The Blockchain Market is going to be worth $23.3 Billion by the time we reach 2023.

While at a nascent stage now, the time is nearing when the business world will realize the potential that comes attached to the power of Decentralization and incorporate it into their everyday process.

The technology, because of being at a stage which is only preparing to set off, can indeed be too much to understand and implement for a business.

But does it mean you, as an entrepreneur, should let go of the glorious opportunities that come with investing in Blockchain?

Well, not until we are here.

We have curated a handbook for you - a Blockchain beginners guide - to understand the nuances of the technology that is destined to bring mass revolution in the world.

• 01. Everything You Need to Know About Blockchain Guide



Blockchain, being a technology that is often said to be where the Internet was in 1995, ergo in its very nascent stage, is a recipient of a number of confusions and misconceptions that surrounds it, which are emerging from too much information or the lack of it thereof.

There are two end results of this current situation - where nothing other than the definition of the technology is perfect - A. Either businesses would refrain from taking into account the power of the technology or B. Businesses would employ it incorrectly which will make the technology do more bad than good.

The only prominent solution that one can think of to prevent it is by looking at the many information presents on the world wide web and get a hang of the technology.

But even that doesn’t come challenge free. A challenge that we have the solution to.

While on one side, the internet and various discussion platforms around the globe are still trying to make sense of how the technology functions, our market research team has not just dissected all the classes of Blockchain explanation doing rounds the internet but has also converted the gathered data into a Blockchain app development guide - one that you can see as Blockchain for dummies.

Here’s the guide that will make the complicated Blockchain world clear - A Beginners Guide to Blockchain.

• 02. Blockchain Beyond Cryptocurrency



As the quick redirection to the Blockchain for Dummies guide would have shown you, Blockchain is not restricted to the popular cryptocurrencies. There is a lot more to the technology than the digital currency that keeps reaching new numeric value every passing hour, larger than what it was an hour ago.

Although the mass popularity of Blockchain has been limited to its contribution in the field of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, there are several use cases now emerging at a steady rate which are a sign of the potential that the decentralization technology comes with and proves an unignorable impact of Blockchain on business across industries.

Today, Blockchain along with its several features like - Smart Contracts, ICOs etc. are coming in handy for a number of different purposes which are usually attended by businesses in their everyday processes. These inherent Blockchain features have made it a part of several industries like - Real Estate, Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing, Retail, and On-demand etc.

There are a number of areas or domains Blockchain has proved its worth in, becoming a technology that is not just brought into existence to redefine how transactions happen. Thus proving how Blockchain application beyond Cryptocurrency is huge.

The different domains or use cases of Blockchain that goes beyond Cryptocurrencies have been well explained by us in the write-up titled ‘Blockchain Beyond Cryptocurrencies’. And here it is - Know the Applications

• 03. Pillar 1: ICO



ICO : Initial Coin Offering is a fundraising model that is chosen by any or all startups that have a Blockchain element in their business model. Here is how it works -

Pre-Announcement : The first stage of ICO is when the preparation of the ICO is made. At this stage, the white paper - containing the detail of the project - is drafted and the marketing campaigns are started on websites that the ICO investors frequent.

The white paper is then circulated which give businesses the sense of how well the idea adopted and all the shortcomings are solved before a final draft of the white paper is made and floated.

Offering : The offer - containing the terms and conditions of the contract is drafted and passed over to the prospective investors. The offer or proposal consists of the detail of the project, the amount of capital that is intended to be raised, and the detail of the financial instruments which are to be sold in the ICO.

The financial instrument - cryptocoin, which has a toe assigned with it, is offered to investors in return of their capital.

Marketing Campaign : This is the stage where the actual legwork happens. Here the businesses start reaching out to the investors by announcing that the ICO has now been launched and is open for investments

The campaign generally tends to stay up to around a month and targets audience belonging to small investors and institutions.

Once the promotional campaigns end, the final buy and selling of the token starts, with the business now having established trust among the investors. The tokens are usually released in these two ways:

The specific capital is collected as outlined in the offer and then the tokens are divided and released according to the investment made by the investors

The second method is that the tokens get sold on the cryptocurrency exchanges, meaning the tokens should be released on several exchanges before trading happens.

