Blockchain Development: A Complete Guide to Empower Your Business

Blockchain development is something that everyone in the tech field constantly hears about. If you’re involved in technical or financial circles, you definitely know what cryptocurrencies are and why all crypto-enthusiasts go crazy over them. However, there’s so much more to blockchain solutions than just a new payment method.

The smart contracts market is expected to reach $345.4 million in 2026 at a CAGR of 18.1%. Entrepreneurs build a new generation of financial applications with this technology. On the other hand, more conventional industries like healthcare adopt decentralized apps for their security level. For example, Patientory is a HIPAA-compliant medical record system built over a blockchain. In this article, OpenGeeksLab will route you through more blockchain projects across various industries, uncover how businesses can benefit from blockchain development, and reveal its best practices.

Blockchain Development Impact on Businesses

Decentralized technology revolutionizes all spheres at full speed. The main reason is that this technology removes facilitators between two parties. This fact accelerates financial processes, makes lending faster, saves finances on development expenses, removes additional fees set by intermediaries, and more.

As an example, liquidity pool platforms gain their momentum right now. In plain words, users transfer their crypto assets to a common pool that brings them profits over time. The profit depends on the amount of money invested and the time they’ve spent in a pool. A second party can borrow money from the pool with some interest rate. In such a way, users don’t need to use a bank as a mediator. UniSwap, PancakeSwap, SushiSwap are some of the renowned liquidity pool applications.

What’s more, blockchain applications enhance the credibility between two parties with smart contracts’ help. Distributed contracts can’t be violated, because if some of its terms won’t be fulfilled, affected parties will get collaterals made at the time of signature. That’s why entrepreneurs can make deals with unknown clients without any risks of being cheated. Ethereum smart contracts are the most trusted tool on today’s market.

Other benefits of this technology include:

• Enhanced security. With end-to-end encryption, companies can rest assured that their data won’t get into fraudsters’ hands. Because of distributed data across a network of machines, it’s impossible for hackers to reach and modify it.
• New investments raising strategy. With blockchain development, startups can raise capital with the help of Initial Token Offering (ITO). These tokens are alternatives for conventional equities or stock shares and can be traded for fiat money.
• Improved traceability. With blockchain development, companies can trace crypto assets’ origin. It provides proof for businesses concerned about the authenticity and uniqueness of their assets. This is particularly true for NFT assets.

This list may go on. Distributed technologies’ benefits are truly unlimited and depend only on your business requirements. If you’re ready to dive deeper into protocols and intertwine your software architecture with crypto algorithms it will pay off. Now, let’s take a look at all types of blockchain platforms.

Types of Blockchain Platforms

Blockchain platforms are divided into several types that determine how open or closed these platforms are for new users. On a grander scale, platforms fall into two groups:

• Permissionless blockchain
• Permissioned blockchain

With a permissionless blockchain, participants can access all nodes on an equal basis. The blockchain consensus allows all nodes to manage processes such as data access, transaction processes, creation of new blocks, and so on.

Permissioned platforms, in their turn, don’t grant full access to each and every node. The consensus may determine only a few nodes to create new blocks.

This division results in several types of blockchain platforms. Let’s examine each one in detail.

1. Public Blockchain

Public networks allow every interested individual to join it. Generally, public blockchains are permissionless. The main idea behind it is that every new node is rewarded equally for performing their duties on an equal basis with other nodes. When it comes to mining, nodes that reach a new block get a specific amount of blockchain-specific tokens.

This model is very common and used by renowned distributed networks like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, and others.

A public blockchain platform can be also run on permissioned blockchain. For example, the EOS network has only 21 active block producers for the entire network. However, such cases are rarely seen.

2. Private Blockchain

A private blockchain platform is a resource with restricted access where privacy means a lot. This network isn’t open for everyone. Each new participant should be inspected for malicious intentions and pre-selected.

