The blockchain technology is inspiring businesses to change their processes to make them more efficient. This technology has the potential to revolutionize industries such as financial services, healthcare, and supply chain. Additionally, blockchain is changing the way business is conducted.

A report by CB Insights found that large companies such as Pfizer and Walmart have been investing in blockchain technology to track data for physician use and food security.

According to Rohan Jha, a software developer from TatvaSoft, blockchain technology can help improve security, facilitate the exchange of information, and promote transparency in business operations.

In this post, we will show you how to develop blockchain-based applications.

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain technology is a database that uses a chain of time-stamped digital records that are linked together using cryptography. It is also defined as a massive, fully decentralized, transparent, and immutable data storage. Blockchain technology is spread over a network of associates usually related to nodes.

The timestamp on each block of information is proof that the transaction data still exists. As each record and transaction goes into the blockchain and stays there permanently, it can be tracked anytime, and nobody can tamper with the blocks of information.

In short, Blockchain is a way of storing digital information that is resistant to changes. This is because once something is recorded in a Blockchain, it cannot be changed without also changing all the following blocks in the chain.

Innovation through Decentralization

Blockchain is more reliable and secure than other databases because it eliminates representatives and middlemen such as governments, financial sectors, and businesses from the safety equation, and replaces them with distributed nodes.

The leading technology that Blockchain offers is the combination of peer-to-peer networks which helps reduce risk, build trust and confirm data with a high degree of certainty.

Let’s explore how blockchain works and what the key steps are involved.

How to develop Blockchain

There are 6 steps included in the Blockchain software development process:

1. Defining the Goals
2. Choosing a suitable Blockchain Platform
3. Brainstorming and Blockchain Ideation
4. Proof of Concept
5. Visual and Technical Designs
6. Development and Improvement

The section below is for anyone wondering how to start developing a blockchain app and create a successful app.

1. Know your queries that you want to solve using blockchain

When you first start, it’s important to develop a clear problem statement and identify all of the problems you want to solve. Be sure that the solution will serve your business capabilities, and either migrate your current solution to the blockchain or develop a new app from scratch.

Proceed to the next step if you’re confident that your business requires a blockchain solution. From there, select the blockchain platform that best suits your project.

2. Choose a blockchain platform

It can take a long time to develop a blockchain-based app from scratch, so it is important to do your research and create an app that meets all your business requirements.

The platform you choose to develop your app on should be one that uses a consensus mechanism that will help you solve your issues. You can also create an Ethereum-based app to form a decentralized unrestricted software with smart contracts.

3. Brainstorming and blockchain ideation

If you’ve found the right blockchain platform for your business and are developing a blockchain application, now is the time to focus on drafting business requirements and gaining innovative ideas. See what tech components you can add to the blockchain ecosystem that will help you create a roadmap and develop an application without missing a deadline.

Before you start creating an app, make sure to decide if the application should have permissions or if it should use a permissionless blockchain network. By doing so, it will ease your work on front-end programming languages and provide accurate results.

4. Proof-of-concept

The purpose of doing a proof of concept is to show the practicality of a blockchain project. There are two ways to do this: a design prototype or a theoretical build-up. If it is theoretical, then the project needs theoretical examples to illustrate how it would work in practice. Otherwise, proposals are created to identify the project’s parameters.

A prototype is a build that includes sketches, information architecture, mockups, designs, and tested products. This is done after the theoretical build-up is completed.

5. Visual and Technical Designs

After you have designed the whole application, start creating user interfaces for each software component. The back end will be run with APIs integrated with user interfaces, and visual designs will provide an excellent look and feel for the application.

After the designs for consoles and user interfaces are completed, the application is ready to begin development.

6. Development

After the feasibility study and strategy planning phases are complete, development begins. In this phase, APIs for various use cases of the application are developed and integrated.

You can now move on to the next stage of production and get ready to launch your product.

Make sure your app is functioning properly by deploying it on the test network before you launch it.

After you finish developing your blockchain software, you’re not done yet. You also need to maintain it post-development to make sure it’s compatible with any future upgrades.

Types of Blockchains

The three major types of blockchains are discussed below:

1. Public Blockchain
2. Private Blockchain
3. Hybrid Blockchain

Can hackathons help blockchain companies grow faster?

What are the primary industries impacted by blockchain hackathons?

FINANCIAL SECTOR

Decentralized Finance is a broad concept that encompasses all disruptive technology and digital solutions that remove the need for intermediaries in applications through intelligent blockchain contracts or smart contracts. This is just one of the many changes that the financial sector is undergoing as it undergoes a major digital transformation.

An outstanding example of this type of change is Kiva. A digital commercial center where people can provide $25 or less to make open doors for individuals overall. In a joint effort with a worldwide system of nearby loaning foundations, Kiva.org gives credits to more than 3.5 million business people and others requiring help.

