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EDITOR’S QUESTION
CRAIG NEL, MOBILE & COGNITIVE
EXPERIENCE (MCX) LEADER AT ORACLE
MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA AND TURKEY
W
hile Blockchain is widely seen as
one of today’s most disruptive
emerging technologies, there is still
a limited understanding about it, with business
use cases tending to be of a high-level view
with little clarity given on the core aspects and
any potential trade-offs of implementation.
This is an issue, given that there are many
technological elements required to build a
Blockchain solution, and being early in
the lifecycle, in many cases, the exact
solution required does not come as an off-
the-shelf answer. A big challenge for many
organisations is where to start.
What to consider
before implementation?
With Blockchain, enterprises will be looking
at massive changes to their business models,
the key will be interoperability across the
Blockchain, regardless of the entity; and that
will depend on protocols.
In a consortium model, organisations in a
Blockchain network will need to develop a
governance framework that includes legal
agreements, rules for joining, arbitration and
revenue models that specify who pays for
and operates the network.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to
implementing Blockchain is the psychological
shift that must take place both within and
across participating organisations. With a
Blockchain network, it’s no longer your data or
my data, it’s our data and our smart contracts
that operate on it to reach agreed results.
Implementation options
To ensure success, Blockchain applications
need to start with a solid understanding
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of the problem to be solved. Take Nigeria
Customs Service (NCS) for example. NCS
piloted Oracle’s Blockchain-as-a-Service,
which allows it to document and track
products manufactured locally, right from
the source of licensing and permits for
manufacturing, to distribution and point
of sale.
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For each new use case, the applicability
of Blockchain technology versus using a
centralised database should be assessed
across several criteria.
Having determined a fit for a Blockchain
solution, the implementation needs to be
considered against key variables such as
the level of trust required in the network
and the likely complexity. The level of trust
typically determines whether a permissioned
or permission-less Blockchain is required,
and what typical consensus protocols are
available for use.
Currently, most business-oriented
frameworks are ‘permissioned’, but there are
also implementations that use a ‘proof-of-
elapsed-time’ consensus protocol. Similarly,
most modern business-oriented Blockchain
frameworks are feature-rich, to support
things like the ability to implement smart
contracts, requiring automatically executing
business logic based on external input and
verified by all nodes.
Other considerations guiding the choice
of Blockchain framework are around
implementation, interoperability and security.
These include mistakes in smart contracts
that can lead to unwanted behaviour;
and little standardisation, meaning that
all parties need to choose the same
technology stack.
Understanding the technology
With such wide-ranging possibilities, there is
no surprise that Blockchain has the potential
to enhance the quality of service delivery
while improving confidentiality and integrity
of data.
In summary, Blockchain’s long-term success
is particularly dependent on early decisions
regarding its implementation framework.
The complexity needs to be understood and
securing the right skills and capabilities for
the team is key, especially for a secure and
future-proof implementation.
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