Blockchain, the technology behind the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, holds a lot of promise for a variety of applications far outside of the digital payments space, from banking to the Internet of Things (IoT). As a result, over the recent period, crypto technologies have garnered more serious attention from corporate developers offering Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS).
Blockchain, a shared, immutable ledger for recording the history of transactions, helps enterprises across industries boost security, efficiency and transparency from contracts to deeds to payments. Its uses range from helping digitize the supply chain, resolve financial disputes and securely exchange data. For example, IBM recently inked a blockchain collaboration with food industry giants including Wal-Mart Stories and Nestle, in a partnership which allows the companies to revamp their data management processes and trace sources of food contamination almost instantaneously.
IBM Blockchain is a public cloud service that allows businesses to digitize transaction workflow. It states itself as the only fully integrated enterprise-ready blockchain platform designed to accelerate the development, governance and operation of multi-institution business networks.
BaaS by Microsoft Azure allows organizations to collaborate together by experimenting with new business processes. The platform claims to support a rapidly growing number of distributed ledger technologies and boasts its intelligence services, such as Cortana Intelligence, as providing unique data management and analysis capabilities unlike other platforms.
Amazon’s AWS Blockchain Technology dates back to a partnership with investment firm Digital Currency Group (DCG) in 2016, to offer a BaaS experimentation environment for enterprises. AWS’s head of worldwide financial services business development says the company is currently working with financial institutions and blockchain providers in efforts to boost innovation and facilitate BaaS development.
As the market for BaaS expands rapidly, its expected that more and more companies will come out with offerings to rival the handfuls of existing services. According to Business Insider, the Blockchain market is positioned to boom at a CAGR of 61.5% over the next five years, driven by a heightened demand for transparency and immutability.