Due to the privacy of such platforms, the motivation behind participation varies from application to application. Some networks are used for private transactions over the blockchain, while other networks implement nodes compulsory to comply with business requirements.

Quorum is an example of a successful private network. It’s an open-source project with its source code available on GitHub. The network itself is an upgraded version of Ethereum that allows for private transactions.

Hyperledger Fabric is another successful private blockchain platform. All members of this network enroll through a Trusted Membership Provider to confirm their identity.

3. Hybrid Blockchain

Both networks mentioned above have their own drawbacks. Public networks usually offer slow transaction speed. Right now, Ethereum can handle only 30 transactions per second.

Private blockchains cope with this task much better. For example, Quorum processes over 100 transactions per second. However, such a performance is achieved at the cost of decentralization. Private networks aren’t accessible to everyone, thus only a few can benefit from their speed.

Hybrid networks become a solution for this problem. In hybrid blockchains, every transaction takes place in its own chain. When needed, transactions may refer to a public chain. However, with bypassing of a public network the transaction speed accelerates significantly. For example, the Xinfin financial hybrid network delivers over 2000 transactions per second.

4. Consortium Blockchain

A consortium blockchain is similar to a private blockchain. The whole network is run by multiple organizations. Management duties are distributed between each organization, so any of them can’t make illegal activities, because other organizations keep the network in check.

This concept is beneficial to corporations that collaborate with each other. Such networks have no universally accepted authority, all organizations can work together to improve the blockchain.

Corda is a prominent example of a consortium permissioned blockchain. This app enables companies in banking, capital markets, trade finance, insurance, and other spheres via smart contracts.

We’ve figured out the four types of blockchain, determined how users can access them and their rights inside the technology. Now’s the time to unlock top-rated use cases and real-world industry applications.

Blockchain Use Cases Across Industries

Blockchain development positively influences businesses with a range of benefits that can be utilized across different industries. While bringing more transparency and clarity to transactions and data flows, companies can optimize their internal processes and mitigate risks. In this section, we’ll explore different applications of blockchain development and smart contracts.

1. Supply Chain and Transportation Sector

Blockchain technology paired with smart contracts brings more clarity to supply chain management. Here are benefits for this niche:

• Distributed networks bring more transparency to products’ origin. Companies and clients can track their goods from source points to points of destination
• Blockchain applications enable companies with accurate asset tracking
• Smart contracts simplify licensing processes for services and software products

Apart from tracking and managing internal company resources, this technology provides more visibility into raw materials’ origination. For example, cobalt, which is a primary component for lithium-ion rechargeable batteries, is often mined using child labor. To fight child abuse, companies can use decentralized technologies for tracking cobalt from blacklisted mines. For example, Ford uses decentralized solutions to ensure the ethical origin of cobalt that is used in their electric cars.

FedEx also implemented blockchain to improve its supply chain processes. This company shares information among suppliers, retailers, and the company itself on a blockchain. It allows customers to track packages, not only while they’re being held by FedEx, but also before and after delivery services pick them up.

2. Banking and Financial Sector

Blockchain technology has evolved into a standalone financial world with its own currencies, exchanges, lending apps, and synthetic assets. Decentralized finances are changing lending and investing processes with smart contracts. Guaranteed payments and high-interest rates encourage people to convert fiat money to crypto and invest in liquidity pools.

However, distributed applications also influence the conventional banking system. With all data in a decentralized chain, banks get a holistic picture of the credit history, income, and spending of each client. Some of the major advantages in banking include:

• Simplified Know Your Customer (KYC) process
• Instant access to clients’ credit histories
• Real-time asset management

Banks actively develop blockchain software to optimize their internal operations. While some of them use it in limited cases for extremely sensitive information, others build effective systems around this technology. For example, Australian-based bank Westpac utilizes distributed applications to transform the bank guarantee process.

