BITCOIN sign on a bank
Bitcoin is the most popular digital asset in the institutional trading world as it has the best trading options available, both spot and derivatives, proven track record with the longest history and availability of data. This made some of the largest financial services institutions highly interested and in 2019 we saw the birth of several bitcoin products like Bakkts physically delivered bitcoin futures, Fidelity Digital Assets bitcoin custody solution and TD Ameritrades trading offerings.
But is it also the case for the large enterprises looking at blockchain as technology and wanting to innovate using easier payments over fast and secure transaction networks and processes built around smart contracts? Can they use the bitcoin blockchain as a foundation and place their middleware stack and end-user decentralized Web 3 and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on top?
So far the majority of enterprise-focused blockchain development has been done on permissioned and private blockchain protocols like Hyperledger Fabric and R3s Corda. This is mostly due to the fact that they offer sufficient privacy, scalability and transaction finality guarantees. Compared to them, development on top of the bitcoin blockchain was not seriously considered until recently when in May, Microsoft announced their permissionless, Decentralized Identifier (DID) network called ION running exclusively on top of the bitcoin blockchain. That triggered a shift in the sentiment that developers and enterprises should also consider bitcoin as a potential layer for enterprise blockchain development. For example, companies like Bitfury are already making significant progress with enterprise-tailored blockchain offerings like blockchain as a service (BaaS) using bitcoin as a base layer.
Lets review how bitcoin stacks up as an enterprise-ready development platform. According to a recent Ernst & Young study among decision makers across the U.S., Europe and Asia, the major reasons to consider blockchain in general are:
Preservation of data integrity In this area bitcoin is the absolute winner as the most trusted and secure public blockchain. The bitcoin blockchain is currently secured by 97 quintillion hashes per second, or EH/s. Data integrity is priority number one for the maintainers of the bitcoin blockchain and they are very restrictive about any new feature that can introduce security bugs and potentially compromise the integrity of the protocol. The accuracy and consistency of the data can be easily observed and analyzed by simple blockchain explorers as well as by using surveillance tools like Elliptic, Elementus and Chainalysis.
Bitcoin hashrate
Ability to build new revenue/business models Bitcoin currently has a $128 billion liquid market cap so building new models on top of it can unlock new significant revenue channels. Furthermore, the increased adoption of Layer 2 technology like the Lightning Network, which operate via channels and enable cheap and fast payments, will enable new business processes and ways to revenue.
Increased operational efficiency Since 2010, when certain opcodes were taken out of the core protocol, smart contracts were considered taboo in bitcoin. Lately, with the development of Blockstreams Liquid and the new RSK framework, Schnorr signatures and Taproot will make smart contractslike executions possible via sidechains.
RSK stack
Reduced costs The existence of the Lightning Network as a Layer 2 protocol on top of the bitcoin blockchain already enables cheap, private and instant transactions and payments. Of course, there are certain limitations as of now but they can be manually changed or improved in future iterations of the network.
Increased transparency This is natively supported and enforced in the bitcoin blockchain, contrary to other public protocols that incorporated privacy features like MimbleWimble, Confidential transactions, STARKs and ZK-snarks. The bitcoin core developers stayed away from such features as they can make bitcoins monetary supply of 21 million difficult to audit and verify.
Development on top of the bitcoin blockchain might be one of the major catalysts in the upcoming year. In contrast to the rest of the public chains, bitcoin is having the first-mover advantage and doesnt suffer from the same growing-pain issues as Ethereum and EOS. Overall, the security concerns most enterprise CIOs and CTOs will have with public chains are mitigated in the Layer 2/Sidechains areas. Moreover, one of the main blockchain concerns, the interoperability between networks and especially between bitcoin and others, can be explored via several ways: Keeps tBTC or an Interledger Protocol (ILP) bridge.
Bitcoin has many strong characteristics as it is the most stable and sufficiently decentralized public blockchain now. There are many teams working on a wide range of products and services on top of it, from Layer 2 to privacy, sidechains and smart contracts.
Innovations in bitcoin
Of course, a lot more will be required from bitcoin for it to become the dominant enterprise development stack. We still need to see a greater availability of development tools and IDE environments; Lightning Network should mature as a viable scaling solution and increase its adoption and usability. Soon, we will see if bitcoin can be a base layer for DeFi and match the growth Ethereum and EOS have seen. The timing cannot be better as the uncertainty around the other public chains is growing and we might see the decline of Ethereum as the dominant Web 3 platform. Regardless if that move is welcomed by the die-hard libertarians on the bitcoin platform, the companies that are building and investing on the protocol are open for enterprise customers and eventually, bitcoin will prove to its critics that its not only used for illegal activities and speculative trading.