Although the process might read a little complicated for businesses who are just starting up to follow up, the profit that ICO Blockchains have been able to generate is widely known. In the first half of January itself, ICOs have been able to raise over $160 million.

The rising amount is only a sign of how in demand the fundraising model is among the startups. The demand which is a lot higher than the otherwise popular mode of fundraising - Venture Capitalism, giving birth to queries like VC vs. ICO: Know who is winning.

• 04. Pillar 2: Smart Contracts



Next, to ICOs, the technology that has found its prominence in the world of businesses powered by Blockchain is Smart Contracts.

When you make Smart Contracts on Blockchain, you are able to serve the same purpose as their physical world Contracts counterparts, only there is no way for any of the involved party to breach the contract.

What happens in case of Smart Contracts on Blockchain is that both the parties are made to put in an amount individually in a separate escrow amount which is in neither of their controls and is only released when the terms and conditions of the contract are fulfilled.

In the words of Vitalik Buterin, “In a smart contract approach, an asset or currency is transferred into a program and the program then runs this code and at some point it automatically validates a condition and it automatically determines whether the asset should go to one person or back to the other person, or whether it should be immediately refunded to the person who sent it or some combination thereof.”

Smart Contracts, by the way, they designed promises a number of vital things that were clearly lacking from the traditional contracts:

Accuracy

Zero Disputes

High Transactional Speed

Data Storage

Embedded Trust

The positive difference that Smart Contracts come with as opposed to the old school contracts is what has led Gartner to believe that by 2022, Smart Contracts will be used by over 25% businesses globally. With something that is going to become so big so soon, it is time to Learn About Smart Contracts.

• 05. Pillar 3: Cryptocurrency Wallets



The next and last Blockchain element that we are going to look at is something that the decentralization industry started with - Cryptocurrency wallets apps.

No matter what sentiments the industry holds about cryptocurrencies and its hype, real viability, the fact remains that the day when Blockchain will be known without the mention of cryptocurrency creeping in the mind is very far and probably in utopia.

The state that Bitcoin has created for itself is something that has given birth to over 1600 and still counting cryptocurrencies floating in the world with a number of others being launched almost on a daily basis.

With this increasing number count, the need of platforms to keep track of and manage the many cryptocurrency varieties that a user holds has also increased. Which in turn has lead to a rise in demand for cryptocurrency wallets.

Now, even in the cryptocurrency wallet industry, the demand is categorized. While some users only wish for a wallet that would hold and track the debit and credit of the currencies, there are others who seek a wallet for cryptocurrency that would also give them the facility to transact the cryptocurrency between other users.

Irrespective of what purpose you are willing to solve with your cryptocurrency wallet, there are a number of options that you get even on the development front. Options like:

Desktop Wallet

Mobile Wallet

Online Web Wallet

Hot/Cold Wallet

Hardware Wallet

Paper Wallet

It doesn’t end here. Learn About Cryptocurrency Wallets

The information that has been passed on to you, while is enough to get you started with the Blockchain domain is ultimately incomplete. After all, how far would knowing the Blockchain elements take you when you don’t how it can be incorporated into your business as an everyday process.

In the next two chapters, we are going to look at the ways Blockchain can be incorporated in both Enterprise and Startup setup.

• 06. Role of Blockchain in Enterprise



It is generally believed that it is very difficult to incorporate any new technology in an established business or company that has survived the thick and thins and has emerged as the leaders.

One reason behind this difficulty is identified as an inclusion of a new technology that is still in its nascent stage in the legacy systems that have brought a business really far.

But, the time has now come for Enterprises to shed the doubts while being safe and incorporate Enterprise Blockchain Solutions in a portion of their process and only scale when they confirm that the technology is working for them.

While the scale of enterprises who have adopted Blockchain is still more tilted towards those who haven’t, the Blockchain enterprises use cases developed by those who have added the technology in their process is too efficient and profitable to ignore.

