Mass adoption of blockchain technology has been an ongoing topic for discussion since the inception of Bitcoin. With all the benefits that blockchain technology offers, its adoption is still very slow and could likely take longer than expected. But there is a cloud-based solution that simplifies the entire process of implementing blockchain solutions for small businesses and individuals too. This solution is called Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS).
In this presentation, I will be looking at how BaaS clears the big hurdles that prevents individuals and mostly small business from implementing blockchain solutions. But before then, here are three reasons why implementing blockchain solutions has never been easy for small businesses.
While blockchains offer a lot of advantages over centralized solutions, its adoption has been anything but easy for small businesses. There are many reasons for this, but consider the following three:
Small businesses usually run on reduced budgets. They often cannot afford to spend or invest in big infrastructure or technology. With the high cost of setting up a blockchain network, small businesses might just prefer centralized solutions which are cheaper to install and run. So basically, not being able to run blockchain networks represent a big challenge to adoption for small businesses.
Apart from the cost of paying blockchain engineers, the availability of such skilled experts locally could represent another huge challenge. So even if the small business are able to raise the budget for a blockchain network, the unavailability of locally sourced blockchain engineers could make it impossible for small businesses to get involved in blockchain solutions.
Large corporations could easily plan for blockchain implementation and have the time to do it. But, small businesses cannot afford to shut down operations for a long time to implement blockchain solutions. So the setup and run time could be beyond what small businesses could afford right now.
The above are just three of the many challenges that small businesses struggle with when it comes to implementing and integrating blockchain infrastructure into their business. But there is a solution to these. That solution called **Blockchain-as-a-Service enables individuals and small businesses to implement blockchain solutions in a simplified manner.
Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) is a simplified pay-as-you use solution for anyone that wishes to set up a blockchain powered project. BaaS uses cloud-based infrastructure to host a blockchain framework with all the features of a typical blockchain. Users - including small businesses could then sign up to this service and have access to all the blockchain infrastructure they need to run DAPPs.
BaaS removes the need to purchase expensive blockchain hardware, hire blockchain developers, run nodes, maintain the network and other technicalities. They take care of all these, allowing small businesses to build smart contracts or DAPPs on top of the already-made blockchain infrastructure. By letting users focus on implementing their blockchain-powered projects, BaaS cuts the design and deployment time and allows small businesses to focus on running the solutions and not the technology.
Below are some of the technicalities BaaS takes care of:
Blockchain design Implementation: BaaS takes care of everything that involves setting up the blockchain network. That includes purchasing the hardware needed, hiring staff to run the nodes and maintain it, plus other technicalities such as scalability solutions.
Simplified UI: BaaS takes care of blockchain coding and any programming aspects of the network. Their developers and engineers handles that. They then present the users with a simple UI which is easy to use and understand. As such, they make blockchain adoption easy for small businesses and the masses.
Tools for developers: BaaS also implements features that blockchain developers could plug-in to and expand or configure the network to their choice. These tools offer various functionality. For example, a BaaS might include API integration features, allowing developers the capability to build DApps on the blockchain and leverage its features.
Technical support: BaaS also offers to assist users that run into issues while deploying blockchain solutions on their network. Given the technical nature of blockchains, this support could come handy. Knowing that round-the-clock technical support is available would give small business owners the backbone and support they need should they decide to try out any BaaS.
Small businesses could develop a number of automated blockchain-based solutions built on a BaaS to enable to business grow faster. There is never an exhaustive list of things they could build, but consider the following:
1. Product tracking: Blockchain technology has a lot of features that could make the supply chain more effective. Storing data about products on the blockchain will make it easy to fight counterfeits. The immutable nature of blockchains ensure that any data stored there remains genuine. A small business could deploy a mini supply chain management solution on the blockchain infrastructure of any BaaS.
Using a BaaS to develop a small supply chain solution will enable small businesses to effectively track the movement of goods from the manufacturer to the consumers effectively without implementing their own blockchain framework.
2. Payment automation: A small business could automate any of its payments by building it in a smart contract. It could be an automated staff payment solution, royalty rewards for customers, periodic payments to other services used by the business, etc.
BaaS could let businesses have an automated payment tool and this saves the time and man-power that manual systems take.
3. KYC: Small businesses could implement blockchain powered tools for capturing and validating customer details. The blockchain could be used to capture client data and verify it. This could make it easy for customers to access the services of the small businesses by doing a one-time blockchain powered verification. BaaS could provide this infrastructure for small businesses.
4. Other smart contracts: Small businesses owners could think of other smart contracts and DAPPs which they could easily host on the platforms of a chosen DaaS. That might include a decentralized voting project, tokenization of real-world objects like real estate, building a decentralized data center and other solutions.
BaaS gives small businesses and individuals the opportunity to create blockchain-based solutions without investing heavily in blockchain development. The above represent some capabilities that small businesses could have if they embrace BaaS.
I do not recommend any of the BaaS companies I am about to list below. This is purely for information purposes. It is left to the user to do their own research and discover what works best for them.
Blockchain-as-a-service as come to stay and it represents a big step towards mass adoption. It gives small businesses and individuals the opportunity to run blockchain solutions on rent. Just for a small monthly fee, they could deploy various solutions to help their business scale. If you are a small business owner, BaaS is probably something you could consider for further business growth.
