Blockchain has been the top trending buzzword in technology for over a year now. But gradually, it is transforming into a reality and the time is near when we’ll finally start to see some real applications of the Blockchain Technology for the masses.
The growth of Blockchain has often been compared to the growth of the Internet. Both of them had a similar share of supporters and detractors, but in the end; the Internet led to what today is the Age of Information.
On that subject, there was a 4-year old video on my YouTube recommendation feed while I was binge-watching some content. The video was a 1974 interview of a science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who explained how a computer could perhaps fit on a desk in the future, and how computers would help us in banking and “theater reservations” among other important things.
While I don’t really know how the writer came to predict things so accurately, it gave me a thought to make similar predictions for Blockchain Technology, and its potential state of application 10 years from now.
But before I do so, here are a few important points about the current state of Blockchain:
- The Blockchain Technology market is expected to increase by up to $2.3 Billion Dollars by the year 2021.
- Blockchain has become one of the top buzzwords in the world today. While the technology was made infamous by the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, its future prospects are way beyond that realm.
- The hyperledger project run by the Linux Foundation, with over 100 companies as members (Including big names like IBM, JP Morgan, etc.) is an umbrella project seeking to discover and create new applications for Blockchain Technology.
- Platforms such as Ethereum are playing an incremental role in the development of decentralized apps using Blockchain Technology and Smart Contracts.
- Coming to Smart contracts. It’s the icing on this cake. In its essence, a smart contract program allows automation of certain activities taking place in the process of a transaction. Think of it as an escrow service, but with the middleman being replaced by a smart autonomous program coded using the Solidity Programming language.
Here are a few more pointers depicting the challenges to be faced in Blockchain development in future:
- Though applications of Blockchain technology are under development by some of the world’s leading companies. It is still in its nascent stages. The reality is that nobody really knows how to actually design a blockchain interface. Those who do know haven’t come up with stable solutions yet.
- On the other hand, everything that makes blockchain so powerful is what the world really needs as of this moment. Blockchain’s promises of transparency, decentralization, and immutability are a necessity in a world where trust in centralized organizations is a major concern.
- Threats of data privacy and security are looming large over the digital world. Only Blockchain, or perhaps something similar to blockchain has a solution to this problem.
- Most importantly, features such as Proof-of-stake implemented on a Blockchain may seem to be great on the surface. But the truth is that such an implementation of security requires a lot of computational power, which isn’t cheap. Even then, such transactions implemented on blockchain networks would take a lot of time. Something which isn’t a big deal in the conventional transactions of today.
So now, based on everything said above, here’s a forecast of the state of Blockchain over the next decade:
- In the next 10 years, blockchain may not be commonplace, but it will gain traction as we’ll see new emerging platforms and implementations. Similar to how the Internet grew over time. We will definitely begin to see new Dapps with a lot of promise.
- However, the starters here would be the corporate giants of the world, and it’s likely that Public Blockchains won’t find a valuable use case even after 10 years from now.
- Public Blockchains are difficult to implement. Moreover, governments won’t be so willing to make things so transparent in a span of 10 years.
- Even in the next 10 years, it would be difficult to see any existing company shifting towards a Blockchain network for transactions or record-keeping. Even if some do, it would perhaps take 5 more years for any visible change.
- But for startups, Blockchain will be a new playground to explore, as many new startups will emerge using Blockchain development. The advantage for these startups will be that unlike established businesses, they won’t have any existing load or method to throw away.
So in conclusion, it would be best to say that Blockchain will continue to remain as popular, if not more, even 10 years from now. But by then, it would be a much more mature technology. Market leaders will keep innovating on it and acquire new and emerging startups digging deeper into the technology.
So if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur looking to get started with Blockchain. Now’s the best time to invest and hire Blockchain developers in India (being one of the most value-for-money IT playgrounds, hiring developers from India can provide the highest ROI). Who knows, maybe a new Blockchain company today might end up becoming something like Amazon or Google (two companies which wouldn’t have existed without the Internet) 10 years from now.