Using the different platforms - Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, R3 Corda, Ripple, and Quorum, even you can join the list of enterprises who have incorporated and now benefitting from the decentralized technology. It’s time to know the exact process to Introduce Blockchain in Your Enterprise

• 07. Role of Blockchain in a Startup



Startups, unlike Enterprises, have no legacy system challenges that might extend the timeframe of when they incorporate what Blockchain for Startups entail in the everyday process.

So, in case you are a startup, you are at an advantage in terms of emerging as an industry disruptor by adding the technology that solves almost every problem that cripples a business from offering real value to its customers and internal stakeholders alike.

Blockchain for Startups, with its different comprising elements, can not just help create a wall around all the processes that a startup has to attend to on a more regular basis than an established entity, like the creation of the contract between different stakeholders and the management of a decentralized team.

When we talk about the inclusion of Blockchain technology in a startup ecosystem, there is rarely any process that can go untouched with decentralization - an event that is a blessing for startups who are looking to establish themselves as innovators in the market and even for those who are looking to raise funds.

There’s a lot more that the technology has to offer to businesses that are just starting up - Know the Blockchain Impact on Startup.

Now that we have covered the ground level impact that Blockchain can make in your business, irrespective of what size it belongs to, let us look at it all at a more holistic level - the impact Blockchain has on Industries.

Even though, the features of Blockchain and its capability remains the same, the impact it has on Industries varies from one to another.

Let us now look at the top industries which are just a step away from decentralization

• 08. Blockchain and Healthcare



Although, there have been many rounds around real impact of Blockchain in Healthcare industry and if the impact is even real or simply a wishful thought, the truth that we are standing on today is that Blockchain is set to revolutionize the Healthcare industry and is prepared to solve a number of challenges that prevent efficient health and care support to the world.

The places where Healthcare lacks are the ones that Blockchain fills with Decentralization.

Here are some industrial challenges that the Blockchain technology in Healthcare solves -

1. Fragmented Data

One of the biggest reasons for EMR frauds or data theft can be traced back to one server where all the medical data, coming in from all the different platforms, merged. When every data is stored in a common place, the moment the system is hacked, data gets compromised.

With the combination of Blockchain and Healthcare, your healthcare app gets to store the patients’ data across a number of different nodes, eliminating the risk of central server getting hacked or crashed.

2. Timely Access of Data

The distributed ledger that comes as a package with Blockchain and Healthcare mix, enables distributed and secure access to the patient’s health data and the updates that are made to the patient’s shared data are also done in real time.

3. System Interoperability

Blockchain offers a decentralized form of computer network and internet across boundaries. So when a health organization seeks information about the patient from another healthcare organization, they no more have to wait for the data to travel several miles.

4. Data Security

Blockchain in itself has become a synonym to Security. Being completely decentralized and immutable, the patient data is A. Only accessible to those who have the need to interact with it and B. Any change when made to it is visible to everyone in the Blockchain, making it impossible for someone to fetch the data without others knowing.

5. Patient Generated Data

While it is still possible (although difficult) to get consolidated patient data from across different healthcare organizations, combining the data that the users generate through their personal healthcare device – wearables – with the ones generated by healthcare organizations is not easy.

Blockchain Healthcare makes it possible to consolidate users generated IoT data with their healthcare organization data in one place.

These are only some challenges that are now ready to be dissolved with the introduction of Blockchain in the domain, there are a lot more. And so are the use cases of how Blockchain can be incorporated in Healthcare system, a.k.a Blockchain Applications in Healthcare. Know them all. Know the Role of Blockchain in Healthcare

• 09. Blockchain and FinTech



FinTech and Blockchain is the combination with which the technology made an entry within the world.

The first time Blockchain was mentioned, it was in the context of changing the banking and finance industry and since then the industry has been waiting to be decentralized. A wait that is taking up too much time to end.

But, seeing the direction in which adoption of Blockchain in FinTech industry is headed, it is only fair to say that the day of transformation is near.

While Blockchain is bound to bring a lot of changes in the Banking industry per se in terms of a much efficient KYC process, faster transaction, minimal to zero hacks, and lowered transactional costs, the technology is going to have an impact on all the other financial domains as well.

