Answer to outdo the challenges of Blockchain technology - Part 1

Every challenge brings an opportunity

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The world is moving at a swift velocity and we are all trying to catch up. It seems like yesterday everyone was talking about the Internet of Things and before we could settle down, the buzz around Blockchain started.

In my previous blog, I have tried to explain the Blockchain technology in the easiest possible way. In this blog, I am turning the spotlight on the challenges that this emerging technology poses and what are the solutions to succeed. In the next post I will be sharing my thoughts on the possible solutions.

The blockchain is said to be one of the most secure technology for information sharing. But on the other side of the fence, there are some challenges that need to be subdued to turn it into the best of opportunities. Not just winning the trust of people but even implementing this technology has its own questions that the companies need to answer.

    1. Integration with the existing apps or systems:

The blockchain technology concept is own of its kind and integrating it with the old legacy apps or systems is a big challenge for the companies. Either the existing system will need to be altered to make it compatible with the new technology or the existing system will need to be moved to the blockchain.

Either way, it would be, like designing a new system altogether. But maintaining two separate systems – existing and new is out of the question. Finding the best solution for taking the legacy systems with blockchain will need to be thought of very precisely.

    2.  Initial Investment:

The blockchain is said to be one of the most secure technology and is set to benefit the world. But this technology is new in every inch, hence initially a substantial amount of investment will need to be done.

Getting the budget approved for this technology will need to be done thoughtfully after considering the risks involved. An initial investment will be needed for getting on-board the skilled personal, the tools and labs or environment for coding and/or testing. 

Hence this will be like bite off more than you can chew for small or medium-sized companies. Whether to wait or make a substantial investment for jumping in the race, will be a decision that the company will have to take.

    3. Achieving the trust of the customers:

“People are afraid of what they don’t understand” a famous quote from the movie “Man of Steel”. Yea, it is true that we are afraid to accept things that we don’t understand. This applies to technology as well; every new technology must go through the privation of earning the trust of the customers and the buyers.

Talking about blockchain, companies themselves are still analyzing this technology, how to get the best benefit out of it and how to narrow down the challenges. Post this, companies need to face the challenge of earning their customer’s trust.

Customers will be reluctant initially because not everyone understands technology, there will be a lot of questions in the minds of customers like how will I benefit? Is this safe for my financial transactions? Is this really going to guard my sensitive information? Etc. Hence this is a hard as nail challenge that companies will need to overcome.

    4.  The expertise:

Even after a complete evaluation, plan formulation, gathering the gear for implementing the blockchain technology there is still a big question to be answered - the expertise to use all the available gear and create the best utility out of it.

The blockchain is unique and new in root and branch, hence the expertise to implement this technology is less. Once companies start to implement this technology, the demand for the expertise will rise compared to the available expertise. 

5.  Setting the development and test labs:

    The blockchain is a ledger of records, which will keep on expanding as and when blocks will get added. This technology is designed in a way that the data will be stored on distributed networks – public or private, depending on the company and the nature of the designed system.

    Now, replicating the real-world environment for the in-house development and test labs is going to be a tricky challenge. More sophisticated and advanced environment setups will be needed to successfully implement and test. 

    The traditional setups won’t be sufficient, and the new setups might be needed to be spread geographically too. for large-scale companies, this would be easy as pie but not easy for small-scale companies.

These are the top 5 challenges that will need to be thought of before diving in Blockchain. In my next post, I will be sharing ideas about how to overcome these challenges. Please leave your comments and opinions about these challenges.