3. Insurance

The insurance sector allows blockchain’s potential to flourish. Distributed technologies are a transformative force for health, property, life, and other types of insurance providers. We can highlight the following upsides of blockchain development for this niche:

• Fraud detection. With all insurance claims in decentralized storage, companies can mitigate risks and identify fraud patterns.
• Health record. Health insurance providers can access each clients’ health records. Moreover, integration with health providers grants continuous updates on each users’ health conditions, allowing companies to create personalized insurance plans.
• Property insurance. A blockchain developer creates smart contracts that simplify property coverage processes and help companies calculate compensations more precisely.
• Life insurance. With pre-filled smart contracts, family members don’t have to go through an exhaustive death claim process. Blockchain apps send claims automatically in a matter of seconds.

ClaimShare is an outstanding example of a blockchain project that deals with insurance frauds. Duplicate insurance claims are a common problem for insurance companies. ClaimShare helps insurance agents detect fraudulent claims by analyzing large datasets and identifying similar claim patterns.

4. Healthcare

Healthcare data is subject to multiple data security protocols and ethical principles. Data leaks in healthcare establishments are unacceptable. However, physicians often have to share patient’s health reports with their colleagues, insurance companies, laboratories, and other third parties. With blockchain development, healthcare providers eliminate sensitive data leakages and improve interoperability between physicians and patients.

Healthcare providers develop blockchain software to achieve supply chain transparency, secure electronic health records, credential verification for medical staff, and other features for this sector. With decentralized apps, patients don’t have to worry about their data safety, while clinics can rely on decentralized applications during data security assessments.

We can point out Medicalchain, an EHR provider for healthcare companies, as a leading healthcare blockchain solution. Another example is MediLedger, a pharmaceutical supply chain application that helps companies verify the origination of drugs.

5. Education

Educational establishments and e-learning apps found a use for blockchain development in education. Blockchain development transforms this niche in the following way:

• Issuing diplomas and certificates. Fake diplomas and certificates are a common problem nowadays. To prove students’ knowledge authenticity, universities put diplomas on decentralized networks to prevent counterfeiting.
• Publishing. Academic publishing is complicated with rights management issues. Authors usually publish their works via large publishing agencies to secure their work and attract readers’ attention. Blockchain solutions allow authors to distribute their works directly, get almost the entire amount of royalty, and have proper copyright protection.
• Secured file storage. Educational establishments store students’ personal data and their scientific works. Blockchain applications address file hosting and data safety problems.

Blockcerts is a blockchain project that allows issuing, viewing, and verifying blockchain-based diplomas and certificates. As for file storage, Filecoin is a decentralized network popular among all industries for its speed and reliability.

The number of industries where decentralized technologies can find an application is truly endless. However, to come up with a meaningful use case, you need a creative and, at the same time, technically empowered idea.

Blockchain Development Challenges

Blockchain enthusiasts always emphasize the benefits of this technology. However, sometimes developers uplifted by potential gains overlook possible risks that derive from its implementation. We’ve created a list of pitfalls related to blockchain development:

1. Lack of Awareness

To use decentralized technology at full capacity you need to draw a multitude of users to your platform. Especially if you run a public blockchain project. Unfortunately, due to insufficient knowledge on the topic, it may be hard to gather the same audience as if you’ve launched a conventional mobile or web application. That’s why you have to conduct thorough market research and identify your target audience before getting into the blockchain development process.

2. Lack of Experienced Developers

Due to the lack of general awareness, it’s harder to find a blockchain engineer than a mobile app developer. An insufficient number of experienced specialists results in a time-consuming hiring process and may affect the final product quality.

3. Lack of Credibility

Today, a lot of people still associate blockchain with money laundering and consider cryptocurrencies as a payment system for criminal syndicates. Even though those days are long gone and countries adopt crypto at the State level, the trust leaves something to be desired. Even large organizations may be unfamiliar with how crypto algorithms work, thus don’t have confidence in data safety.

