Getting Started with Enterprise Blockchain

Chapter 6. What’s Next in Blockchain

In this book, we have looked in detail at blockchain for business. We started by defining relevant business concepts such as ledgers and contracts, and how the key principle behind blockchain is to share these artifacts between participants of a business network, making the data irrefutable and thereby helping to engender trust.

We looked at common applications for blockchain and how to identify good ideas. We then dived into the technology and looked at how to design and develop for it, using commercial paper as an example.

In this last chapter, we will look at where we currently are in terms of the development and uses of blockchain, and what the future might hold for this exciting innovation. We will do this by looking at blockchain through the lenses of the technology and the applications that use it.

Blockchain Technology

When a technology reaches a certain point of maturity, the core set of requirements has been largely implemented and an important period of optimization begins. We’re now seeing this throughout the blockchain for business community, as there are significant efforts toward features that deliver quality-of-life improvements such as standardization, stability, and simplification. In addition, we’re seeing (of course) the next generation of innovation. We’ll now look at these different areas.

Standardization

Every successful technology goes through three distinct phases: innovation, standardization, and commoditization ...