Blockchain can increase the demand for decentralized applications

Baozou Comment : Blockchain can reduce business operating costs, increase transparency and security, but its disruptive nature has become a core factor that prevents traditional companies from participating in it. Therefore, start-ups have better inherent advantages in the development and application of this technology. In the short term, developing countries can provide a better development environment. However, it still has extremely high long-term cost-effectiveness. To realize its huge potential requires huge financial and human investment, so people with innovative awareness and professional knowledge are needed to open up ways to apply technology.

Translation: Annie_Xu

Most daily transactions today rely on third parties. Whether on the Internet or in the real world, we, as consumers and businesses, need to participate in transactions and rely on financial institutions to execute them. This means that our personal information is transmitted between two points and can be seen by multiple third parties. But what if third parties are no longer needed?

This is the potential of the blockchain technology that underlies Bitcoin. Blockchain is a shared ledger that stores the complete transaction history of cryptocurrency and any data you can think of. It is transparent and secure, without relying on a central system. Blockchain is a catalyst for new decentralized applications and has unlimited potential.

Potential is one thing, meeting expectations is another. Gartner's Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies says that blockchain technology is now at the peak of people's expectations. On the way to the peak, blockchain has been dubbed as a "revolutionary" and "game changer", enjoying the same importance and influence as the Internet. I can emphasize again that the potential of blockchain is huge, but we should put the current hype in perspective and better measure our expectations.

Blockchain Applications

The main obstacle to the application of blockchain technology is its compatibility with existing software solutions and business processes. Blockchain brings completely new practices. If traditional large companies adjust existing systems according to blockchain technology, they may have to bear great costs and difficulties. In the worst case, it may completely replace existing systems. The transition to blockchain applications is strategic. Therefore, start-ups that adopt blockchain from the beginning have a clear advantage.

Storj is a great example of a successful deployment of blockchain technology and a peer-to-peer framework, where users can store data using the bandwidth and hard drive capacity of other users. The data on a personal terminal is encrypted and transmitted between other Storj users; the data in the blockchain is unrecognizable encrypted bytes. Only the user who encrypted the data holds the key. Even if the data holder obtains these bytes, it is meaningless to them; it is like trying to tell what books someone has read from a few words.

Cost savings

At the same time, Storj is very different from other services, such as DropBox, iCloud or Google Drive. Users can get the same data storage at a cost ten or a hundred times cheaper, because other holders of the data will get most of the money. Storj provides a framework for data storage leasing, but is not directly responsible for storage. Due to the cost of central data storage, services such as DropBox need to charge fees, but Storj is different. Decentralized information can significantly reduce costs.

While the transition from a centralized to a decentralized system is inherently costly, it can save a lot of resources and money in the long run. Part of the high cost comes from blockchain software development.

Blockchain Developer

There are not many companies using blockchain to develop applications and software, but there are many global companies preparing for future demand growth. Development teams around the world are aware of the importance of this technology and the growing demand trend, including Argentina, Belarus, India, Pakistan and many other countries. There is still great potential for Western countries to reduce the cost of implementing blockchain solutions through outsourcing while investing in cutting-edge talent.

Industry attention

The financial industry is expecting blockchain to bring great value, such as eliminating credit and bank account audits and enabling instant transfers. Of course, its potential goes beyond this. Blockchain technology has the potential to impact all areas of daily life. This includes important things like government transparency, by registering budgets on the blockchain so that the public can see them and the government can strictly abide by them. And it can improve companies such as Airbnb that currently provide transaction services, reducing their operating costs and increasing transparency between landlords and tenants.

Although companies that provide multi-party communication platforms, such as Airbnb and Uber, have achieved great success and accumulated a large number of buyers and sellers; if they do not make adjustments, they may be eliminated by the blockchain. Knowledgeable and innovative developers are the key to unlocking the maximum potential of blockchain for enterprises. Almost all data, information and currency transactions can be decentralized. Lower costs, resource consumption, and higher security and transparency give us hope to realize this potential.