The Potential of Organizing an Unorganized Blockchain Market
Regardless of sector, information is crucial in today’s context. With data at the core of our processes, the importance of organizing information cannot be ignored in order to work with data more efficiently for meaningful applications. At any one time, chances are there is more information available than we actually need to do our work effectively. The challenge is then retrieving what is most relevant in a cost-effective way, time and effort wise.
Organizing Blockchain
For an information-heavy yet unorganized space like blockchain, organizing is important for the system’s internal structure, in order to create a framework to deliver more efficiently. Whether it is to transmit or retrieve more accurate and strategically relevant information, a more structured system allows more to be achieved in less time with less effort. In the longer term, blockchain developers can more easily diagnose potential issues for future improvement and better database management.
In addition, being more organised could bring greater confidence in consumers and even outsiders. Not only would this sit better with regulators, an established structure and order can deliver better user services and experience.
1. Enabling Cross-chain Interoperability
According to Deloitte, the lack of interoperability “can give IT departments headaches as they discover that platforms (cannot) communicate without translation help.” More than 6,500 and counting active blockchain projects on software development platform Github use a range of platforms with different coding languages, protocols, consensus mechanisms and privacy measures. By creating ‘bridges’ across these networks, one can enable cross-blockchain transactions and greater interconnectedness just like Github did.
The first step is to enable inter-blockchain communication. There are currently various projects that are working on blockchain interoperability. The spectrum for inter-blockchain communication is quite broad, with the most immediate user-facing function being the transfer of tokens between chains.
Current solutions employ these main mechanisms, namely 1) hub-and-spoke generic communication products aimed at developers, 2) decentralised financial products aiming to displace fiat exchanges and banks, and 3) TCP/IP-for-blockchains generic bridging protocols. The more established solutions either target developers first, rather than investors/traditional corporations/end-users (i.e. requires technical understanding), or do not involve the exchange of non-currency decentralised information.
The ultimate goal is universal interoperability, where seamless generic communication between decentralised technologies can occur and be understood by all stakeholders in the ecosystem, and thus paving the way for collaboration and exponential growth in the space.
2. Creating a New Standard for Blockchain
The earlier step we mentioned involves cross-chain communication between two or more networks. The next step would be to create a standard version of blockchain information for universal communication.
With increasing numbers joining the blockchain space, we need a predominant standard that allows different networks to interact with one another. Uniformity as a result of standardization across blockchain protocols lends consistency in fundamental operational processes, making mass adoption much easier. The establishment of industry-wide standards could help enterprises collaborate on application development, share blockchain solutions and simplify integration with existing systems. After standardization is achieved, honing the quality of established standards by collectively working on it as one blockchain community would become more efficient too.
The new standard for blockchain will be achieved through NTO-Protocol-powered smart contract templates which allows for easy and early integration across networks.
3. Easier Integration
Another significant hurdle to overcome would be simplifying or facilitating the integration with existing systems, in particular more painless ways for corporates to integrate blockchain with their legacy systems. Should they want to use blockchain, organizations would prefer the easier way of successfully integrating their previous system with the new technology, as opposed to complete restructuring of their previous system. Access to the necessary pool of blockchain talent or skilled developers to engage in this process is difficult, given that it’s a relatively new field. Common programming language through the use of API or simpler customizable tools would be helpful in bridging the technical gap, especially if there are already universal standards to build by, hence demanding less time and technical competency to complete the transition.
4. Internet of Blockchain
Last but not least, to really move forward, players in the field need to collaborate their efforts. Blockchain could bring greater value for organisations when they work together on areas of shared pain/opportunity. This means having a common space for players to come together to exchange ideas and value add, to cooperate and tackle industry wide issues, including standardization and facilitating mass adoption.
Our Vision
In order to enable true cross-chain communication, the protocol our team is building will provide the framework to lay the foundation for a universal standard for organizing and exchanging blockchain information. The framework takes into consideration not just what seasoned developers and blockchain information users are already familiar with, but also incorporating more directive and intuitive navigation suitable for entry-level users.
Novum Trust Order (NTO) protocol is a generic, inter-blockchain communication protocol to enable blockchain economies to break out of their silos to interact. We are working towards universal interoperability by building a layer above blockchain protocols that is compatible with current blockchain systems. This protocol will enable arbitrary cross-chain communication, which allows the exchange of both non-currency decentralised information and token transfers.
Rich Prospects for an Organized Blockchain Market
We have seen the differences between organized and unorganized markets in the real world, and how the former outperforms or gives more than the latter. For instance, organized financial markets clearly expand more rapidly than their unorganized counterparts. In labour markets, although organized sectors have stricter rules, they provide better, more reliable employment terms with job security and benefits; although there is more freedom in an unorganized labour market, protection and support is severely needed. Finally, the internet, something substantially relevant to us, is so easy to surf and utilize today thanks to search engines indexing and combing through umpteen and scattered pieces of information web-wide.
Blockchain today is already in a fragmented state, notwithstanding the fact that there will be plenty of future applications built on it down the road. There is a lot of potential for the organization of blockchain data, and taking the necessary steps towards that direction will be critical to blockchain’s success as a mainstream technology in time to come.
