How Can Blockchain Help?

Blockchain has become quite the buzzword over the last couple of years. Interestingly enough, many think that blockchain can be the solution for almost anything under the sun. While Blockchain does have a lot of potential in terms of becoming a trustworthy and decentralized database, for businesses and enterprises alike, it’s not really the fairy dust that a lot many people, with a generic idea of what Blockchain does, would like to believe.

So how can Blockchain really help?

Broadly, Blockchain can help to build technology for infrastructural governance, creating decentralized, yet secure databases, and probably build communications channel that breaks down legal structures.

Some of the world’s foremost tech giants are adopting Blockchain to build their services and solutions, in order to enhance already existing products and services or to create absolutely new solutions for enterprises.

Let’s take a look at some of these solutions to help you understand the usage of Blockchain better.

Microsoft

Ahead of its Build Developer Conference, Microsoft launched Azure Blockchain Services, “a fully managed service that allows for the formation, management, and governance of consortium blockchain networks.”

For those of you who do not know, Azure is Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Platform. Over the last year or so, Microsoft was researching the possibility of integrating the Blockchain technology within Azure. Azure Blockchain Services is going to help businesses build applications by integrating blockchain technology within the Azure Active Directory. Azure Blockchain Services has upgraded the Azure platform by offering additional capabilities such as “adding new members, setting permissions and monitoring network health and activity.”

Azure Blockchain Services uses J.P. Morgan’s now well-known Quorum (built on the popular Ethereum protocol) as it’s first support ledger <hyperlink ‘ledger’ with the Blockchain Basic Article>. In Azure CTO Mark Russinovich’s words, “it integrates with a rich set of open-source tools while also supporting confidential transactions—something our enterprise customers require.”

AWS

Just a couple of days before Microsoft’s announcement, Amazon Web Services (AWS) made its Blockchain Services available for general usage. Until recently, Amazon was dismissive of the Blockchain technology. But they changed tack late last year and announced that they were working towards developing frameworks like Hyperledger Fabric (another popular Blockchain protocol) and Ethereum.

To quote Rahul Pathak, GM, Amazon Managed Blockchain at AWS, “Customers want to use blockchain frameworks like Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum to create blockchain networks so they can conduct business quickly, with an immutable record of transactions, but without the need for a centralized authority.”

“However, they find these frameworks difficult to install, configure, and manage. Amazon Managed Blockchain takes care of provisioning nodes <hyperlink with previous article>, setting up the network, managing certificates, and security, and scaling the network. Customers can now get a functioning blockchain network set up quickly and easily, so they can focus on application development instead of keeping a blockchain network up and running.”

AT&T Business, Nestlé, the Singaporean investment market, and the Singapore Exchange are already onboard to use the general availability of Amazon Managed Blockchain Services.

IBM

IBM has been the frontrunner in adopting, scaling, and monetizing the latest technologies for quite some time now. Take for example IBM Watson, one of the most widely used AI frameworks that enterprises swear by. It was pretty much the same with IBM’s Blockchain services.

Based on Open-Sourced Hyperledger Fabric Technology, IBM’s Blockchain Services have been around for about 2 years now. A public cloud service, IBM Blockchain can be used by their clients to create secure Blockchain networks. This is quite a remarkable solution, considering it came into force when Blockchain was primarily associated with cryptocurrency transactions.

IBM’s core concept was the same. Just like the Bitcoin Blockchain could track bitcoin’s activity in a secure and transparent fashion, IBM’s Blockchain services provided enterprises the capability to track different types of data within private blockchain networks.

Private companies and/or Governments can use the IBM framework to set up trusted networks, allowing members to access and see information freely, knowing that once entered, it cannot be tampered with. In effect, IBM helped the notion of creating decentralized yet secure databases for organizations.

So Blockchain Networks can help Enterprises, but can it help individuals?

The answer to that question is yes, it can. In fact, businesses have started leveraging the power of Blockchain to build solutions that can help people deal with day-to-day problems.

