Blockchain has become a buzzword in the cryptocurrency world. However, the idea of blockchain has gone far beyond crypto trading platforms. Currently, software engineers are implementing blockchain technology in various fields, from medicine to logistics and many others.
More and more startups are starting to use blockchain as the main technology for developing their products. In this article, we will talk in more detail about blockchain software development, why use it, and what stages the development of such software goes through.
Table of Contents
Why Use Blockchain for Software Development?
Blockchain has been successfully implemented in various software development projects. Here are some reasons why:
- Whether you need to establish a secure digital relationship with your customers or distribute an open system of immutable records.
Applications based on blockchain technology can be used for long-term and transparent records. For example, property, land, music rights record, or record of any other legal terms.
- When you want to avoid the service of any intermediaries.
For example, if your company wants to avoid booking or e-commerce aggregation platforms in order to connect your services directly to your customers and execute money transactions through the blockchain.
- To record transactions between multiple partners.
Blockchain technology can help create complex patterns of secure transactions between multiple clients in any industry.
- When past data matters.
With blockchain, you can easily keep track of the entries made by each member of the system. Data cannot be accidentally erased or changed. This way you can keep a clear historical trail of your data while updating your records at the same time.
Where Blockchain Software Is Used?
Next, we will consider in which areas of life and business blockchain-based software solutions are used.
Smart houses and cities
The combination of blockchain with the Internet of Things (IoT) makes smart connections more secure. When a home system is set up and controlled digitally, there is always the risk of being hacked.
The consequences of a system breach can be even more severe when it comes to IoT connections in cities or government offices. Blockchain allows you to combine all IoT devices into one secure and reliable system.
Financial services
In banking and finance, professionals can use blockchain to trade cryptocurrencies. There are many examples of cryptocurrency trading that you can find on the internet such as the famous Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and more.
The use of smart contracts eliminates the need for intermediaries, making them more fair and reliable. Whether you’re selling a house, buying stocks on the stock market, or making global payments, it can be successfully implemented in trading processes and settlements in various areas.
Healthcare and ID
Blockchain is a transparent system, and any participant can track all transactions, with the help of smart contracts, people can encode and transfer data to certain persons. This technology can help patients privately and securely share their personal medical records with physicians individually.
First of all, personal data such as ID cards or driver’s licenses can be encrypted using blockchain technology, making it harder to forge or steal.
Insurance services
Insurance processes are quite complex. They involve a lot of paperwork, making them prone to misuse or fraud. To avoid mistakes, insurance companies can implement a system of blockchain contracts that provide transparent and secure procedures.
Elections
Currently, governments prefer to conduct elections in the traditional paper way. However, this system is insecure and easy to cheat. Blockchain technology can improve the electoral system by making it more reliable and convenient for voters.
By holding elections online, governments ensure that no extra ballots are added to the ballot boxes. What’s more, blockchain can help cut costs as governments won’t need to hire people, set up polling stations, or print ballot papers.
Entertainment
Blockchain can help artists protect their property rights and monetize their productions by building decentralized systems that keep track of music and film rights. Thus, media consumers will pay directly to musicians and filmmakers, not to pirates.
What Facilitates Blockchain Adoption?
And now let’s look at the factors that contribute to the implementation of the blockchain.
Smart contracts
The smart contract system has made blockchain more applicable in various industries. Smart contracts can perform various actions when certain conditions are met.
For example, with the help of smart contracts, blockchain participants can show data to predetermined participants or enter into agreements on certain conditions.
Distributed databases
The idea of decentralization in the blockchain has been successfully implemented in databases. Using blockchain programmers, engineers were able to develop decentralized distributed databases. This technology is rapidly gaining popularity over traditional databases.
Let’s take a closer look at how databases are extended with blockchain and what a distributed database system is.
A distributed database system (DDBMS) is a set of database files that are physically located on different computer networks or at different sites. DDBMS synchronizes data from different parts and ensures that it is updated and deleted accordingly in other places.
dApps
Decentralized applications (dApps) are programs based on blockchain or peer-to-peer networks. This means that dApps have a distributed approach instead of getting data from one central computer. This makes dApps more stable and minimizes downtime and errors.
Although dApps are based on blockchain technology, the interface of these applications is not much different from traditional applications. The main benefits of dApps are as follows: they can:
- Replicate data. By replicating data, dApps keep it secure. The replicated data is stored on every computer connected to the blockchain system. Thus, if any computer disconnects from the system or loses data, it remains on the other computers.
- Check requirements. Before executing any transaction, the system checks its requirements. Each participant in the system must check the requirements and confirm each transaction, otherwise, it will not be executed. In this way, all participants agree to every transaction, which ensures their safety and makes the process fair.
- Records transactions. Because each transaction is written to a sequential log and linked to previous transactions, the sequence of data becomes very secure and almost impossible to change.
- Encryption of transactions with a public key. Public key cryptography is an additional layer of security when all data is encrypted using mathematical algorithms. Anyone can encrypt their data with these algorithms, but only the recipient can decrypt it with the private key.
All these features of dApps make these applications incredibly secure and stable, pushing the boundaries for new technologies.
Summary
Blockchain is a new rapidly developing technology. This has already proven to be highly useful for many digital solutions like IoT. Much more can be expected from blockchain in the future. Also, a decentralized blockchain system can improve various technologies by making them more secure and stable.
