Blockchain Projects and Possible Mistakes
The fast pace digitalisation continues from big data to blockchain. Medium&Large enterprises are already aware of the concept and allocate their budget according to their resources for installing reasonable data management system by using sole Blockchain application.
Blockchain project can have good intentions -like any other projects- at the begining to bring better data management/ knowledge sharing within the company but any project without a clear purpose may fail during the project life time. Blockchain system implications/projects planning part should take longer time to understand the exact requirements and security issues.
On the other hand, the real question's "Can blockchain answer for my company needs?" Gartner has publised an interesting article, let me put their perspective with their words by summarising it.
"7 Common Mistakes in Enterprise Blockchain Projects
1- Misunderstanding or misusing blockchain technology;
For a project to utilize blockchain technology effectively, it must add to an untrusted environment and exploit a distributed ledger mechanism. Enterprises must create a trust model of their entire system to identify trusted areas versus not-trusted areas and apply blockchain only to untrusted parties.
2- Assuming that current technology is ready for production use,
CIOs should assume that most blockchain platforms are still maturing and continue with experimentation and proofs of concept, especially in the context of open source.
3- Confusing a limited, foundation-level protocol with a complete business solution
IT leaders might think the currently available foundational-level technology is essentially a complete application solution. blockchain has a lot of evolving to do until it’s ready to fulfill all the potential technologies.
4- Viewing blockchain technology purely as a database or storage mechanism
Some IT leaders conflate “distributed ledger” with a data persistence mechanism or distributed database management system. Currently, blockchain implements a sequential, append-only record of significant events. It offers limited data management capabilities in exchange for a decentralized service and to avoid trusting a single central organization.
5- Assuming interoperability among platforms that don’t exist yet
Most blockchain technologies are still in the development stage and lack specific technology (or business) roadmaps. Critically, blockchain standards do not yet exist. This means that beyond assuming potential interoperability at the most basic level, CIOs should view any vendor discussions about interoperability with skepticism.
6- Assuming that smart contract technology is a solved problem
Smart contracts, computer protocols that will facilitate and enforce contracts, are what will enable the programmable economy. However, at a technical level, smart contracts currently lack scalability, auditability, manageability and verifiability. Moreover, there is no legal framework currently in existence — locally or globally — for their application.
7- Ignoring governance issues for a peer-to-peer distributed network
Governance is not as big an issue for private or permissioned blockchains, as the “organizer” will set standards and rules for the entire platform. For public blockchain, governance is critical."
After all, distruptive technologies are coming up to the "over-the-counter" market with little knowledge, and audience of these concepts navigate through the unchartered seas. We all have a "gut feelings" telling us that this is one of a next big things of the near future.
For full article: https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/top-10-mistakes-in-enterprise-blockchain-projects/