Tech Mahindra’s Blockchain Solution for Spam Calls

In India, mobile spam calls are a major problem that each and every person faces. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has regulations to protect mobile phone service subscribers from Unsolicited Commercial Calls (UCC). Tech Mahindra has seized the opportunity to offer a Blockchain based solution that can help block spam calls for over 300 million mobile subscribers in the country.

Aimed at mitigating the issue of spam calls, the solution is designed to enable telecom providers in preventing unauthorized access to their subscriber’s data (phone numbers). Along with Microsoft, Tech Mahindra presented the proof of concept to TRAI last year and is ready to put it to test in the real world in the last week of May 2019. The company has a team of 50 people across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai, who are involved in writing the Blockchain code.

Oxfam Using Blockchain Technology to Help Rice Farmers in Cambodia

According to Oxfam…

“Rice farming employs three million of Cambodia’s 15 million people and accounts for 25 percent of the economy. Cambodian rice farmers are now exporting about 9.9 million tons, which is nearly twice what the country consumes. It’s a vital part of Cambodia’s economy, but the average monthly income for rice farmers is only about $108.”

So Oxfam is testing an idea that could help 50 farmers in an organic cooperative called Reaksmey Lekkompos Kaksekor to make a deal with exporter AMRU Rice. The model is simple: AMRU will cut out all the middlemen and sell the rice to Sano Rice in the Netherlands, which will make rice cakes for supermarkets in Europe.

So where does Blockchain come in? The project is trying to find out whether a contract farming deal using Blockchain Technology can be an effective tool to monitor all the parts of the arrangement. The pilot project, called BlocRice, started in 2018.

So why is Blockchain still a buzzword and not Technology with Mass Adoption?

Although Enterprises have started using Blockchain networks to build data directories and give hassle-free access to information for its members/employees, there are some practical hurdles and obstacles that most businesses are not well-equipped to handle. Here’s a lowdown on them:

Technical

Much like cloud-based technology and AI, Blockchain coding is a very specialized field. It’s still in its nascent stage and not too many companies are researching on its potential mostly because of its vastness and the idea of democratizing information access. It’s not something everyone feels comfortable with.

Legal

Proponents of Blockchain technology want to break down on the limitations a legal structure imposes on efficiency. In theory, it sounds great. In practice, however, that might not be the case.

Security

Blockchain’s main features are the ability to be hyper-secure owing to a decentralized ledger with multiple timestamps <link to previous article>. However, it is still not 100% secure.  For consumer grade applications, Fed-level monetary organizations, and Fortune 500 companies to widely accept blockchain technologies, it will require additional redundancies and reconciliation practices, beyond blockchain’s existing infrastructure.

High SetUp Costs

Every organization needs to do a Cost-Benefit Analysis before switching to a new technology. The high cost of switching systems and setting up the Blockchain is a significant obstacle to its extensive adoption. Blockchain needs to be customized depending on the type of business, which might not be cost effective, particularly for smaller companies.

A Threat to the Environmentally Conscious

There is a perception – which is not completely unfounded – that Blockchain networks consume a lot of energy which is disturbing to environment-conscious enterprises. However, going by the number of companies betting the big bucks on Blockchain Managed Services, this hurdle probably will not stand for long, unless there is an equally effective, mass-scale, energy saving solution.

Not a Universal System

There are several Blockchain networks. In fact, Blockchain networks are customized according to the industry that is adopting the technology. Until and unless it has more instances of universal test cases, mass-scale adoption will not happen any time soon.

Not a mature Technology

Blockchain has only been around for about a decade. Since the Satoshi Nakamoto-induced frenzy, Blockchain hasn’t really seen a big push. The general perception is it’s too new a technology to have long-term commercial credibility.

Techies and Enterprises are exploring the possibilities that the Blockchain technology can usher in. While it does have the potential to fix things, it still does have some chinks in its armor that need attention. Industry leaders might be more ready to adopt Blockchain technologies to address inefficiencies within organizations, but it will still take some time before Blockchain becomes a mass phenomenon.