Blockchain technology is not suitable for all purposes, despite the hype surrounding it in the industry. Before investing in blockchain or planning to use it, it is important to conduct thorough research and consult with a blockchain professional.
Drawing from the history of the dot-com bubble, where companies attempted to jump on the bandwagon without a solid product, it is clear that no matter how great the marketing and sales strategy is, a legitimate product is necessary for long-term success. Similarly, blockchain technology must have applicable use cases for your business. In many cases, a simple spreadsheet or database may suffice.
Sheila Warren from the World Economic Forum emphasizes the importance of assessing whether blockchain technology is the appropriate solution for the problem at hand. A toolkit has been developed to help businesses determine this. While blockchain is an excellent tool, it requires careful research and understanding before implementation.
Disinformation is another challenge related to blockchain. Individuals like economist Nouriel Roubini spread misconceptions about blockchain, despite its effectiveness in simplifying monetary transactions, as seen with Bitcoin. While Bitcoin has scalability issues, its development team is continuously working on upgrades, such as the lightning network, to address these challenges. It is important to differentiate between legitimate criticism and misinformation.
Good examples of blockchain implementation include the Factor protocol, which verifies the authenticity of legal documents and research papers by linking them to their real authors or sources. The Factom blockchain eliminates scalability issues by storing references or pointers to the real version of the document instead of storing the entire document.
On the other hand, the Steemit platform, despite its incentivized social media concept, faces challenges with processing user requests due to an excessive amount of data on the blockchain. This highlights the need to prioritize essential data on the blockchain and implement other processes off-chain.
It is important to note that current blockchains are still in their early stages and require significant improvements to become robust, scalable, and long-term solutions. Additionally, the threat of quantum computers attacking binary-based blockchains in the future poses a challenge. Migrating decentralized blockchain information to a quantum-resistant network will be necessary.
In conclusion, when seeking a blockchain solution, it is crucial to consult the right people or organizations with expertise in building quantum-resistant blockchains.