Blockchain is a decentralized digital recording medium that is able to record all transactions that occur by providing security and transparency to the financial transaction system. Blockchain is considered a new technology that is believed to be able to answer today’s business challenges. A study conducted in 2017 stated that Blockchain will be one of the technologies that will influence business change in the future, especially in terms of security and efficiency of business operations. 

Here are the Steps for Implementing Blockchain

1. Identify a use case

This needs to be done to adjust your needs from using blockchain to achieve your big goals so that you can find out which aspects of your business need to use blockchain. The most important thing is, you can start baby steps for your safety and comfort in the future. From your initial blockchain experiment, you can try, use, observe the results, and then you can try to implement it on a larger scale.

2. The need to create a proof of concept (POC)

Proof of concept (POC) is a process that determines the practical potential and feasibility of the blockchain project for your business. Such as preparing preventive questions related to competition and challenges for your business. Creating a Proof of Concept involves the following steps:

• Develop and follow a set of guidelines that explain the extent of your business project
• Create a prototype that would entail sketches, design, code, architecture, etc.
• Test your prototype. It is very important that you test your prototype
• Analyze your MVP with the minimum set of top features that you want. MVP simply means a minimum viable product.

3. Selecting a blockchain platform

Apart from choosing a blockchain platform that fits your budget, having a good history of impressions before choosing it is also a consideration that needs to be done. Don’t just get consumed by marketing strategies and end up choosing the wrong choice. Here are some of the popular blockchain platforms: Ethereum, Quorum, Hyperledger Fabric, Open chain, Multichain, and Vexanium.

Vexanium is an Indonesia-based public blockchain that currently allows you to learn how to develop your own blockchain app by learning smart contracts at github.com/vexanium or at https://docs.vexanium.com/.  

4. Building and testing blockchain solution

At this stage, it is necessary to pay attention to factors such as the infrastructure of the blockchain, the quality of technology, and the vastness of technology while building your blockchain. The existence of a smart contract in blockchain technology is also vital in the role of making transactions without a third party. So, in the end, you can define your own rules in the contract which everyone involved in the contract can follow. That way, transaction transparency can be known to all parties.

5. Selecting the right consensus protocol

• Proof of Work

For providing useful solutions, this consensus protocol rewards its miners to tough equations and also helps validating transactions for new blocks produced on the chain. The main objective is to counter cyber-attacks of Distributed Denial-of-Service attack (DDoS).

• Proof of Stake

Age, wealth, performance, etc is the qualifications of combination for selecting the developer of the subsequent block. Based on the number of coins they possess, the miners have to validate the block transactions.

• Delegated Proof of Stake

Only a fixed set of miners are involved in block production activities. As this is democratic in nature, so representative miners that would build the blocks have to be voted or elected by stakeholders.

• Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)

A property or characteristic of a system that can resist up to one-third of nodes failing or acting maliciously, that BFT is. Hence, the consensus is achieved based on the same value even if some network components are unresponsive.

• Proof of Weight

How much cryptocurrency has is an agreement of achievement the miners have, that is the ‘weight’ of their cryptocurrency. Which means, the weight of a miner’s cryptocurrency is linear as the amount of coins available in the miner’s wallet.

6. Building the ecosystem

The more stakeholders involved in the blockchain, the more important it is to have an ecosystem. The ecosystem is a small part of the large blockchain community. It aims to increase understanding of the blockchain industry, as well as to nurture trust between businesses. In building an ecosystem, stakeholders must agree with:

• The terms of engagement
• How to make sure that costs and rewards are shared without bias.
• The mechanisms of governance that have been erected.

7. Having a deliberate design

Deliberate design must be done to ensure it easily solves issues carefully by structured blockchain design, as an expert says.

8. Working your way the uncertainty

Once you can get the blockchain implementation protocol moving, you need to be prepared for what happens next. It is also important to follow-up of regulatory changes as well as trying to get involved in making policies. This is important so that the technology does not stagnate. Therefore, you cannot rest on your laurels and must adopt continuous improvement.

Things to consider when implementing blockchain

1. Make it work

Ensuring your blockchain implementation is critical to finding out which variables are missing, and have an impact on your blockchain implementation trials. You can test a running system and design in a controlled environment to do it.

2. Failure is always an opportunity

At the beginning, is understandable if your blockchain implementation protocol does not function to its maximum. However, you can try to fix them – might cross many methods to do so. But, as times goes by and your exhaustion finally comes to an end, you find the solution that would lift your business in blockchain.

3. Stay focused

Set targets then slowly make improvements and edit your protocol. Make sure you stick to the plan and continuously give to the customers exactly what you promised to give to them. Remember, the aim is to transform your business and not to transform the entire blockchain system. It can be hugely disappointing, money losses, and end your blockchain effort eventually if you are distracted in the process.

4. Make plans for future

This step can be done after successfully implementing your blockchain protocol. Periodic evaluation to maintain usability is necessary for your business to grow exponentially.