The other financial services that will start showing signs of streamlining and faster, more trustworthy processes are -

Client Identification System

Digital Payments

Insurance

Loans and Credits

So, you see the Finance industry is getting prepared for Blockchain not only from the point of view of Banking institutions but in terms of all the small and big monetary transactions that every individual makes.

There’s a lot more to see than just this. There’s a lot more to Blockchain FinTech - Know the Role of Blockchain in FinTech.

• 10. Blockchain and Real Estate



Real estate, is pretty much the one sure shot industry that has been able to float a proper use case of the Blockchain Real Estate technology.

The industry that deals with a lot of paperwork, contracts, and identity verification are something that has been used to define the Property or Real Estate Market. And the very definition of the industry consists of processes that call be decentralized and streamlined through Blockchain for Real Estate.

If you look at the present scenario of the Blockchain in Real Estate adoption, you will find that it is not just the individual property developers, real estate agents, and insurance companies who are singing the tunes of decentralization but also the government of several nations who are working towards a more efficient real estate scenario in the country.

Seeing the acceptance that the technology has received from the Real Estate world, it is safe to say that it is the Property Market from where maximum use cases would emerge very soon.

While this would have given you a peek, let’s deep dive and Know the Role of Blockchain in Real Estate.

• 11. Blockchain and IoT



No matter what tech trend you look at, you will see the presence of the Internet of Things in it. And, why not, after all, the promise of a connected world that the IoT technology offers to the millions around the globe is something that has a place across industries. And has the potential to change lives.

IoT, like Blockchain, is still finding its place in the world, while there are a number of enthusiasts backing the idea of a connected world, very limited have come forward to actually explore it in reality

But the two epitomes of technology - Blockchain and IoT are now a verge to blend and work together and you can only imagine what it would do to millions of businesses and individuals globally.

Here is what the after-effect of the Blockchain IoT union would look like -

If IoT devices are directly connected with Blockchain technology, it will help in keeping a track of the history of all the connected devices for any troubleshooting purposes.

A distributed decentralized leger can eliminate a single source failure in the IoT ecosystem protecting all the devices’ data from collusion and tampering.

Blockchain in IoT will provide a distributed system for record sharing of data across a decentralized network of stakeholders.

Blockchain also enables device freedom through smart contracts. It provides independent identity, data integrity, and peer-to-peer communication support and safety through the removal of technical inefficiencies.

Blockchain Internet of Things can be easily deployed to track the sensor data and prevent any sort of duplication with harmful data sources. It will give way to embedded business terms for the automation of interactions between the system nodes.

Blockchain’s hash-based security and identity verification code can be crucial for the security loopholes in IoT

IoT and Blockchain together can also provide consensus and agreement models in form of smart contract for avoiding the mitigating threats.

The role of Blockchain in Internet of Things is much deeper, meaning it is time to - Deep Dive Into the Blockchain of Things Concept

• 12. Blockchain and Transactions



The transaction sector if you see it as an industry is omnipresent. No matter what industry you look at, transactions will be there at the center of the core business process.

And, like its omnipresence, the challenges associated with transactions are also same across industries - Lack of Security, Lack of Transparency, and Lack of Decentralization - All the issues which have a common solution known as Blockchain.

Here are the different ways Blockchain for Transactions can have an impact no matter which industry is under the microscope -

1. Increased Transparency and Security of Data

The way in which businesses and organizations store data will undergo drastic changes by the use of blockchain technology. Presently, record-keeping is a cumbersome task that requires dedicated staff and incurs huge overheads. It’s also prone to human errors and physical hazards such as fires and thefts. Blockchains are virtual distributed ledgers, free from of all these shortcomings. Transactions are encrypted, immutable, and stored in an orderly fashion. They are accessible to all nodes but cannot be altered.