Blockchain development has some drawbacks, but the benefits it brings to businesses are incomparable. With each day distributed apps get more worldwide recognition, and more and more companies will adopt them over time. So, don’t lose your chance to pioneer this promising technology.

When Do You Need to Use Blockchain?

Finding the right opportunity to use decentralized networks is as important as understanding its pitfalls. Blockchain development isn’t a panacea from all misfortunes, so you have to know exactly when to use it. Our list will help you find a suitable case.

1. Storing Large Datasets

If you aren’t going to accumulate user data in large volumes or deal with big data analysis, you probably don’t need a full-fledged data warehouse. As a result, blockchain app development turns out to be a waste of funds in this case. Blockchain solutions grant data safety and fast access to information. However, with no data, this technology is useless.

2. Continuous Data Updates

Storing all information in paper form adds manual work if you need to update it frequently. Moreover, paper documents’ lifetime is relatively low compared to digital ones. Organizations develop blockchain storages to remove all paperwork, seamlessly update data, share it between parties, and keep it in a safe and fault-tolerant warehouse.

3. Transaction Speed

If you need a database, you should set your priorities correctly. Decentralized databases are slow but extremely secure. In contrast, centralized storages deal with queries faster, but have more vulnerabilities. If you value security more than transaction speed, then blockchain development should be your choice.

4. Dealing With Untrusted Partners

Entrepreneurs often have to deal with random partners that may violate predefined agreements. If you don’t want to fall victim to fraudsters and unreliable partners, smart contract apps can help you overcome this issue.

As it comes clear, a well-thought use case for your blockchain development means a lot. So, to not throw away your money, you have to decide whether you really need to adopt this technology.

Blockchain Implementation Steps

To get the most out of your blockchain platform, it’s crucial to handle development steps correctly. Without a clear vision of business goals you’re trying to achieve, elegant design, and proper tools, you can’t build a blockchain solution that meets your business objectives. We’ll go through all steps of a health blockchain development process.

1. Set Clear Objectives

At the very beginning, you have to set clear goals and understand the purpose of your future system. Make sure your blockchain solution will help you meet your business goals and won’t harm the current workflow.

If you already have an application, decide whether it’s possible to migrate it to the blockchain, or it should be built from scratch. When dealing with data, make sure that you can transfer it safely to your new storage.

2. Decide on a Blockchain Platform

When you’re clear with business objectives, it’s time to pick a platform that will serve as a basis for your blockchain solution. You should choose the platform depending on your goals and software. For example, if you’re planning to build a decentralized financial application, you’ll probably build it upon Ethereum, the most popular smart contracts network.

3. Conduct a Proof-of-Concept

The proof-of-concept is a fundamental process for every successful product. Companies test the project idea to calculate its possible value, ROI, check users’ engagement rates, and gather initial feedback. Teams develop blockchain prototypes that consist of:

• Mockups
• Designs
• Information about the protocol
• The product’s MVP version

4. UI/UX Design

If the MVP version was well received by users, it means that you’re on the right track. Now, it’s time to create a clear and attractive UI/UX design for your blockchain application. Developers will proceed to build an app based on screen designs for a mobile app or pages for web applications.

5. Development Phase

The most time-consuming stage of the entire blockchain app development process. The app undergoes several circles of pre-release versions. In such a way you can gather user feedback and work towards improvements.

After you fix all bugs, equip an app with all required features, and get approval from clients on the beta version, you can launch your app to the market. Make an emphasis on testing your application, especially if it’s used to transfer sensitive data.

Another tough step during the development process is to find experienced blockchain engineers to build your product. If you’re having trouble gathering developers with the required skills, take a close-up of offshore software development companies. External developers have the same level of expertise as in-house specialists and they’re ready to get to your project on demand.

Blockchain App Development Team

It’s impossible to build a large-scale blockchain application with a single blockchain developer. Ambitious products are always built with great teams where each member does their best to deliver quality results.

