Within Biotron, a blockchain is required for two main tasks — to facilitate transactions of data and of our BTRN token, and to host smart contracts between data providers (our users) and data customers. The choice we had to make was whether to build our own blockchain or use an existing one.

Building our own blockchain would have required a significant investment in infrastructure and maintenance. The sheer volume of transactions and smart contracts (required to provide customers with analytics products) meant that solutions such as Ethereum, Multichain, Waves, and Ark, would not be sufficient. Of these blockchains, only Ethereum handles smart contracts, but it can only do so in limited amounts. The transactions are expensive and the blockchain can be notoriously slow. Privacy concerns with these solutions could also limit the adoption by some large enterprises.

“When deciding on a blockchain, we needed to think about how our analytics could be easily assimilated into an organisations’ existing ecosystem too.”

Pavol Magic — CEO

We needed to partner with an organisation that was just as business focussed as us. One that understands the way we’re using analytics to drive business decision making; and how businesses will use those analytics. Naturally, the solution had to have all the features we require technically and be robust enough to handle potentially hundreds of thousands of micro-transactions quickly. Fortunately, we found both of these in one place. After going through an extensive amount of consulting and exhaustive due diligence process, we’re pleased to reveal that we’ll be using a blockchain platform provided by SophiaTX.

SophiaTX is designed specifically as a full-service, business compliant blockchain. As a transactional exchange (TX) platform it will help Biotron’s users and customers collaborate by connecting their transactions and organising them into smart contracts. Their cross-industry platform is attractive because our analytics products will have application to limitless types of organisations. They are also the first platform to focusing on integrating with SAP and other ERP, CRM, and SCM systems. The connection that their blockchain can manage to companies’ backbone systems will prove to be an invaluable asset in the adoption of Biotron.

The architecture, logic, and properties of SophiaTX’s blockchain perfectly match the parameters required for our data analytics platform. In a nutshell, it’s open source, consensus based, low cost, permission controlled, consensus-based, and allows for the direct mapping of assets with fiat currencies. By using a public blockchain we ensure that we remain committed to our principle of bringing transparency to the personal data industry.

This collaboration brings the benefit of an easier scalability of volume, with respect to users, customers, and analytics. It also comes with powerful connectivity systems that make the transactions easier for businesses to integrate. This decision represents a significant step along our roadmap and we are all excited about the next steps as we bring Biotron to life.