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Tag: enterprise blockchain

  • Enterprise Blockchain Adoption Hinges on DevOps

    Enterprise Blockchain Adoption Hinges on DevOps

    There is a lot of excitement around blockchain right now, for a good reason. Production use cases continue to emerge across sectors such as manufacturing, energy, air travel, insurance and finance. Gartner predicts that by 2023, organizations using blockchain smart contracts will see a 50% increase in their data quality.

    Yet, Gartner also predicts that blockchain will reduce data availability by 30%. Before its use can reach ubiquity, blockchain-based application development has some hurdles to overcome. And if enterprises are to get on board, executives will need to see tangible proof of its value in the form of reduced expenses and increased profits directly correlated with blockchain adoption.

    “Enterprises aren’t going to change their business model to adopt a new technology,” said CasperLabs CEO Mrinal Manohar. Just as it’s difficult to dramatically alter the UX for established products, it’s similarly difficult to change the developer experience for established software production routines.

    I recently met with Manohar to discuss the limitations and the changes required to accelerate enterprise blockchain adoption. According to Manohar, much of it boils down to taking a DevOps approach—reducing energy use, enabling CI/CD, ensuring stable development environments and providing room for change and ongoing testing—will be critical to spur adoption. This could also mean abstracting complexity away from the developer and end users. However, once more production proofs are out there, the shift toward blockchain will be swift and it will be massive.

    What’s Hindering Enterprise Adoption?

    Enterprise adoption comes down to UI and UX, said Manohar. He predicts blockchain will follow a similar path as the internet. In its command-line days, the internet was only adopted by die-hard techies. But once visual-based actions were possible through the browser, consumer interest exploded.

    Similarly, blockchain might see more production use once the complexity is pushed to the background. “A technology is awesome when it’s 99% invisible,” said Manohar. However, at the moment, blockchain is 99% visible, he adds. For example, it isn’t easy to spin up a node and test a blockchain app. Lowering the requirements to 50% with more abstraction, simulation and integration with cloud providers could help tremendously.

    In general, Manohar believes that four key factors are hindering enterprise adoption:

    1. Enterprises need a lower energy footprint. Attaining high throughput on a public network without sacrificing decentralization and security is tricky. If blockchain drains operations when scaled, organizations may simply opt for a centralized data store. Therefore, enterprises will require a blockchain with minimal energy requirements.
    2. Large companies want developer environments that are similar to what’s already in place. In many ways, blockchain throws out the old playbook. But such a significant shift is a hard sell across multiple IT divisions. Large companies will require blockchain abilities that plug into the existing developer stack. Using a blockchain with familiar programming languages and plugins to popular IDEs like Visual Studio and IntelliJ will decrease onboarding effort.
    3. They need more control. Blockchains typically use immutable contracts. This is great for sustaining a shared distributed history, but Manohar believes that contracts need to be more malleable to enable continual upgrades. Furthermore, there is the issue of privacy when adopting blockchain. Some implementers don’t want all 100% of data to be on the public chain. Having the ability to maintain both private and public nodes for smart contracts could help enable more flexibility.
    4. Enterprises want ongoing support. Some companies will be autonomous using open source, but most enterprises will not adopt new or emerging technology without a support email attached to it, said Manohar. Thus, there may be a need for professional services and outsourced blockchain experts.

    Applying a DevOps Perspective

    Another big boon to accelerating blockchain adoption could be considering a DevOps perspective. To Manohar, introducing DevOps into blockchain requires more continuous updates, mitigations to avoid breaking change and simulations to enable better testing environments.

    An immutable blockchain infrastructure seems to be at odds with the DevOps creed of rapid deployment. Thus, Manohar said that choosing a blockchain that enables more mutability will help upgrade contracts and allow functionality to change over time. For core infrastructure changes that affect the entire public chain, the majority of validators must, of course, accept upgrades before they are distributed.

    Simple functionality, like a push notification, could ease this process to allow a quick Yes or No response from operators.

    Another potential concern is backward compatibility. What if the aggregate introduces significant breaking change? Manohar said that while this is technically possible, it’s improbable. “That would be a controversial upgrade,” he said, and validators have an incentive to keep a sturdy system intact. “They only do it if they think it’s better for the long-term health of the network.” But guardrails on this process will help avoid edge cases. Thankfully, if a change did disturb a minority of users, a blockchain can be forked. We’ve already seen this occur with Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin, or Ethereum Classic and Ethereum, for example.

    Another shift that will help enterprises embrace DevOps in their use of blockchain will be better testing and deployment processes. It’s notoriously challenging to test blockchain applications while they are tapped into the broader network. Thus, engineers could benefit from a simulated runtime wholly divorced from the main network for testing purposes.

