While the last couple of months have brought the blockchain network massive growth, some techies believe that bitcoin’s underlying technology is not yet ready for mainstream development. In this article, we will talk about some of the main reasons why it would be best to wait a bit more prior to fully adopting distributed ledger technology.
The main issue is related to the risk that the technology poses to businesses. With this in mind, some of the main ones include:
1. Anonymity issues
The blockchain is very well known for its ability to guarantee secure transactions by making it impossible for changes to be made to records once they are published. However, the blockchain can create massive exposure for the businesses in question, as transactions are made up of clear text, which, even if encrypted, can put the company’s information at risk.
2. Permissions and Access Rights
When using the blockchain, businesses may often wonder how many keys have to be set, and how permissions can be managed; how trust can be revoked; which consensus algorithm is used; whether the storage is on or off the chain and more.
Due to the lack of available settings and development skills, managing all these aspects may prove difficult, unless changes are made to the core code of the technology.
3. Storage Issues
Currently, blockchain-based businesses have the possibility to choose whether they would like to keep records on or off the chain. There are both advantages and disadvantages. Keeping some of the records off the chain, in a parallel blockchain increases security, yet it can cause latency issues.
4. Agreements to common standards
As a platform where transactions are carried out by multiple businesses, common standards need to be applied and respected. With this in mind, businesses may face a collaboration challenges that can end up in disagreements. If businesses start going berserk and begin wreaking havoc, then most businesses may choose to shy away from the technology.
5. Key Management and Mistakes
As the blockchain functions on a principle of write-and-publish-forever, this makes it vulnerable to human mistake. Therefore, fraudulent transactions can go onto the chain, or people can make serious mistakes. While the blockchain can help detect these issues, it cannot prevent them.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, there are clearly still issues that make the blockchain an unlikely candidate for mass adoption at this moment. Yet, as the technology continues to evolve, these problems will hopefully end up being fixed, thus creating the right environment for companies to secure their databases, increase their security and keep track of all transactions.