In the perfect world, your blockchain development team should consist of the following members:

• Blockchain analysts. Analysts inspect data flows inside the network to understand its effectiveness and create strategies for improvement.
• Blockchain engineers. Developers and engineers are the headliners of the development process. They build blockchain solutions using crypto algorithms and up-to-date development tools based on all data gathered by data analysts and overall business requirements defined by clients.
• UI//UX designers. Blockchain development won’t succeed without an attractive and straightforward design. Besides, developers write code based on prototypes of the future app developed by designers.
• QA engineers. QA engineers are an integral part of any project. Their main responsibility is to test networks for vulnerabilities, identify and eliminate bugs, and constantly analyze the codebase.

These are key specialists that should manage the blockchain app development process. Each of them brings tremendous impact to the table, that’s why they’re irreplaceable members of any development team.

The Cost of Blockchain App Development

Software development itself is a costly process. However, it may become even more expensive when it comes to new technologies like blockchain. There’s a multitude of factors that influence the blockchain app development cost. Your team is the main cost driver of the whole project.

We can divide teams into several categories.

In-House Blockchain Development Teams

In-house teams are the most expensive option among all others. Apart from paying salaries to developers on a regular basis, you also need to arrange a recruitment process and pay salaries to your recruiters. Moreover, take into account the expenses for renting an office space and equipping it with hardware and software that your developers will use.

Freelance Developers

Building a team out of freelancers might save you some funds. However, searching for a blockchain developer on freelance platforms is not a very promising idea. Besides, freelancers don’t care about your product after they get a paycheck. So, you may be left out with buggy software and poor documentation.

Blockchain App Development Companies

A third-party software vendor is where you can find the right price/quality ratio. Offshoring your product to such a company doesn’t require you to pay stable salaries and waste money on recruitment. You get a committed team of developers that handles everything from the proof of concept to the very last line of documentation.

What’s more, you don’t have to waste money on office rent and equipment for blockchain development. Third-party vendors provide engineers with everything they need for a productive workflow. Besides, the team is located under one roof with optimally-adjusted development processes. That means you don’t have to waste your time and resources on high-level project management tasks and delve into software development methodologies.

However, your team model isn’t the only thing that influences your app’s final price. This list gathers all factors that tilt the price balance:

• Blockchain app type. The price depends on the type of platform (public or private) and the amount of fine-tuning for an existing crypto protocol your team will perform.
• Blockchain project complexity. You may be building simple crypto-based video games or complex decentralized exchange applications. It’s obvious that the price of these two app types varies.
• The team. The final app cost rises up with each new employee that joins your team.
• Software licenses. Software used during the development also takes money. Team plans for project management tools, corporate chats, and analytics solutions might burn a hole in your pocket.

Finally, the development cost is correlated to the amount of time wasted by your team. According to our rough estimates, the proof of concept takes about two to three weeks. If your idea appears valid, designers build prototypes and developers create basic features for an MVP version.

After you identify points for improvements and decide on advanced features, it takes around two to three months to roll out your app.

Mind that these estimates are approximate and don’t depict the accurate development time. You can get a detailed time and cost estimate for your project by contacting a blockchain development company. Their business analysts will gather your requirements, choose a proper tech stack, and calculate the time needed to bring your idea to life.

Don’t Miss the Wave!

Despite the fact that blockchain isn’t a buzzword for attracting investors, but a well-established technology, there’s still plenty of room for business ideas. Innovations like NFT, DeFi, yield farming only prove this fact. Entrepreneurs generate new ideas and a lot of industries get more innovations every year with blockchain. Even the craziest concepts get recognition and generate stable revenue for their creators. So, why not give this sphere a try.

If you’re into blockchain development and already have an idea for your project, simply contact us. We, at OpenGeeksLab, create EVM-based blockchain solutions and work with all common algorithms. We use every last drop of the blockchain’s potential to create software that drives revenue and optimizes business processes for our partners.