    The Future of Blockchain Development

    So, what does the future of blockchain enterprise adoption look like? Well, it appears we will continue to see new novel use cases emerge that use blockchain in innovative ways. For example, Manohar pointed to the use of blockchain to power an NFT digital twin, a patent marketplace, a tagging system for supply chains and the mortgage processes for a core banking system. Within these scenarios, he noted how blockchain is exorcising cost in many ways; smart contracts are being used to avoid legal fees, eliminate manual processing and improve fault attribution.

    Before blockchain can go mainstream, however, work must be done to bring other enterprises into the fold. Namely, it will necessitate more abstraction of the infrastructure layer. In this effort, low-code integration capabilities could help make API connections to ERP systems or cloud service providers more accessible.

    To inspire adoption, the economy must also change its perspective on what constitutes blockchain success. As of now, common KPIs are surface-level, like: How many wallets? What is the trading volume? Instead, Manohar believes we need to focus on proving actual cost savings from blockchain adoption. Once accountants are publicly reporting revenue gains, shareholders will demand that every company do this, he said.

    “Once that catalyst happens, adoption will happen very, very fast, and demand for blockchain in enterprises will be massive.” At that point, some years down the line, blockchain may truly power a new economy.

  • Unlocking Enterprise Blockchain Potential with Low-Code Capabilities

    Unlocking Enterprise Blockchain Potential with Low-Code Capabilities

    Since the rise of Bitcoin more than a decade ago, companies have been trying to harness the potential of blockchain technology for enterprise applications. Industries that used to operate in silos are becoming increasingly connected, and the lines of where one ecosystem ends and another begins are blurring. In this connected age, blockchain can provide organizations with new opportunities to share and collaborate with their partners, other industry-players, government organizations and even academia. 

    On a more tangible front, integration would ultimately help establish new end-customer experience possibilities and establish new revenue streams. Especially, as we continue to navigate forward in the midst of COVID-19, enterprises are looking for innovative ways to adapt their business to best operate in the new world. Beyond that, supply chain operations are more critical than ever before. Across industries, maintaining a steady flow of essential goods, protective equipment and much more is critical to the health and safety of our frontline workers. Blockchain can help manage this flow and mitigate risks, helping deliver on that need for instant agile flexibility.

    Understanding the Opportunities

    Use cases are innumerable and it’s impossible to ignore the ongoing COVID-19 crisis as we discuss the potential applications for any technology. In the short-term, blockchain provides an added layer of transparency and data accuracy — minimizing the risk for any potential fallout from supply and value chain disruption during this time. With this transparency and data accuracy comes improved tracking of important supplies and materials such as PPE and ventilators, streamlined patient consent and triage capabilities for overwhelmed hospital staff and much more.

    With that, the applications will only continue to expand as industry operations return to normal in the hopefully-near future. Government agencies can develop a seamless international credit bureau, for example. As it stands, different countries have different processes and standards for credit scores or distribution of stimulus funding. With blockchain, governments could potentially develop a universal credit system that allows for international travelers and frequent movers to reap the benefits of their positive credit scores, no matter where they are. 

    Manufacturers can use blockchain to truly optimize their supply chain operations — understanding as much information about a purchase order throughout the lifecycle of a product or part. Take a heavy equipment manufacturer, for example. Blockchain provides access to data that will allow them to understand how their equipment is being used by their customers, when each particular piece of machinery will need maintenance, how to optimize predictive and emergency repair and replacement services, and more — all while understanding and contextualizing what the impact of these external operations will have on its own internal supply chain as well. In today’s world, this information is especially valuable for manufacturers who are shifting their focus to help support the development of PPE and other COVID-19 response essentials.

    Within banking and financial services, cross-bank and cross-border transfers are exponentially streamlined with blockchain integration. Instead of requiring validation and authentication from intermediaries, blockchain allows for instant transfers, with the same level of security and assurance. From a functionality standpoint, this also brings an added layer of convenience for both the end-user and the banks involved. These same conveniences provide a crucial layer of service during times of crisis as well. Through blockchain integration, stimulus allocation can be instantly approved and deposited into bank accounts for all citizens, regardless of existing banking preferences like direct deposit.

    Similarly, in the education sector, blockchain can make it easier for student records to be transferred between universities and other academic institutions — whether a student plans to transfer a few credits, transfer full-time or study abroad. 

    These are just a few of the many use cases for enterprise blockchain. So, what’s keeping them from becoming mainstream?