2. Elimination of Intermediaries

Blockchain in transactions are not mediated by third-party intermediaries. They are verified by miners who work round-the-clock in solving mathematical puzzles. As soon as these computations are done, the transaction is verified and added to the distributed ledger. The change is reflected throughout the blockchain. There is no need for lengthy documentation or hefty verification charges. The reward for miners is nominal and isn’t a burden on parties involved in a transaction. Elimination of intermediaries reduces transaction costs and speeds up the process.

3. Efficiency in Settlements

Traditionally, it took days or weeks for settlement of transactions. For example, you might purchase a two-wheeler but registration of its ownership can take months. In blockchain technology, settlements are done instantly and this is perhaps its biggest advantage. As there are no intermediaries and all verification is logic-based, human involvement is minimal and so are processing delays.

Now that you know the different impact Blockchain can have on transactions, it is time to Know How to Incorporate Blockchain in Transactions

• 13. Blockchain and Mobile App



The next prominent industry we are going to look at is the mobile app economy.

Although the industry - Blockchain App Development is evolving and getting disrupted in so many ways with the addition of new technologies and use cases, the industry is however still lagging behind in a number of other ways like high advertising cost, lack of uniform in-app purchases methods, and app approval process.

Let us throw some light on how Blockchain technology applications would solve these persistent mobile app industry issues.

1. App Approval Process

The decision on which app would get approved and which won’t work as a monopoly started and managed by Google Play Store and Apple App Store, with them not giving the developers any clear guidelines related to app rejection or approval.

Inclusion of Blockchain in app development brings both - approval guidelines and applications - on a public ledger which is open for others to review as well, thus ending the monopoly created by Play Store and App Store.

2. In-App Purchase

What happens in case of in-app purchases is that first, the app store charges an amount for enabling in-app purchases from their platform and then the debit/credit purchase that users make, charge them in name of transaction fees, processing charges, and several other extra charges.

All these cuts that happen in the amount of in-app purchase that a user makes usually amount to over 30% - something that can easily be avoided by no transaction fees cryptocurrency payments.

3. High Advertisement Cost

The advertisement industry is full of the unclear and non-transparent mode of expenses. Blockchain, by making the advertisement platforms decentralized, not just remove the middlemen from the picture but also brings down the transaction cost by making the whole process more transparent.

These are simply a few examples of how Blockchain can be integrated in the mobile app industry to streamline it further. Know the whole thing here - See Effect of Blockchain on Mobile App Industry In-Depth

• 14. Blockchain and Security



Around the globe, businesses of all sizes and belonging to a whole range of different industries spend millions and billions to keep their system secured from hackers who are looking to enter and harm the process.

Blockchain Security, with its power coming in from decentralization, encryption, and immutability, is able to safeguard a number of business processes and make them tamper-proof.

Here are some of the areas which Blockchain and Security unison will have an impact on and plays a huge role in safeguarding -

Data Protection

Data Transparency

Infrastructure Safeguarding

Password-free economy

This is simply an outlook into the the many different ways Blockchain can help secure your business, if you wish to know how Blockchain can secure your mobile app business, head on here - Know How Blockchain Secures Your App and Business.

With this, we have now seen not just what Blockchain technology entails but also what it can do for you, no matter what industry you belong to or what size your business in.

And, after everything is said and done, it ultimately comes down to how much is it going to cost you to incorporate the technology that can mark you as an industry disruptor.

Let us look at the next final chapter of our guide today - How Much Does it Cost to Build a Blockchain App.

• 15. How Much Would Blockchain App Development Cost You?



Just like the mobile application development cost, the cost it takes to make a blockchain app also depends on the app goals, the set of features and the efforts that you put into the complete development process.

Factors Affecting Blockchain App Development Cost

Blockchain App Category

Cryptocurrency Based Solution.

Non-Cryptocurrency Based Solutions

Blockchain App Services

Crypto-Wallet

A distributed decentralized leger can eliminate a single source failure in the IoT ecosystem protecting all the devices’ data from collusion and tampering.

Smart Contract Development

ICO

Distributed Ledger Technology

Crypto-Exchange

So, here were the factors that carry an impact on Blockchain App Development Cost. Now, as promised, let us take you to the numeric values - Know the Blockchain App Development Cost Estimate