some organizations aren’t too eager about the technology. The main reason behind this is, being 100% transparent and not being able to control any of it.

Many enterprises have to deal with sensitive information and would need a governing type structure to promote regulations. But with typical blockchain, they can’t have it. On the other hand, Blockchains immense security and easy traceability can benefit these corporations greatly.

That’s why the developers tried to form a middle ground so that these organizations could easily utilize this technology for their own benefit. Quorum enterprise blockchain has the best of both world, with blockchains features along with the private environment every organization needs. So, why won’t they use it?

 

Features That Make Quorum Lucrative:

Node Managing Authority

With Quorum enterprise blockchain a designated authority will be able to pre-approve what nodes can enter the network. This means that it won’t be public property, free for everyone to enter. Only authorized people of that enterprise would be able to access this enterprise blockchain platform network base.

 

Private Transactions

Another great feature of this enterprise blockchain is that it will allow transacting privately. It means your transaction with another person will only be visible to you and that person. Usually, in the blockchain, other people can see your transaction history quite effortlessly.

But this gets rid of the full security measurements of the blockchain. Obviously, you’ll be able to publicly transact also, but in some instances, you’ll need to have the authorization to see another person’s private transaction history.

 

Agreement through Voting

Quorum doesn’t have typical consensus algorithms for reaching an agreement which is aggressively energy consuming. It runs on QuorumChain; a special voting agreement mechanism made just for this platform. This algorithms assign specific voting rights to nodes and also maintain the overall status of it. For a transaction to get added this enterprise blockchain will only need the transacting node’s signature, Public root hash, and Global transaction hash. Once it gets all this information, the voter nodes will vote, and it will get added to the ledger.

 

High-end Performance

The performance of this enterprise blockchain is quite outstanding. Compared to the same genre of blockchain tech it’s more superior. It offers a higher transaction count every second compared to other platforms such as Ethereum or Bitcoin.

It makes this enterprise blockchain quite suitable for organization level integration.

 

Comparison of Enterprise blockchain platform

	Hyperledger Fabric	Quorum	Ethereum	Ripple	R3 Corda
Ledger Type	Permissioned	Permissioned	Permissionless	Permissioned	Permissioned
Governance	Linux Foundation	JP Morgan and Ethereum developers	Ethereum developers	Ripple Labs	R3 Consortium
Industry-focus	Cross-Industry	Multi-Industry	Cross-Industry	Financial Industry	Financial Industry
Throughput	> 2000 tps	100 tps	~ 20 tps	~ 1500 tps	~170 tps
Cryptocurrency	None	None	Ether (ETH)	Ripple (XRP)	None
Consensus Mechanism	Pluggable Mechanism	Voting Protocol	Proof of Work (PoW)	Probabilistic Voting Protocol	Pluggable Mechanism
Smart Contract	✓	✓	✔	×	✓
Smart Contract Language	NodeJS or Golang or Java	Solidity	Solidity	–	Java or Kotlin
Application Type	Wide-ranging	Broad-ranging	Wide-ranging	Suited for financial applications	Financial applications

 

 

Chapter-6: What are the Use Cases of Enterprise Blockchain?

Global Transactions

Financial or banking sectors were the first industries that integrated the blockchain technology. Blockchain was fully equipped to deal with their typical centralized flaws. However, enterprise blockchain is a cherry on top of the cake.

With cross border payment in the mix, enterprise blockchain solution give the financial sector a massive boost with instant transactions.

Previously you’d have to wait for several days to clear a transaction, but now with enterprise blockchain, you can do it within less than 10 seconds.

IBM Blockchain is one of the prominent enterprise blockchain use cases examples of this sector. With World Wire, IBM launched a new way to clear cross border payments. They offer:

• Faster processing of payment
• Reduced costing
• Greater efficiency
• Massive transparency
• Security-rich environment

IBM’s solution to the payment system is super simple and can get integrated with any kind of organizations. So, your company will be able to enjoy the luxury of time and cost saving coupling with this enterprise blockchain.

 

Trading

Trade finance is another cool application of enterprise blockchain. Approximately more than $18 trillion goods are shipped going through some sort of trade finance companies. To keep things going trade finances smoothly need to have more control over the whole process. And this is where the enterprise blockchain comes in.

