Blockchain technology has not yet become widely accepted. However, promising approaches for its use are now available in numerous industries. Therefore, companies do not need to develop their own infrastructure in order to experiment with the Blockchain.
The application possibilities of the Blockchain are very versatile. In insurance companies as well as in ticketing, supply chain management, and digital rights management, new application scenarios are opening up, such as “smart contracts,” certificates of authenticity or even proof of the origin of products.
In more general terms, the use of the Blockchain seems to make sense if the solution to the problem consists in the documentation of transactions that validates itself and uses a peer-to-peer network.
With “Smart Contracts”, an action automatically triggers another action, which in turn triggers further actions until all individual steps in the contract have been completed in a traceable manner. Meanwhile, manipulations are not possible, because otherwise the chain of transactions would be interrupted.
The creation of a separate Blockchain is not trivial, however. Companies are likely to shy away from the effort if it is only a matter of developing potential application scenarios for their own company. This is where the use of a Blockchain, which is offered online as a service, comes in handy.
By now, a number of companies have jumped on the bandwagon of Blockchain as a Service (BaaS), including well-known IT industry giants such as Microsoft with Blockchain in Azure, Amazon with Blockchain in AWS and Oracle with the Oracle Blockchain Cloud Service.
A BaaS solution offers the same benefits as other cloud services. Companies save the costs on their own software or on the purchase of their own hardware. In addition, the expense of setting up the Blockchain for the first time is saved, as this has already been done by the cloud providers. Thus, customers are relieved of the biggest hurdles for getting started. Companies can first experiment with the new technology before making a business policy decision for the sustainable use of the Blockchain.
Two further advantages of such offers become apparent when working directly with the service. Most BaaS offerings have tools that allow virtual computers, storage, containers, identities and other components to be booked clearly and independently. You only pay for what you actually use. Single-step configuration makes the setup less complex.
In addition, the configuration is supported by software assistants. Users should focus on which business process they want to map, but do not have to worry about the technical details. Templates aim in the same direction, as they are offered by Amazon's AWS, among others. These provide ready-made functions which users can then adapt to their processes and needs.
Blockchain as a Service is therefore interesting for all companies that want to use the technology to evaluate whether the processes and problems can be solved with it. Since the Blockchain is an innovation in most companies, the BaaS approach also plays a role in spreading the Blockchain.