How Blockchain Can Enhance App Development?
Data security has become one of the most prominent concerns of people around the world in the past few years. According to a report by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), there has been a 68% surge in the cases of data breaches in the year 2021 as compared to the past years. Hacking, data leaks, and security breaches are some of the most common incidents in various digital domains including mobile apps.
The need of improving digital security has become vital, and a simple solution that can fulfil this need is blockchain technology.
In this blog, we will discuss what is blockchain technology and how it will transform mobile app development.
What you will learn?
4 Powerful Features of Blockchain
How Blockchain is Transforming Mobile App Development
How to Leverage Blockchain For Your Mobile App
Sneak Peek Into Blockchain
Blockchain is commonly referred to as Bitcoins. Although blockchain technology emerged to power Bitcoins, it is capable of offering much more in the present scenario.
Blockchain is essentially a chain of multiple blocks, each one of those carries and transfers valuable information like financial records, medical records, land records, etc. Data security is the primary characteristic of blockchain technology. You must be familiar with ledger books or ledger software that people use to keep track of all transactions. Blockchains are just like these ledgers that store information about various transactions. The only difference is that ledgers are easy to manipulate, people can easily change the data in a ledger. However, it is almost impossible to manipulate or change the data held in a blockchain, which is why blockchains are one of the most secure technologies available today.
Blockchains consist of three components; relevant information or data, hash and prev hash.
- Relevant information or data refers to the essential information that a block needs to contain securely. For example, in the case of bitcoins, it will store the transaction information of a bitcoin.
- Hash is a unique code assigned to every block that makes it almost impossible for a hacker to penetrate and change the data in a block.
- Prev Hash contains the hash of the previous block. As you know, blockchain consists of multiple blocks. The first block in the blockchain that does not contain any previous hash is the “Genesis block”. Every block in a chain contains the hash code of its previous block, so if someone makes a change in the hash of one block, he has to change the hash in every block otherwise all the data stored in that blockchain will immediately become invalid.
Ever since being introduced in 2009, blockchain technology has become a massive trend in mobile app development as well. Mobile app development companies are adopting blockchain technology to create more secure, safe and reliable applications for their users.
4 Powerful Features of Blockchain Technology
To understand the impact of blockchain technology, it is important to first discover various features of blockchain technology.
1. Security
Security is the primary benefit that makes blockchain a crucial and relevant technology in today’s world. Hash makes it almost impossible for a hacker to penetrate the block and manipulate the information. It takes at least 10 minutes to change the hash of a single block, and there are millions of blocks in a single blockchain. So you can imagine that it would take quite a few hundred years for someone to change the hash of each block in a blockchain.
2. Decentralization
Decentralization is a primary characteristic that separates blockchains from normal ledgers. Only a few people have access to the ledger and they can change it at any time they want. That’s not the case with the blockchain. A network of people has access to the blockchain. The entire network gets notified when there’s a change in any information on the blockchain. Also, a consensus of more than 50% of the network is important for making any changes in the blockchain information.
3. Accessibility
Blockchain works on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). It’s a decentralized system that gives access to blockchain to all users in a network. Whenever a new transaction takes place, all participants in the network get notified. Unlike a typical ledger system that is centralized and controlled by a single authority, blockchains are accessed and controlled by a whole network.
4. Immutability
One of the major features of blockchain is its immutability. Once a piece of valuable information is captured in a blockchain, it cannot be reversed, removed or changed. Blockchain offers a high degree of data integrity through immutability. Any historic data, no matter how old it is, once has entered the blockchain it can not be manipulated in any way.
How Blockchain is Transforming Mobile App Development?
Mobile applications have become a substitute for many manual activities that involve a certain financial risk like payments, investments, money transfers, etc. Today, we have apps that have simplified some of the most complex tasks. Now you can pay bills, invest your money, receive and send money, and transfer important documents and data with mobile apps.
Be it startups, medium-scale businesses, or large enterprises, all are looking to integrate blockchain in their app and web development processes. According to Grand View Research, the blockchain market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 85.99% from 2022 to 2030.
But with increasing utility, the need for data safety and security has also risen manifold. The last decade has seen some major data breaches from some of the most prominent apps, portals and websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Cognyte, etc. This has concerned users worldwide about their data safety. Therefore, mobile app developers are integrating blockchain technology to make mobile apps safer, secure and more reliable.
