Commercializing Blockchain: Strategic Applications in the Real World, July 2019, reviewed

By @SimonCocking, latest Blockchain book review, this time of Commercializing Blockchain: Strategic Applications in the Real World, July 2019 by Antony Welfare. Available from Wiley here. See more Irish Tech News book reviews here.

The accessible, non-technical guide to applying and benefiting from blockchain technology.

Blockchain has grown at an enormous rate in a very short period of time. In a business context, blockchain can level the playing field between small and large organisations in several ways: Exact copies of the immutable, time-stamped data is held by all parties, all transactions can be viewed in real time, data blocks are cryptographically linked, all raw materials are traceable and smart contracts ensure no middle-men, ease of audit and reduced friction.

The trust, transparency, security, quality and reduced costs of blockchain make it a game-changing technology that crosses sectors, industries and borders with ease. Even though the technologies are ready for adoption, businesses remain largely unaware of their full potential and effective implementation. End users require accurate and up-to-date information on the practical applications of blockchain — Commercializing Blockchain provides it.

A practical and easy-to-understand guide to blockchain, this timely book illustrates how this revolutionary technology can be used to transform governments, businesses, enterprises and entire communities. The author draws from his experience with global retailers, global technology companies, UCL Centre for Blockchain technologies, the government of the UK, Retail Blockchain Consortium and many other sources to present real-world case studies on the use and benefits of blockchain.

Topics include financial transactions, tokenisation, identity management, supply chain transparency, global shipping and freight, counterfeiting and more. Provides practical guidance for blockchain transactions in business operations

• Provides practical guidance for blockchain transactions in business operations
• Demonstrates how blockchain can add value and bring increased efficiency to commercial operations
• Covers all of the essential components of blockchain such as traceability, provenance, certification and authentication
• Requires no technical expertise to embrace blockchain strategies

Commercializing Blockchain: Strategic Applications in the Real World is ideal for enterprises seeking to develop and deploy blockchain technology, particularly in areas retail, supply chain and consumer goods.

Commercializing Blockchain: Strategic Applications in the Real World, reviewed

It does seem like we are emerging out of the valley of disillusionment in terms of blockchain and it’s location in the Gartner Hype Curve. This is the second on three blockchain books that have crossed our desks in the last two weeks alone. Fortunately for Antony Welfare, the author of this book, he has decided to leverage the wisdom of both his own experiences and an interesting and diverse range of contributors too.

This has helped him to achieve a successful result with this book. These contributors range from UK MPs (if they have any time left for anything but Brexit at the moment) to academics and developers deeply involved in innovative developments such as the Hyper Ledger blockchain initiative. This ensures that insights and opinions are delivered from a position of informed authority and relevant experiences.

The book follows a logical series of chapters, looking at what sectors could benefit from blockchain technologies. There is also a good application of common sense too, and Welfare made us chuckle too with his comment that blockchain is NOT a verb. IE that ‘we can blockchain it’ is not an acceptable usage of the word. Best practices are covered, and the all important discussion of how / where / if / when it can be commercialised (sorry, but we’d still rather retain our English / Irish / European usage of the word).

It is  timely book, and one that should manage to keep its head above the crowd in terms of relevance and value for the reader.

Very interesting to see that Delloite is testing the payment of their #workforce in #bitcoin

Would you like to be paid in Bitcoin?

Anthony Day @SacredLion @walidalsaqqaf @activatebrands Victoria Thompson https://t.co/R7LUOqeyuY

— Antony Welfare (@AntonyWelfare) September 18, 2019

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