See the article here:
Will 2020 Be The Year Of Enterprise Bitcoin? - Forbes
- Google removes malware Android apps used to secretly mine bitcoin - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Bitcoin exchange MtGox liquidated - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Wannabe Litecoin Emerges as Low-Price Challenger - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- The Worlds First Bitcoin Debit Card Is Almost Here - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- How does Bitcoin work? - Bitcoin - Open source P2P money - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Bitcoin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- The Bitcoin Group #27 - China Bans Bitcoin Again - Politics - Dark Market - Bitcoin VC - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Edan Yago - Free Market Bitcoin regulation and Honduras free trade zones.mp4 - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Bitcoin vs. Political Power: The Cryptocurrency Revolution - Stefan Molyneux at TNW Conference - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Video: Roundup of This Week's Bitcoin News 25th April 2014 - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Fredagsbar med Torben Mark Pedersen - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Bitcoin and the Internet of Money - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Bitcoin for Dummies - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Bitcoin runner-up Litecoin emerges as low-price challenger - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- Bitcoin or Gold? Squawk Walk Taipei- Squawkonomics - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Miner AntMiner S1 180 - 200 GH/s Nu in de Aanbieding! - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- New Bitcoin Documentary: Boom or Bust - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- Bitcoin May v0.9.1 GitHub Source Code Development Visualization - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- Atomic-Trade Bitcoin Exchange. AML, BSA, FinCEN compliant - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- China Bans Bitcoin Again -- Bitcoin the Movie -- Startup for Startups Raises 2,000 BTC - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- 4/24/14 - Xapo Debit Card, Russia's 1st Bitcoin Conference, Silk Road 2.0 - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- What is Bitcoin? - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- David Andolfatto, How Does Bitcoin Work? - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- Australian Bitcoin traders hit by crash - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- Bitcoin traders hit by Mt.Gox crash - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- Market Extra: Bitcoin venture capital money hasnt kept up with buzz - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- Bitcoin price slips as China steps up regulation - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- Bitcoin price slips on China regulation - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- Win .33 Bitcoin ($150 or so, Depending on BTC value) - Meme game for May 1st - Take My Bitcoins - Video - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- Ron Paul on Bitcoin - Video - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- btc.sx Bitcoin derivatives platform George Samman clip - Video - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- 'The Rise And Rise Of Bitcoin' Filmmaker: 'There Is No Answer Yet' - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- Bitcoin the movie: It just had to happen - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Vies with New Cryptocurrencies as Coin of the Cyber Realm - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- The Bitcoin Meetup - BitcoinMKE Hosts Jeffrey Tucker - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- MIT Bitcoin Expo 2014 - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Expo 2014: Fireside Chat with Dr Gavin Wood - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- Rise Bitcoin Singapore - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- Preview: Bitcoin Authenticator - 2FA for wallets - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- The Bitcoin Group #27 (Live) - China Bans Bitcoin Again - Politics - Dark Market - Bitcoin VC - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- 4/25/14 - More China uncertainty, Missourian bitcoin warning, BadLepricon malware - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- Money & Tech at The Rise And Rise Of Bitcoin Afterparty - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- New Bitcoin student club at MIT will promote the virtual currency - April 30th, 2014 [April 30th, 2014]
- 4/29/14 - MIT Bitcoin Project, Mt Gox revival plan, Mastercard lobbyists & Team Rubicon - Video - April 30th, 2014 [April 30th, 2014]
- BitCoin Dentist GoCoin Fox News Interview - Video - April 30th, 2014 [April 30th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Foundation Election Hiccups -- Pathetic Ohio Bans Bitcoins -- Dogecon SF 2014 - Video - April 30th, 2014 [April 30th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Slips to $420 as BTC China Halts Transactions - Video - April 30th, 2014 [April 30th, 2014]
- MultiSig Plus BitCoin Multi Coin Wallet looks like HUGE INVESTMENT potential! - Video - April 30th, 2014 [April 30th, 2014]
- Bitcoin: what happens when the miners pack up their gear? - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Dark Wallet Is About to Make Bitcoin Money Laundering Easier Than Ever - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Bitcoin Talk Show #7 -- Skype BitcoinTalkShow to Call in Live! 🙂 - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Basic Bitcoin Bitches - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Gold standard vs Fiat vs Bitcoin - Truthloader - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- How to Defund the System: Bitcoin vs. the Central Banksters - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Bitcoin, Anarchy and Freedom with Roger Ver - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- MIT Goes Bitcoin-Wild - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Bitcoin Weekly 2014 April 30: Bloomberg adds Bitcoin to their market index, MIT to produce campus-wide bitcoin ... - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- 'Dark Wallet' wants to make Bitcoin even harder to trace - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Bitcoin made simple (video animation) - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Jon Matonis: Bitcoin - The future of commerce? - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- $100 in Bitcoin Going to Every MIT Undergrad - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- The Rise of Digital Currency - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Money Goes Virtual: The Bitcoin Bourse - Video - May 2nd, 2014 [May 2nd, 2014]
- Bitcoin Lights with LIFX - Video - May 2nd, 2014 [May 2nd, 2014]
- Bitcoin: How We Got Here and Where We Are Going - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- 5/1/14 - Larry Summers warns critics, Paym system & Bitcoin Center NYC roundtable - Video - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- On est Connect S2 #07 1/2 : BitCoin et Musique sur Internet - Video - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- MIT Undergrads To Receive $100 Worth Of Bitcoin This Fall - Video - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- Why it only took ME less than 2 minutes to believe in Bitcoin - Video - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- Bitcoin Basics and Regulation Thoughts from NH Liberty Forum - Bruce Fenton - Video - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- PRIMER CAJERO DE BITCOIN EN BIT CENTER DE TIJUANA - Video - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- Yelp adds Bitcoin acceptance to business listings - Video - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- Bitcoin A Terrorist Threat? Counterterrorism Program Names Virtual Currencies As Area Of Interest - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- How Does Bitcoin Works - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- 10 Things You Didn't Know About BitCoin - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- BITCOIN The Future of Money - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Miner Review - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- The Bitcoin Group #28 (Live) - Yelp Lists Bitcoin - MIT Bitcoin $100 - Dark Wallet - Ohio Bans BTC - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- Bitcoin: Gary North is Mentally Deranged And Bitcoin Will Change Everything - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- Who is the Bitcoin Warlord? - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]