Another perfect example for this enterprise blockchain use cases will be TradeLens. The technology is grounded with open rules along with input from different stakeholders on the market. Truly a modern modular system, which will deliver a significant level of value to every participating party on the network.

TradeLens is on boring organizations, and at present, it has over 150 organizations working with them. The benefits are enormous including improved transparency and trust, higher efficiency, reduced paperwork and cost and many more.

The network is fully secured, and everyone on the network owns their own data. Meaning only they have access to it and if they grant permission only then other parties will be able to see it. However, the marketplace was previously quite volatile, but now with stablecoins, it’s going back to a stable state.

 

Food Safety

Food safety is a major concern of the people. Now everything being produced through the massive farming channels is taking its toll on the quality of the food. Processed produces have one of the massive levels of health hazards written all over it, and people are suffering greatly for it.

But how will you tackle with this situation? Enterprise blockchain can offer traceability to produce to know where the raw material is coming from. It will also evaluate the quality of every food industry to make sure that it goes by the health regulations.

IBM’s Food Trust can be a wonderful example of this enterprise blockchain use cases. With Food Trust every company and their consumers will know the quality of their food starting from raw material to the result.

This enterprise blockchain level solution accounts every step of the way of the production process of every food industry. With them you’ll get:

• Accountability for food safety
• Solid food freshness all the way
• Confirming brand trust
• Reduce food wastage
• Enhance sustainability
• Get rid of food fraudulence

 

Supply Chain

Enterprise blockchain can truly shine in this sector. With enterprise blockchain any supply chain organizations will get:

• Secured ledger system with visibility throughout the supply chain for tracking
• Data validation and enforcing agreements with Smart Contracts
• Non-changeable and accurate information that will quickly detect the corrupted personal
• Skyrocketing revenue
• Cutting cost in every stage

Supply chain suffers from one of the major problems – Lack of traceability. For example, let’s consider luxury goods traceability. A manufacturer will always produce a bulk amount of products each time, but they can’t keep track of every single product. As a result, there are many occasions where products go missing in between shipping. However, if more organization start to adopt enterprise blockchain solution, they can easily deal with the situation.

This could be one of the prominent enterprise blockchain use cases until now.

Here, IBM Blockchain strikes again. They are creating solutions specifically for supply chain management and focus on logistics based output. Transparency and the traceability are two of the major concerns of any logistics. Utilizing those factors IBM Blockchain can offer a global supply chain network that could benefit any organizations.

 

Retail

Retailers are slowly recognizing enterprise blockchain technologies application in this department. Counterfeit is one of the major issues of this department, and they have been trying to deal with for a very long time with little success rate.

Enterprise blockchain in this regard can offer a full optimization of the products and help retailers finally fight back against the counterfeit issue.

Some major examples of enterprise blockchain use cases would be Walmart and Alibaba.

Walmart is one of the retail giants on the market now and has taken a keen interest in blockchain as well. During everyday operation, it uses blockchain to track and manage all its retail goods. Walmart is currently in cooperation with IBM.

Alibaba, on the other hand, is taking it to the next level. They are developing blockchain based solutions to deal with theft protocols. The company is quite focused on using enterprise blockchain grade tech for retail purposes.

 

Governmental Services

Governmental institutions are falling behind when it comes to digitization. The citizens need a better infrastructure with a more secure way to preserve all their rights in one place. But to offer an exponential growth in this economy is a massive burden for governmental services.

The most secure way to do it is to offer a layer of the trusted network where there will be paperless documentation for the governments. This way the government can process a huge chunk of data at once such as bill payments, visa applications, renewing licenses and many more. And what can be a proper enterprise blockchain use cases than this?

Examples in this sector are massive. Many government services are collaborating with blockchain solutions to digitize their country. uPort is one of those enterprise-grade solutions. Alongside uPort the Zug created a new platform called ZugID. This application will let all the citizens of Zug, to get access to e-governance in a secured manner. uPort also teamed up on another project with Brazil government for IDs and storing documentation on the blockchain.

Although governments aren’t too keep for using this new tech and that’s why the progress is slow. Dubai, Estonia, Chile, Israel are more than keen to start their own governmental blockchain project.

 

Intellectual Property

The intellectual property management is becoming a major issue for trademarking and patenting. There are already many third-party organizations available to trademark any property for their correct owner. However, most of them are backdated and only suitable for local patenting.

