A Complete Guide to Blockchain App Development
There are numerous benefits of using a blockchain application. For instance, blockchain applications are transparent, trustworthy, and easily traceable. It is because of this reason many startups and entrepreneurs are willing to tap into it the niche.
The emergence of blockchain technology in apps is not a fluke. Instead, the industry is booming right now considering the transactions are decentralized yet accessible to all the involved parties. As per Fortune Business Insights, the blockchain market was valued at $4.67 billion in the year 2021. Adding to it, the industry is expected to grow by $163.83 billion by the year 2029 at a CAGR of 56.3%.
The stats mentioned above are enough reasons for any entrepreneur to hire the top blockchain development companies for conceiving app ideas. Therefore without any delay, let’s carry on and first understand the difference between blockchain apps and regular apps.
How are Blockchain Apps or Dapps different from Regular Apps?
The apps created by implementing blockchain are called Dapps or Decentralized Apps. They are different from regular apps as they have the capability to store cryptocurrency. On the other hand, a regular app requires a third-party payment gateway for the same.
Dapps utilize a P2P (Point to Point) network while a regular app relies on a single server to fulfill its operations. Aside from this, below are the following advantages of a blockchain app:
1. Capability to Store Value
As stated earlier, Dapps are capable of storing cryptocurrency for transactions. This cryptocurrency is transferred once the contractual obligation of the smart contract is fulfilled.
2. Tokenization of Currency
Dapps allow the conversion of actual currency to the tokenized cryptocurrency that can be used for making transactions. These cryptocurrencies can be purchased using dollars, pounds, rupees, and even gold.
3. Slow Speed
Dapps are significantly slower in comparison to regular apps. The transactions are carried out in blocks, and there are higher chances that your block is included in the chain of transactions or not.
4. No Censorship
Considering the methodology used for storing data is decentralized, the digital footprint of the data will remain intact even if the primary user removes it. This can only be done if all the associated parties in the node collectively decide to remove that data which isn’t possible.
5. Transparency
Blockchain works on the concept of the public ledger. It means anyone with the login credentials is capable of accessing the data without any problem.
6. Cost of Transaction
Every time a transaction is carried out, a small amount of fee is deducted from the user’s balance. It is the fee that is paid to the owner that constitutes multiple nodes in the architecture.
Step-by-Step Structure of Building a Blockchain Application
Below are the steps that are followed by the list of blockchain companies. These are:
1. Review the Idea
Before you start scanning the list of blockchain companies for developing a solution, it is essential to review the idea itself. By this, we mean not every idea needs to be implemented using blockchain. There are several other technologies available that can support an idea. Adding to it, unnecessarily implementing blockchain technology is going to make the process complicated. Also further on, it will introduce both the advantages as well as disadvantages of the final application.
2. Develop a Blockchain Technology or Use an Existing One
Here, the company looking for a blockchain solution has two options i.e. to create a blockchain from scratch or use an existing one. Some of the most popular existing blockchain technologies used by the best blockchain companies are:
- IBM Blockchain
- Ethereum
- Ripple
On the flip side, one can create their own blockchain from scratch. The steps used by the blockchain development agency for the task would be:
- Creating a block
- Filling the block with data in the header and the body
- Creating reference numbers for each block or hashing it
- Connect the blocks together
3. Developing the Application
Once the above two steps are completed, it is finally time to hire a blockchain development company and get started with app development.
Below are the steps used by blockchain development services to create an app:
4. Establishing the Product Requirements
Every client has their own unique requirements. Therefore, it is important that the requirements such scope of the project, features to be integrated, and SLAs are already established. Once that is done, it would be ideal for the blockchain development agency to jump onto the next step.
5. Select the Blockchain Technology
The blockchain development company hired for the task can recommend whether the client requires blockchain technology from scratch or whether an existing technology can be used. Once that is established, it is time to move to the next step.
6. Design the Architecture
The architecture of the application is its entire layout, not just design-wise but also how it would interact with the data and the blockchain technology. The best blockchain companies that are hired around the world help with this bit. Once that is done by the client’s blockchain development agencies, one can move to develop the smart contract.
7. Create a Smart Contract
A smart contract is a piece of code that is written by the developers behind the blockchain app. It is the contractual obligation between two parties that are involved in the transaction. This smart contract is open to both parties and its code can be easily reviewed. It is essential because it carries out the transaction.
8. Integration with Blockchain Network
Once a smart contract is prepared, it is time for the top blockchain development companies hired to integrate the app with the blockchain network. It includes tasks such as managing the network permissions, setting up nodes, and deploying the smart contract in the application.
9. Developing UI/UX
This is the space using which the user interacts with the application. The hired blockchain development agency is supposed to pay a lot more attention to it. It is because the better the UI/UX of the application is, the easier it would be for the user to complete a transaction. A good UI is self-explanatory and easily navigable to the user.
10. Testing
This is the step in which a blockchain development company starts to test out the app development. The intention behind this step is to figure out the bugs and fixes that need to be done on the application.
11. Launch
This is the final stage of the development process. In this step, the blockchain development companies hired deploy the application to the blockchain network. After that based on the SLAs, the best blockchain companies hired would provide support.
Wrapping Up!
There has been a significant rise in the list of blockchain companies. It is because more and more interested parties are emerging over time. The blockchain market is on the rise and multiple players are constantly dabbling with the help of top blockchain development companies. Using this article, we have tried to create an outline of the steps involved in the development process of blockchain apps. By understanding each of these steps, any company can understand the development process of a blockchain app and hire the best block development companies to create the app.
