Once again, the crypto-scene has entered the spotlight in the financial world, thanks yet again to a massive Bitcoin bullrun (and subsequent crash). Along with this cryptocurrency revival comes a craze for blockchain for everything. From IBM to Iced Tea, blockchain is a sure-fire way to draw attention to your business and get ahead of the competition.

However, now the prices have slumped and the market is back to normal (as normal as crypto markets can get), and people are back to asking the same questions they always do once the craze is over: is blockchain suitable for business? Why do all of these businesses want blockchains? Do businesses even need blockchains, or are they just a fancy way to store data that isn’t really anything revolutionary?

Let’s go back to blockchain basics

Let’s untie all the excitement that comes with cryptocurrency and actually look at what blockchains essentially are. In reality, blockchains are a type of database that keeps immutable records. It almost sounds boring, but that’s essentially what they do: really trustworthy data keeping. We can also throw in automated, unbreakable contracts which execute and move data.

So why is this particular way of keeping data so sought after now? Let’s agree that some of those pushing blockchain for their businesses may be doing it for publicity purposes and that it may not even be a healthy adoption of the tech. However, once we put zeal aside, we can also agree that blockchains will definitely provide solutions to age-old record keeping problems that we’ve not seen the likes of before.

The reason Bitcoin works and became a household name is because it figured out how to have unchangeable and uncopyable data. This data was labeled as a currency and is now starting to be accepted as such, but we can replace “data” with any type of record that needs protection from alteration: money, deeds to property, voting results, insurance records, certifications, credit history, identity validation, taxes, brand-name products, and anything else that requires a record for authenticity.

BMW joins the list of large corporations that not only recognize the use of blockchain, but practically move toward its adoption, through their VeChain partnership.

So what does this mean for businesses?

A blockchain distributes the trust of this data across a network and allows for immutable records for any of the above types of data. Even a “private” chain is only such because it is closed to the public. It will only have value to its owner if trust is distributed enough for all those using the chain to agree on the immutability of the data. It is an automated process that saves time and money while ensuring authenticity and proof of ownership. A business can set up an internal blockchain that keeps any type of data coordinated at any level it needs. It can be within a single branch, across an entire corporation, or even a multi-corporate partnership to facilitate business between different entities.

The inter-business blockchain is particularly interesting. With it, record-keeping is shared among businesses, presumably with nodes kept across these businesses to create trustless records with immutable histories. Now, throw smart contracts into the mix to allow automated execution of deals between these businesses, and we have a massive digital infrastructure performing highly sensitive transactions in a way that requires no active management or oversight. This is where blockchains cross the line from trendy to revolutionary.

The need for enterprise blockchains is real, and is set to become a massive market. The hyper-competitive nature of the above-mentioned industries will ensure that is a reality as soon as possible. One “enterprise blockchain” will not capture the full markets for any of these industries. Lamden is set to break into an emerging market where the demand will likely be hundreds of folds more than the supply. We believe we will ultimately have the edge due to our focus on ease-of-use, pre-provided developer tools, and interoperability between private chains through atomic swaps.

The question of whether blockchain is here to stay is becoming less debatable day by day. It is very likely that we may soon see corporate blockchains become the standard, and companies like Lamden as essential as Microsoft in providing basic business technology.

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