Private Blockchains Have Few Applications, Study Finds

Despite all efforts, so far businesses haven’t been able to come up with significant applications for private, centralized blockchains as opposed to public distributed ledgers, a new study shows. According to the authors, in most cases corporate blockchain networks are used mainly for database verification and transactions auditing.

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Public Ledgers Are Universal and Disruptive

The research is part of a report on the development of the crypto sector produced by the Center for Financial Innovation and Cashless Economy at the Moscow School of Management “Skolkovo.” It has been conducted in response to the “growing number of infrastructure proposals, on one hand, and the increasing uncertainty regarding the technological integration and the level of development of distributed ledgers, on the other.”

According to the study, in order to make a leap in its development, the crypto industry has to develop different kinds of distributed ledger applications. At present, there are 24 types of private blockchains, the report details. A few examples of “consortium blockchains” exist, such as joint projects between companies with similar activities, and the rest are private blockchains used mainly as support networks that are controlled by their creators.

The authors claim there are currently around 50 “unique” fields of implementation of the private distributed ledgers but all of them fit in just three categories: trustless solutions, business logic automation and database verification, Bitnovosti reported. At the same time, there are 21 primary distributed ledgers, and the majority of them, 14 out of 21, are “public, uncontrolled, universal and disruptive.” The researchers further explain:

This version of a distributed ledger is most similar to the Internet. It does not have a shutdown button and can be adapted to almost any need.

Private Blockchains Are Niche Products

“Consortium blockchains,” on the other hand, are far fewer in number, the Skolkovo researchers note. Most of them have been developed to automate business logic between different companies. There are only three such projects that have gained recognition and popularity, the institute points out. According to the study, these are Corda, Hyperledger and Symbiont.

The report also emphasizes that these systems usually represent niche products. The Moscow School of Management also concludes:

The key value of private ledgers has not been defined yet. It most often comes down to the possibility of creating nodes to review and audit transactions.

The Center for Financial Innovation and Cashless Economy has also identified the most urgent tasks facing the blockchain industry. According to the researchers, these have to do with solving issues related to network management, ensuring data security and confidentiality, addressing scalability challenges and matching the speed of development of public blockchains.

What is your opinion on the findings in the report? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.

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