The cryptocurrency market has experienced its share of ups and downs over the past year, but blockchain technology continues to see impressive growth as companies seek digital transformation.
Recently the findings From market research platform, MarketsandMarkets, estimated the size of the global blockchain market to be $7.4 billion in 2022. Although notable, the report states that the blockchain sector is expected to generate $94 billion in revenue by the end of 2027. If these results are Minute, this will result in a compound annual growth rate of 66% from 2022 to 2027.
Smashing ‘Ethereum for Business’
Specifically, many companies today are using the Ethereum blockchain to improve legacy business processes. Paul Brody, global blockchain lead at Ernst & Young (EY), told Cointelegraph that he believes the Ethereum network will drive the largest growth in the enterprise blockchain market in the future.
To highlight this, Brody recently posted Ethereum for business. According to Brody, this book intends to help non-technical C-level executives and corporate leaders understand how and why Ethereum applies to specific use cases.
To ease readers into the topic, Brody begins the first part of the book by explaining how Ethereum works using relatable language. “There are three basic concepts that are useful to understand — distributed ledger, programmable ledger, and consensus algorithm,” he writes. Brody then explains that every “financial system has a ledger,” but notes that the difference between centralized, traditional systems, and Ethereum is that “the Ethereum ledger is public and distributed to all participants.”
The first chapter also explains the terminology associated with blockchain networks. “Collections of transactions are known as “blocks,” Brody writes. He ends the chapter by noting that the Ethereum network is often attractive to business users because it offers “the convenience of an integrated digital business” without a central market operator.
Before diving into specific use cases, Brody spends the next few chapters of the book detailing terms like wallets, tokens, and smart contracts. For example, he wrote in chapter four:
“In Ethereum, both money and objects can be represented as tokens, while the terms of exchange between two parties can be obtained in a smart contract.”
Brody adds that everything of value is stored in a wallet when using the Ethereum blockchain: “Wallets are just a name for a digital account where you store your keys, access rights to your contacts, and the assets you control through those keys.”
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Chapter Five focuses on Oracle. As Brody mentions, “enterprise transactions will require extensive use of oracles” since external data sources will be needed to complete smart contracts for business purposes.
The information presented at the beginning of Brody’s book is very helpful for readers who may be new to the blockchain sector. The following chapters focus on concepts such as privacy, which is a critical consideration for organizations that benefit from blockchain.
In Chapter 6, Brody writes, “Although institutions require privacy, blockchains do not provide privacy by default.” In light of this, Brody focuses this section on privacy applications that can be applied to support enterprise transactions. Although Brody states at the beginning of the book that the reading is not intended to promote EY’s blockchain work, he does detail how Nightfall and Starlight — two privacy mechanisms created by EY — are used by companies to ensure private blockchain transactions.
Real-world enterprise Ethereum use cases
The second part of Brody’s book focuses on use cases and case studies. This section is perhaps the most interesting because it explains why technology can be beneficial to business operations.
Tokenization is discussed extensively in the second section, with Brody writing that it is “the most important thing organizations can do in the blockchain space.” He adds that tokenization is often the first decision companies that use blockchain make because it can be used to digitize assets that can be easily tracked and managed.
Although Brody explains the difference between ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens, he confirms that the ERC-1155 standard is gaining traction among companies due to its combination of fungible and non-perishable characteristics. Brody shares that a client of EY in the pharmaceutical industry is currently using ERC-1155 tokens to track packages of serial medicines. “Using the 1155 standard, this company can mint large amounts of tokens and transfer them in large batches to distributors and others,” he writes.
Brody continues to share real-world examples of how EY customers have implemented the Ethereum blockchain. For example, he explains how Italian beer producer Peroni uses blockchain for tracking, allowing consumers to scan a QR code to understand how beer is produced.
“Those looking at Peroni’s beer non-fungible token (NFT) on the Polygon PoS chain (Ethereum side chain), will be able to see the token of the last batch of Peroni as well as the input tokens from the malt house and farms,” Brody writes.
In addition to these use cases, Brody details how blockchain helps with supply chain management, contract management, carbon footprint tracking, payments, and more. In this section, he asserts that “Blockchain will do for business ecosystems what Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has done within an organization.”
“Ethereum for Business” is educational, but the blockchain is vast
while Ethereum for business Providing an in-depth and clear view of the Ethereum Foundation, readers should remember that the blockchain ecosystem is vast. There are a number of different blockchain networks that companies can use other than Ethereum.
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However, it is worth noting that Brody’s new book provides an in-depth overview of the Ethereum ecosystem, breaking down key concepts while providing real-world use cases. This is very important, as education about blockchain technology is still needed to drive mainstream adoption.