But these large organizations such as inventors, designers, artists, and musicians want to have an impact on the international market, the regulations of old age patenting don’t work well.

As a result, there are many times when intellectual property gets abused, and people don’t get the necessary amount of payment for their work.

But with enterprise blockchain, people can now finally get the payment they deserve. Blockchain can track the usage of intellectual properties and can offer the pay cut they deserve.

Kodak would be a good example of this enterprise blockchain use cases. They developed a KodakOne platform though that every photographer patents their work and gets a paycheck every time their photography is used online.

 

Healthcare

Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare can leverage the functionality of enterprise blockchain to a great extent. Even though many countries invest a lot of money on these sectors, but compared to that the outcome is quite poor.

But why is that? The main culprits behind this are the lack of data transparency and vulnerability. One other major cause harms this industry at a massive scale – Counterfeit drugs. Fake drugs not only takes a toll on the economy but also on the lives of the people.

Every year a massive amount of people suffer a greater reaction to fake drugs.

To deal with this healthcare and drug manufacturing companies can coordinate with enterprise blockchain and ensure a safety protocol that will fight against these problems.

For example, you can take FDA and IBM’s partnering up to provide secure decentralized ledger system that will aim for transparency and improve the overall privacy concerns of patients. This is another one of the enterprise blockchain use cases.

 

Oil and Gas

According to Accenture, the huge industry of Gas and Oil can highly benefit from the enterprise blockchain solution. Mainly in freight payment and auditing. In simple terms, it can improve efficiency by taking all routes into account – Rail, Truck, Ship, and Plane. This way Oil companies can calculate the best route and can reduce costs for shipment.

Eventually, it would all come down to the accountability of the data, where once it gets added to the ledger both the shipper and the carrier would be able to see it.

On further elaboration, Accenture pointed out that enterprise blockchain could easily save 5% revenue just by improving accuracy. Shell, the oil and gas giant, is currently investing in blockchain based solutions. So, as you can see oil and gas is a major enterprise blockchain use cases.

 

Real Estate

The present situation of the real estate market suffers greatly from higher costs, inaccessibility, and really poor liquidity. Typically only rich people can now invest in real estate business, while it’s getting out of the reach from the middle class.

If the real estate corporations want to truly balance it, then they have to utilize the enterprise blockchain. Enterprise blockchain and the platform can offer the liquidity needed for this massive marketplace.

Dubai partnered up with ConsenSys to develop a blockchain based solution for provenance tracking of the real estate marketplace. Meridio is the venture of that co-operation, and it now can convert every individual land to digital base shared on Ethereum platform.

From that people can now have fractional ownership easily and can buy and sell their lands whenever they find a good buyer. It exposes a large number of assets to a broad selection of investors. So, enterprise blockchain use cases here will liquidity the real estate business.

 

Humanitarianism

Enterprise blockchain can leverage their facilities in this niche specifically. Multiple humanitarian projects have to deal with corrupt personal and need to make sure they are truly helping the people in need.

Due to corruption every year larger sums of donation to these charities are abused, and only a small portion of it reaches to the people in need. If a humanitarian organization wants to offer 100% transparency to their donating clients, people would be more eager to help out those in need.

As people have lost their faith in humanitarian institutions only enterprise blockchain can bring it back.

Save The Children is a humanitarian charity organization. They are currently experimenting with the new humanitarian enterprise blockchain.

Using the ledger system, they will keep track of every donation being made, and the donator will also be able to see where they are donating their money and how it’s being used. It will regain the lost trust among people, and the people in need will get their fair share properly.

 

Insurance

The insurance industry deals with an excessive amount of paper trails and accountability. Any insurer has to deal with loads of paperwork every time someone gets insurance or claims their share. Accounting every individual customer to see whether their claim is valid or not is also a hectic job. Not to mention it takes a massive amount of time.

To be frank, this industry exploits customers as well, signing contracts without full honesty. As a result, many don’t get back the insurance they filed ages ago just because of “technicality.”

Enterprise blockchain can leverage its transparency and fairness into this industry and help it transform completely. With blockchain on the mix, no one has to wait months to get ahold of their money, and the inspector can easily figure out whether the claim is valid or not.