Here are some of the ways through which blockchain technology is bringing transformation in mobile app development:
Safer Online Transactions
Be it digital wallets, eCommerce apps, mobile wallets, investment banking, or any other financial apps, blockchain technology can bring much-needed security to online transactions. Security is one of the biggest features of blockchain technology. It’s almost impossible for hackers to find a way to manipulate or change the data of millions of blocks present in a single blockchain. Therefore, online transactions can be made secure with blockchain technology. Bitcoins are one such digital commodity that is already using blockchain technology to ensure maximum transaction safety.
Data Safety
As we have already discussed, data breach is a big concern in today’s time. Blockchain technology can be used to ensure the data safety of mobile app users. With blockchain technology, the mobile app interface will become secure and it would become easier for the developers to protect the user data against the potential threat of data breach or data stealing.
App Reliability
Blockchain technology can help in increasing the reliability of mobile apps. The robust and reliable structure of blockchain prevents it from crashing and failing. The data is also distributed in multiple blocks and amongst a network which makes it almost impossible for any unauthorised source to modify the data. Having strong security makes a mobile app more reliable for users.
Improved Transparency
Transparency can influence the trust of users in the mobile app. Blockchain technology is easily one of the most transparent systems in the digital world. The users can track the entire history of a single transaction at any point in time. The impenetrable nature of blockchain can help enterprises to win the trust of their consumer. A consumer is more likely to use an app when he knows he can trace everything that has taken place and that his data is safe.
Simple Integration
One significant advantage of blockchain is its simple integration into mobile apps. Blockchain might come across as a complex technology to integrate but that’s merely a misconception. As compared to other technologies working in a similar domain, the time and money invested in developing and integrating blockchain in a mobile application are much less. Blockchain can help enterprises enhance their app security and reliability and create a rich mobile app while reducing development and maintenance-related costs.
How To Leverage Blockchain Technology For Your Mobile App?
Understand whether your app needs blockchain
Even though blockchain technology is becoming the next big thing in mobile app development, not every app requires it! If you have a simple, content-driven app, you might not need to integrate blockchain in it at all. Therefore, before you decide on implementing blockchain technology in your mobile app, it makes sense to first determine whether you need blockchain technology or not. Blockchain technology is best compatible with the app that has the following:
- Online money transfer
- Monetary transactions
- Virtual currency transactions (cryptocurrency)
- Financial and investment-related functionality
- Important documents that need to be protected
- Sensitive information or data
Examples of such apps are mobile wallets, UPI apps, DMAT & investment apps, retail, eCommerce and shopping apps, etc.
Create an implementation strategy:
Once you have figured out that your app needs blockchain integration, the next step is to formulate an implementation strategy. Like any other development strategy, this strategy also needs to consider factors such as your business model, target audience, goals, market trends, competitor analysis, etc., to ensure that you build a successful app.
Check the compatibility of blockchain with other features of your app
While creating your implementation strategy, you need to check if any other features of your app will be affected by this integration. For the smooth functioning of your app, you need to make sure that blockchain is compatible with all the other features you are planning to implement in your app.
Implement blockchain technology in your app:
Now that you have made sure of everything else, it is time for implementation. Your app development company will choose the right blockchain development platform amongst the various platforms like Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, Solana, Tron, etc. Once the development platform is finalised all the other factors like app architecture, app hosting, admin panel, and UI UX start taking a shape accordingly.
Once the implementation is completed, you can test your app by doing a pilot run to see if everything works well or whether you need to change anything. Ask your mobile app developers to use the POC approach while developing the app. The POC (proof of concept) approach to development allows developers to implement and test whether everything works properly.
Once you have implemented blockchain technology in your mobile application, you can showcase to the world a better, safer and more secure mobile app.
To Conclude:
It is safe to say that blockchain is the future of the digital world. Many industries like real estate, finance, banking, and healthcare are already using blockchain technology to its fullest potential to ensure the data safety of their users.
According to Statista, the worldwide spending on blockchain in 2021 was 6.6 billion USD. This figure can easily provide an idea of how exponentially blockchain is growing across all domains. Therefore, it is an awakening call for both enterprises and mobile app development companies to adopt blockchain technology to stay ahead in the league of security and data safety.
At Systango, our mobile app developers UK are skilled to work with all proper blockchain platforms as well as developing custom blockchain solutions to facilitate the various needs of businesses and industries. We have built more than 20 blockchain-powered mobile apps and our process includes quick development and testing so that we can deliver the results as soon as possible.
If you are looking to build an app with blockchain technology, you can get in touch with us or explore our blockchain development services today!
