We already know that blockchain technology is pioneering a change that will ripple through the global economic landscape. Bitcoin is probably the most popular Blockchain application and Wall Street is gradually coming to terms with the fact that cryptocurrency is here to stay. Bitcoin has delivered super impressive returns that have dwarfed the performance of other traditional assets and investments in the year-to-date period.
In the chart above, you'll observed that the NYSE Bitcoin Index, which tracks the performance of Bitcoin has gained and incredible 666.8% in the year-to-date period. Interestingly, U.S. equities have only managed to score low double-digit gains in the same period. For instance, the NASDAQ has gained 22.66% and the Dow Jones Industrials is up 19.11% in the year-to-date period. This year, the S&P 500 has also gained 15.59%. Risk-averse investors who kept their money in the stability that gold provides would have booked gains of 10.52%.
From the foregoing, it is obvious that Blockchain technology is changing the natural order of things in the financial and economic spheres. However, an often overlooked fact is that the influence of Blockchain technologies extends beyond the financial industries.
Introducing: Blockchain as a Service
Blockchain as a service is a novel solution designed to hasten the widespread adoption of blockchain technology in the mainstream market. Blockchain technology at a fundamental level is a decentralized, shared, and distributed ledger of records – the records could be about store of value such as Bitcoin or other valuable information.
Blockchain makes it easy to track the ownership of assets digitally across boundaries, enforce contracts, and share data.
Blockchain as a Service is an offering usually on the enterprise level for businesses and organizations that want to create a private blockchain platform without necessarily starting from the scratch. Blockchain as a service helps people to adopt blockchain to meet specific business needs by leveraging templates for testing and launching blockchain applications.
Pioneering Blockchain-as-a-Service Microsoft offer Blockchain on Azure
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) used to be a traditionally conservative company. We all remembered how it remained stuck on Windows OS and PC when the world had obviously moved to mobile. Microsoft's love for the familiar was the reasons companies such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) took the lead in the mobile revolution.
Now, Microsoft is getting back on the innovative ride and the once-traditional firm its outdoing younger and nimbler firms in embracing blockchain technology. Microsoft has a Blockchain as a service offering in its Azure line. With Blockchain on Azure, Microsoft aims to help enterprise segment use blockchain to deliver multiparty collaboration in order to improve shared business practices.
Microsoft doesn't disclose revenue from Azure in its quarter results but the firm revealed that its Azure revenue increased 90% year-over-year in Q3 2017. The firm revealed that its cloud business booked an annual run rate of $15.2 billion and it expects its Azure run rate to hit $20 billion by 2018.
Confideal's smart contracts
Confideal is working on a blockchain solution that will unleash a new lease of growth in the services industry with the instrumentality of smart contracts built on blockchain technology. Confideal essentially provides people with tools for creating smart contracts on blockchain without any prior coding and legal skills. Freelancers, professionals, small businesses, and enterprises can utilize Confideal's user-friendly smart contract builder to create immutable contracts that will execute an IFTTT protocol.
The services industry is a stakeholder in the global economic landscape; yet, the industry is light years away from reaching its full potential because of a chronic lack of distrust between service providers and clients. People are usually not comfortable making upfront payments for services, because there's no guarantee that the service will meet their expectations. Vendors are also scared to provide services without getting an upfront payment because there's no guarantee that the client will pay in full and in good time for services rendered.
Confideal also has an in-built arbitration module where non-biased and experienced legal firms and arbiters can resolve disputes without the need for any of the parties involved in the dispute to reveal their personal information. Interestingly, Confideal is about to start its ICO for the sale of the CDL token that will be used to facilitate transactions on the Confideal platform.
IBM (NYSE:IBM)'s Bluemix
International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) is another proper Bluechip company leading the trailblazing efforts for Blockchain technology. IBM's has created a tool for developers to create and manage blockchain applications on its could applications platform Bluemix. In its support for the development of Blockchain technology, IBM has contributed code toward the Hyperledger open-source Blockchain project.
IBM is particularly optimistic that Bluemix will solve some of the biggest challenges delaying the widespread adoption of Blockchain. For one, Bluemix eliminates the scalability problems that enterprise clients may face when they attempt to build their own blockchain applications from scratch. Bluemix is akin to plug-and-play; thereby making it easier to build Blockchain applications while reducing the inherent lag in enterprise level applications.
Wall Street Journal observes that IBM “is becoming the biggest backer of a technology that underpins the Bitcoin digital currency. In the coming year, IBM will begin testing its own variation on the transactional software known as blockchain, aiming to simplify life for customers who lease IBM’s computer hardware.”
Blockchain is relatively new technology but it continues to gain value as it becomes more interwoven with existing systems and technologies. As more organizations or companies adopt blockchain technology, the more streamlined the decentralized nature of ledgers will be, and the greater the economic value of blockchain to the world.