    Acknowledging the Barriers of Entry

    While the benefits are undeniable, adoption has been slow. But there is definitely interest, and adoption can soon surge. Gartner reported back in 2018 that business value added by blockchain adoption is projected to reach a whopping $3.1 trillion by 2030. But, only 10% of businesses will undergo radical blockchain-driven transformation by 2022. 

    Why is adoption slow to start? Companies are dipping their toes into the water, but studies have shown that a majority of enterprises are holding back due to regulatory uncertainty (48%), trust issues (45%) and an inability to bring partners together to build a network (44%). Other studies have reported that the “very high” difficulty in platform selection, a lack of in-house expertise on use case development and questions about privacy are the top barriers of entry. 

    What will change between now and 2030? How will these concerns be directly addressed? To answer this, it is important to note that these barriers of entry derive from a lack of foundational understanding of blockchain. More education will come, and more experts will rise. That said, integration doesn’t happen overnight. Blockchain, like any other emerging technology, takes time to integrate at scale.

    It’s understandable why companies are hesitant to go all in at the moment — as organizations are often strapped for resources, and the talent that is needed to build a blockchain platform from scratch is hard to come by. That said, those who don’t invest early are likely to be left behind by thriving early-adopters. Luckily, there is a solution to the challenges that are holding adoption back — one that takes away the need for resource expenditure and dedicated developer teams.

    Leveraging Low-Code

    Low-code development platforms allow enterprises to reap the benefits of complex code, without the need to dedicate valuable time and resources toward development from the ground-up. “Plug and play” customization allows them to address specific needs within their organization, and prioritize implementation on a smaller scale without the stress of diving head-first into an infrastructural overhaul. 

    Especially during our ongoing COVID-19 crisis, low-code eliminates the need for large dev teams to develop new software applications, allowing for a streamlined, timely transition as organizations dedicate their valuable resources elsewhere to help minimize the negative impact of COVID-19 on their workforce and their surrounding communities.

    Beyond this epidemic, these benefits provide risk-averse C-level decision makers with an easy and confident investment opportunity, as well as disruptive tools that deliver on the growing need for constant innovation — in an era where agility and digital transformation are now a necessity. In fact, the main reasoning behind an organization’s low-code adoption is to accelerate said digital transformation and increase responsiveness to the business (66%, respectively).  

    Low-code directly addresses the aforementioned barriers of entry that come with blockchain investment — or any complex, resource-dependent software investment for that matter. With low-code, even non-developers can build high-tech applications. Devs are often expensive and good talent is often hard to come by. Because of this, the ability to get the same quality output with minimal input is extremely valuable.

    Beyond the simple cost and scarcity of good talent, dev teams often have significant backlogs, which make it hard for them to keep up with industry and business demands. There are benefits of having a non-developer heavily ingrained in the development process as well, as they will have an overall better understanding of the function that the application will serve, and how it fits into the overall business structure.

    Bridging Together Low-Code and Blockchain

    Upon evaluation of the barriers of entry that keep blockchain from widespread adoption, as well as the glaring benefits that low-code programming brings to enterprises with limited resources and talent, the potential for low-code blockchain to minimize enterprise concerns and justify investment is obvious.

    By reducing the need for dedicated network developers that would originally be required to build the blockchain platform from the ground-up, enterprises can build and maintain a trusted network with clicks, not code. Users will be able to create and share blockchain objects with familiar functionality — essentially interacting with the platform in the same way they would interact with any CRM data object.

    The simplicity and ease of use of low-code blockchain makes it so that trusted networks can grow organically, faster. Integration across the entire partner network is simple and can be completed with just a few clicks — making it easier to bring new third-parties on board to join the trusted network, ultimately making the blockchain platform and user network exponentially more valuable in the long-term.

    Blockchain adoption will undoubtedly pick up steam, aided by the low-code capabilities that now exist. The minimized risk and resource expenditure that comes with low-code will make blockchain adoption much more appealing to those who are currently skeptical. Additionally, once low-code serves as the entry-point for enterprise adoption, organizations will begin to expand upon the capabilities of their own blockchain networks — and ultimately drive further innovation. 

    Eventually, we’ll see new ecosystem partnerships forming, and end-customer experiences improving. Early leaders will become more comfortable with the idea of experimenting with new, previously unimaginable use cases of their own.

    Looking Ahead to 2030

    We are approaching a turning point with blockchain in the enterprise. Low-code development platforms will provide enterprises with the opportunity to adopt blockchain technology with minimal risk and proven ROI. As more enterprises build trusted networks through low-code blockchain, industry-agnostic innovation will elevate all participating organizations and deliver truly exceptional results — for both, the network partners and their end-customers as well. 

    The blockchain hype is justified. We have been searching for a way to manifest its potential without over-complicating the process of bringing it to life. Low-code does just this, without fault.