5 Key Elements of a Blockchain Platform

The evolution of blockchain technologies is one of the most fascinating developments in the modern technology ecosystem. While blockchain became relevant as the infrastructure powering the bitcoin cryto-currency; it has evolved as one of the fastest growing application development paradigms of recent years. However, despite the its popularity, blockchain platforms need to cross a remaining chasm in order to become mainstream development technologies.

Today, the blockchain ecosystem has evolved from a backend infrastructure to a sophisticated infrastructure that powers the implementation of the next generation decentralized applications. From development platforms like Ethereum to blockchain as a service (BaaS) platforms or even proprietary implementation of private blockchains like IBM’s Hyperledger, the blockchain technology ecosystem seems to be exploding. However, for the most part, blockchain technologies still need to capture the hearts and minds of mainstream software developers. In order to address that challenge, the industry needs a blockchain app development platforms that includes some of the fundamental building blocks of modern software applications. What are the key capabilities that should be included in such a platform? Let’s explore a few ideas.

5 Main Building Blocks of a Blockchain App Development Platform

App Development Frameworks

A blockchain platform should abstract the implementation of some of the main types of software applications like mobile, web, background services, etc. Providing a simple model to build those types of applications will lower the entry point for mainstream developers venturing into the blockchain world.

Middleware

Middleware capabilities have been an important element of application development technologies for the last two decades. similarly, blockchain applications will require traditional middleware patterns such as message passing, pub0-sub communication or even integration with line of business systems. Technologies such as Microsoft’s Project Bletchey are already starting to implement these patterns.

Analytics

Monitoring and analyzing the runtime behavior of applications is another important capability of the next generation of blokchain platforms. The decentralized nature of the blockchain drastically increases the complexity related to efficiently monitoring and tracking analytics of blockchain solutions. As a result, analytics is becoming an essential element of the value proposition of the new group of blockchain platforms.

ALM

Simplifying the lifecycle management of blockchain applications is another relevant aspect of these type of platforms.
Application deployment, testing, monitoring, packaging are some of the ALM capabilities that should be an important element of the next generation of blockchain platforms.

Integration with Mainstream Technologies

Blockchain technologies are likely to be a component and not the entire backed of software applications. As a result, blockchain platforms can benefit from the interoperability with mainstream technologies such as line of business systems, databases, popular deployment frameworks, cloud infrastructures and other components of modern software applications.