Metlife is currently experimenting with automated insurance claim solutions to see how things are going. AIA group is planning to develop a blockchain based Bancassurance. Bancassurance will help banks pick their required software and utilize them for their benefits. That’s’ why insurance can become one of the popular enterprise blockchain use cases on the market.

 

Media and Entertainment

Participation in the entertainment business and media is quite easy thanks to social platforms like YouTube. However, even on YouTube artists deal with unfairness issues and doesn’t get the compensation they truly deserve.

This scenario discourages good artists to keep promoting their work and puts a negative impact on the overall entertainment business. With the enterprise blockchain use cases in this sector, the communications process inside the industry would be decentralized. This way, there won’t be any central authority exploiting artists for their own gain.

Since enterprise blockchain is capable of tracking all records from each artist and distribute the revenue fairly. A musician Imogen Heap released one of the tracks called “Tiny Human” through the blockchain channel. So, that’s a great example of blockchain being used in the industry.

 

Travel

Airports are keen to implement enterprise blockchain platform as their internal network system. They are hoping that this could revolutionize passenger processing to a great extent.

SITA (travel group) believes that using a single point of blockchain for all passenger identification could help out passengers in terms of crossing through borders. They will require less documentation and being biometrics would streamline the process saving lots of precious time.

The British Airways along with three other airports including Miami, Geneva, and London created a small enterprise based solution just to test out how the system works. It recorded more than 2 million flights with greater accuracy. So, enterprise blockchain use cases shine in this sector too.

 

Chapter-7: Are There Any Implementation Challenges?

• Interoperability

Implementing enterprise blockchain can be a harder job than anticipated. One of the major issues that the blockchain for enterprise challenges have is interoperability. Interoperability is an absolute need when it comes to global acceptance.

Why?

Well, it’s simply because if we want to have blockchain for enterprise in every sector of our life, then we need to have the networks communicate with each other. That would make it more streamlined. So, if a healthcare institute has an enterprise blockchain solution, then it should be able to connect with the insurance company’s blockchain for medical insurance claims.

This way the patient won’t have to deal with unnecessary paperwork and can cover his/her medical expenses quite easily.

However, the current enterprise blockchain landscape doesn’t offer this feature. Yeah, there have been some initiatives where the enterprise blockchain solution would work as a hub; however, it still needs immense work.

Let along getting everyone on board is also a hard job. So, it becomes one of the major blockchain for enterprise challenges.

 

• Legacy Networks

Dealing with the legacy network structure is another major blockchain for enterprise challenges. A digital solution can always turn the system around, but at present, all of our technology runs on legacy networks.

This infrastructure is a major hurdle for enterprise blockchain solution. That’s because people are already invested in old technology and changing the whole economic structure could require a massive amount of time and money.

Also, with the public records, not many are that eager to integrate it right away. So, once everyone sees the true potential of enterprise blockchain, they can start revolutionizing the change. It may take years and a lot of trials, but it’s quite inevitable.

 

• Skillset

If you are trying to implement your own enterprise blockchain solution or at least trying to integrate with the existing one, you’d have to hire a lot of people with a certain skill set. Moreover, developing blockchain for enterprise is utterly a complex need, and without people with higher skills, no one can just build one from scratch.

One major issue is to choose the developers wisely. You’d need to have skilled coders who are dedicated to only blockchain technology and has a clear concept of how the system works. Also, you would need a team of people for marketing and scanning the marketplace to focus on specific features.

If you don’t hire skilled personal your blockchain for enterprise, might not have a lot of popularity. It has to outdone other blockchain for enterprise platforms on the market. But the issue is that many aren’t quite familiar with the architecture of the network and enterprise blockchain companies don’t have the adequate workforce they need.

So, if you want to implement this tech, then you need to consider this blockchain for enterprise challenges.

 

• Methodology

Every enterprise blockchain solution provides support with newer projects. However, many of lack one think respectfully – correct methodology. If you can’t figure out the right methodology behind your new solution, it will leave a lot of loopholes behind.

There were many smart contract platform that utilized Ethereum’s creation; however, after deploy, those platforms had quite a lot of vulnerabilities. Blockchain technology thrives for their higher security rates, but if they have vulnerabilities just like a typical system, people won’t be using it, would they?