The hackathon was created to support microfinance using a decentralized digital identity platform, which would empower borrowers to verify informal and formal past financial history in order to increase credit for people excluded from traditional financial institutions.

They want to use blockchain technology to make it easier for users to record their financial transactions, transfer information between different institutions, and get access to formal bank accounts. This would improve the customer experience.

GameFi is one of the most recent trends to come out of the crypto business, joining decentralized money (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with blockchain-based web-based games.

Instead of the common “pay-to-win” model for web-based games, GameFi has a “play-to-procure” model where players get paid to play and advance through the game. This has given some gamers the ability to make a full-time income from playing the game.

ART INDUSTRY

The art industry is seeing an increase in the use of Blockchain and “tokenization” to reduce transaction costs and increase access to the art market globally.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are being used in the digital art world to certify the ownership of works. For example, artist Beeple uses NFTs based on Blockchain technology to create a unique signature for each piece of art he sells, allowing him to track each work, earn royalty payments, and avoid counterfeiting.

At TAIKAI, we aim to bring NFTs to a wider audience and give artists more control over their art, including how it is distributed and monetized.

The amount of trust consumers have in the retail system is closely tied to how much faith they have in the markets where they make their purchases. Blockchain technology has the potential to decentralize trust, shifting more of the responsibility for security onto vendors and away from marketplace sites. Startups like OpenBazaar are developing decentralized Blockchain utilities that allow buyers and sellers to interact without the need for an intermediary, and without associated fees. Customers can buy products using any of the 50 cryptocurrencies supported by the platform, and sellers are paid in the cryptocurrency of their choice.

Louis Vuitton has partnered with Microsoft and blockchain startup ConsenSys to create a platform called AURA that allows customers to track their products from design to distribution. This protects against counterfeit products and fraud.

ENTERTAINMENT SECTOR

A blockchain-based solution is coming to the entertainment industry that could potentially disrupt streaming giants such as Netflix and Youtube. With the technology, it is possible to decentralize the encoding, storage, and distribution of video content, thus drastically reducing the cost of video traffic.

VIDEO The VideoCoin Network is a decentralized network that provides cloud video infrastructure – encoding, storage, and distribution – in the form of a point-to-point algorithmic marketplace. It runs on a new Blockchain where customers spend VideoCoins on renting these services.

The use of Blockchain has the potential to change electronic commerce by reducing transaction costs and increasing transaction security. Large companies such as Walmart, Amazon, and Alibaba have started to explore this technology and have created an innovation ecosystem.

The online retailer Alibaba submitted a patent application in Brazil for a blockchain-based transaction system in March 2020.

Although Blockchain is most commonly associated with cryptocurrency, the technology can have a much wider range of applications. One potential use case is in the food and beverage sector, where Blockchain can be used to help ensure compliance with food safety standards and regulations. While Blockchain is most well-known for its association with cryptocurrency, the technology can have a much broader range of applications. In the food and beverage sector, for example, Blockchain can be used to help ensure compliance with food safety standards and regulations. By tracking contract details and proof of delivery securely, Blockchain can help to reduce the risk of data being altered or tampered with.

Walmart and Sam’s Club have joined IBM’s Food Trust network, which uses a ledger distributed on Blockchain. In 2018, retailers asked their suppliers, especially green leafy vegetables, to add their product data to the log by 2019. Blockchain can be used as an accountability platform in the food and beverage industry to reduce food recall and mislabelled products. For example, Blockchain-based tracking can be easily applied as a QR code that, when scanned, shows the complete journey from a product to a customer’s cart.

Nestlé and Carrefour are also testing a similar service with customers that would allow them to see how the product has traveled from the farmer to the Nestlé factory and its Carrefour store by scanning a QR code on the packaging.

Blockchain hackathons, a multiverse solution

Hackathons are a good way for companies to get new ideas from the developer and creative communities. An online hackathon with 600 participants recently developed solutions to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 worldwide.

One of the projects that won was an application that allows users to send letters to nursing home residents who may feel isolated from friends and family during the Covid period. A project that is totally focused on driving engagement between users.

In Spain in 2020, there was a hackathon where hackers from all over Spain developed innovative technological solutions to respond to social challenges posed by NGOs, foundations, institutions, and universities.

The solution was to increase the number of current users and reach 2.5MM registrations in Waylet, a payment app that allows you to pay quickly and securely at Repsol service stations.

E³UDRES² was working on a hackathon in 2021 that lasted 36 hours. The goal was to attract people of all kinds to act as change agents and transforming their neighborhoods into intelligent and sustainable regions. The hackathon had several challenges, one of which was for a Portugal entity, AVIPE, a grapevine consultancy. The challenge was to create intelligent tools to support early detection/diagnostics/monitoring of vineyard infestations. As a result, IoT devices or AI-powered vineyard pest traps were on the verge of being developed.