between all your criteria – for example, 1 = low, 2 = medium, and 3 = high priority.
6. Add up the numbers for each objective and divide by the number of team members for a composite team weight.
7. Make any needed adjustment to weights to make sure each criteria are weighted correctly.
Congratulations! You now have a ranked list of criteria you need to meet to be successful with your blockchain project.
Defining your goal
You can easily get lost building a blockchain project that doesn’t have a clear goal or purpose. Take the time to understand where you and your team would like to go and what the final objective is. For example, a goal might be to trade an asset with a partner company with no intermediary. This is a big goal with many stakeholders.
Build back to a small project that is a minimal viable use case for the technology that clearly articulates added value or savings for your company. Along the same lines as the earlier example, a smaller goal would be to build a private network that can exchange value between trusted parties.
Then build on that value. The next win might be building an instrument that is tradable on your new platform. Each step should demonstrate a small win and value created.
There are three core types of blockchains: public networks like Bitcoin, permissioned networks such as Ripple, and private ones like Hijro.
Blockchains do a few straightforward things:
❯❯ They move value and trade value quickly and at a very low cost.
❯❯ They create nearly permanent data histories.
Blockchain technology also allows for a few less-straightforward solutions such as the ability to prove that you have a “thing” without revealing it to the other party. It is also possible to “prove the negative,” or prove what is missing within a dataset or system. This feature is particularly useful for auditing and proving compliance.
Table 2-1 lists common uses cases that are suited for each type of blockchain.
TABLE 2-1 Table Head
There may be exceptions depending on your project, and it is possible to use a different type of blockchain to reach your goal. But in general, here is how to break down different types of networks and understand their strengths and weaknesses:
❯❯ Public networks are large and decentralized, anyone can participate within them at any level – this includes things like running a full node, mining cryptocurrency, trading tokens, or publishing entries. They tend to be more secure and immutable then private or permissioned networks. They’re often slower and more expensive to use. They’re are secured with a cryptocurrency and have limited storage capacity.
❯❯ Permissioned networks are viewable to the public, but participation is controlled. Many of them utilize a cryptocurrency, but they can have a lower cost for applications that are built on top of them. This feature makes it easier to scale project and increase transaction volume. Permissioned networks can be very fast with low latency and have higher storage capacity over public networks.
❯❯ Private networks are shared between trusted parties and may not be viewable to the public. They’re very fast and may have no latency. They also have a low cost to run and can be built in an industrious weekend. Most private networks do not utilize a cryptocurrency and do not have the same immutability and security of decentralized networks. Storage capacity may be unlimited.
There are also hybrids between these three core types of blockchains that seek to find the right balance of security, auditability, scalability, and data storage for applications built on top of them.
Drawing a blockchain decision tree
Some of the decisions you face while working on a blockchain project within your organization can be difficult and challenging. It pays to take time making decisions that involve
❯❯ Uncertainty: Many of the facts around blockchain technology may be unknown and untested.
❯❯ Complexity: Blockchains have many interrelated factors to consider.
❯❯ High-risk consequences: The impact of the decision may be significant to your organization.
❯❯ Alternatives: There may be alternative technologies and types of blockchains, each with its own set of uncertainties and consequences.
❯❯ Interpersonal issues: You need to understand how blockchain technology could affect different people within your organization.
A decision tree is a useful support tool that will help you uncover consequences, event outcomes, resource costs, and utility of developing a blockchain project.
You can draw decision trees on paper or use a computer application. Here are the steps to create one for uncovering other challenges around your project:
1. Get a large sheet of paper.
2. Draw a square on the left side of the paper.
3. Write a description of the core goal and criteria for your project in that square.
4. Draw lines to the right of the square for each issue.
5. Write a description of each issue along each line.
6. Brainstorm solutions for each issue.
7. Write a description of each solution along each line.
8. Continue this process until you’ve explored each issue and discovered a possible solution for each.
Have teammates challenge and review all your issues and solutions before finalizing it.
Making a plan
At this point, you should have a clear understanding of your goals, obstacles, and what blockchain options you have available.
Here’s a simple road map for building your project:
1. Explain the project to key stakeholders and discuss its key components and foreseen outcomes.
2. Write up a project plan.
This is a living set of documents that will change over the life of your project.
