Blockchain is a revolutionary piece of technology that allows businesses to store and manage their information online. It’s no wonder that many businesses are trying to get into this new wave. At the same time, they face many hurdles because they don’t have the required knowledge and expertise. Businesses then have to result to BaaS platforms who provide one-click development services.
One such platform is Arcblock whose ICO was concluded earlier this month. Read on to learn how the Arcblock platform could errand a new blockchain era.
Arcblock ICO Overview.
Arcblock ICO will fund the development of a computing platform that allows for easier and faster development and deployment of blockchain apps. Rather than being a blockchain technology, they provide libraries and frameworks for app development.
The platform is designed to run natively in the cloud. It will initially be built on top of AWS and Windows Azure before expanding into other major cloud computing players. This allows businesses to set up their own secure nodes on cloud servers.
They provide a marketplace where the community are incentivized to contribute reusable software components, computing resources, and ready to deploy apps.
Another feature they introduce is the open chain access protocol which enables apps to run on different blockchains. This protocol also allows the dapps to use features of different blockchains altogether at the same time.
Then, they have a third innovation called the blocklet which allows the dapps to run on any platform or language whether it’s a desktop or mobile device. Blocklet components are prebuilt and can be incorporated into applications to get up and running fast.
The Arcblock platform runs on top of its own native token system which is driven the latest blockchain technology. Their new algorithm selects a small group of nodes to be in charge of the next block and then receive the next reward.
Arc tokens serve these functions;
- They are paid on a monthly basis by developers. End users don’t need to pay any transaction fees.
- They are staked by developers when providing mission critical services.
- They are used to incentivize the community to provide computing resources.
Market.
Arcblock looks like a BAAS platform. Such platforms offers businesses a way to test blockchain by offering single-click cloud based developer environments. They usually set up blockchain connected nodes for businesses and take care of the backend. This allows businesses to benefit from blockchain without really having to deal with it or deploy it in-house.
This is a particularly lucrative market for various reasons;
- The setup and development of blockchain environment involves major development and infrastructure challenges.
- Blockchains require staff to maintain.
- There is a steep learning curve for businesses.
- Users can leverage the experience of BAAS providers for greater security of their dapps or blockchains.
- BAAS platforms provide an on-demand payment model meaning that businesses don’t have to leave idle resources lying idle.
There are several similar products in this market which we will discuss below:
Offers simple and affordable end-to-end solutions for development, testing, and deployment of native C# blockchain applications on the .Net framework:
- Development- Stratus helps businesses in defining blockchain strategy and integrating its solutions and capabilities according to business requirements.
- Testing- Allows developers to quickly provision full blockchain nodes to test their apps. Developers can also provision Bitcoin, Ethereum and Bitshares nodes.
- Deployment-Businesses can deploy blockchain based apps in the cloud without having to maintain the network themselves.
Other features include: side chains built off Bitcoin without bloat; consultancy services; allows one click provisioning of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitshares and Waves nodes; master nodes; Microsoft connections; POS; private chains can be accessed by APIs hence standalone apps can be developed; fiat gateway.
Stratus tokens will be used to pay for Cloud Stratus server hosting, they will be used to fund the creation of side chains, they will be used to pay fees for transactions on the main chain, and they will be used to stake in order to earn staking rewards.
2. Ardor.
Child chains responsible for operational transactions with their security guaranteed by the main Ardor chain; All NXT features+; Blockchain API; Child chains are still validated by all nodes on the network and can be pruned at a scheduled time to reduce bloat on the main chain.
Multiple child chain transactions are bundled together as a single ChildChainBlock transaction on the parent chain. Bundlers pay the transaction fees in ARDR and receive the transaction fees in the child chain coin.
How does Arcblock compare with these two offerings? Here are some differences:
- Arcblock offers many languages.
- Arcblock might have a fairer coin distribution.
- Arcblock’s main chain runs on the cloud.
- Arcblock allows users to use fee-less apps because the developers pay their transaction fees.
Comparing the three offerings we went with Arcblock because they have better features.
Partnerships.
Arcblock have partnered with Kcash which is a safe and convenient digital wallet for blockchain assets.
MVP.
Arcblock is quite developed and according to their roadmap, they should have already completed a prototype for the first end-to-end application built on top of ArcBlock. The app will be launched in Q2 2018.
Conclusion.
Arcblock could be worth investing in because they are introducing new technology in the form of their completely independent cloud platform. This could be worth the gamble given that it could result in better user experiences for app users.