If a hacker gets access through one of the loopholes of your enterprise blockchain solution and gets away with all the cryptocurrencies available, how will you deal with it? Moreover, enterprise blockchain has to have a tremendous amount of data processing capabilities, and if it can’t do that, there’s no point in implementing one in the first place. That’s why before implementing, you should test out your platforms million times before deploying publicly.

Keep in mind, this blockchain for enterprise challenges can hurt your reputation if not dealt with carefully. So, you should know more about Blockchain Business Models to truly shine in this sector.

 

• Mass Adoption

Enterprise blockchain has all the glory until something goes wrong. In the theoretical aspect, all the technology is capable of handling a mass adoption scenario. But that’s only for theories. In practical, other factors might go wrong, and you could end up with a slow, inefficient network.

As more people join the network the harder it becomes to maintain scalability. Transaction becomes slower, and for that, the rates get higher and higher. This is the exact scenario that is happening with the Ethereum platform.

Although there have been other projects that are dealing with it by exchanging the consensus algorithms for a lighter version. Still, this blockchain for enterprise challenges needs to be addressed properly to overcome them.

Another problem for mass adoption is the unregulated number of ICOs launching every year. However, STOs are comparatively better suited for any organizations. But you’d need to know more about STO marketing to secure a place in the market.

If you want your business to grow and ensure that it stays that way even if countless people use the network, you would have to mature up the tech greatly.

 

• Cost Challenges

This one is another one of the major blockchain for enterprise challenges on the market. It might seem like not a major issue for enterprise but in many cases transforming the whole ecosystem may need a lot then you anticipated. The costing differs from your requirements. If you want to have a lot of feature on your enterprise blockchain solution, then you would have to spend a lot of bucks on that.

On the other hand, as we said earlier, legacy networks could pull you down a little bit. It’s difficult to integrate it with the existing framework, so you’d need to change it completely, and that’s where you’ll face the most challenge – not having enough budget for that. Blockchain transformation should be focused and strategic.

So, if you want to start an enterprise blockchain solution, you need to take the blockchain for enterprise challenges seriously.

New to Blockchain Technology? Don’t have time to go deep into the core? Well, try out our blockchain cheat sheet now!

 

Chapter-8: What Is The Future?

Enterprise blockchain is gaining popularity on a massive scale. It has massive firepower that the centralized platforms can never have. Enterprises are slowly appreciating this network as they will be able to have blockchain for enterprise with efficiency and less costing.

However, at this age, only enterprise blockchain can provide that much backup. Moreover, many companies that are synchronizing this platform with the decentralized application would shine in the future is blockchain technology takes over the world.

But for that permissioned and public blockchain need to work simultaneously. It’s predicted that by 2020, public blockchain will work with permissioned blockchain and create a fulfilling network system for every kind of use.

If enterprise blockchain wasn’t to reduce the scalability issue, they need to have two working environments together. Currently, many vendors such as IBM, Accenture, and Microsoft are working on enterprise blockchain solution.

There are rumors that the social media giant Facebook and search engine guru Google is also eager to work with a new form of tech. So, it’s a good start as enterprise giants are noticing the true potential of blockchain technology.

Experts believe that by 2013, the permissioned blockchain network would be able to provide a fair space without the need for any incentive. And with more data confidentially, organizations would be able to maintain privacy.

By 2028, we will see enterprise blockchain solution everywhere, and this economy should reach its potential form by then.

Want to know more about Enterprise blockchain training? check it out from here!

Check out our Blockchain masterclass on Enterprise blockchain training as well.

 

Chapter-9: Final Words

The impact of blockchain technology is quite overpowering. However, there aren’t many experts in the market that can fully understand the use cases of the many potential it has. Enterprise blockchain companies are off to a great start with all the big giants on board.

It would continue to grow and evolve to be fully capable of handling any kind of hurdle that it might face. The growth of this enterprise blockchain solution may take place in a scattered way. However, it might not take as much time as we thought it would.

Over the next 5-10 years this industry will replace the existing ones, and by 2030 we’ll see a $3 trillion blockchain business worldwide. But for now, let’s hope for a brighter future and see what happens.

Still unsure about blockchain? Check out our “Top 50 Blockchain Interview Questions And Answers“, it will surely get rid of all your worries.

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