Challenges and Potential of Blockchain Technology

The blockchain is one of the most talked technology with lots of confusions as well. In the beginning, most of the people were confused with the relation of blockchain with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. But it’s not limited to that extent only.

In an interaction with Vaibhav Gawde, Head-Solution Consulting, Oracle India, we tried to understand the blockchain technology, its challenges and potential in India.

What is the potential of Blockchain Technology in India?

Blockchain can be a game changer for India - not just for the corporate sector, but even the public sector - for example providing better citizen services such as land record management. It has the potential to fundamentally transform the way we do business and live our lives. On the business front, the distributed ledger technology that defines a blockchain, makes every single transaction transparent and open-ended, keeping in the loop all the parties involved, thus creating a safe and secure environment for organizations to undertake transactions.

What are the key drivers and challenges?

Vaibhav Gawde, Head-Solution Consulting, Oracle India

The pace of digital transformation, the need to continuously establish/repose trust in transactions in a multi-party ecosystem for complete transparency - especially in the wake of rising frauds - and the increasing need to safeguard critical data (regulatory as well as business competency factors) are some of the key drivers necessitating blockchain adoption in India.

With blockchain, technology is the easiest part - it’s already available today, to all, along with the much needed, reasonably stable network infrastructure in our country. What’s important is building the ecosystem and possible consortiums. For blockchain adoption to be successful, it’s important to align all stakeholders to a common objective. Once blockchain adoption increases, there’ll be common standards and processes, which in turn will lead to a multiplier effect.

Which industry segments do you see as early adopters?

Though the BFSI industry has been an early adopter, we’re now seeing organizations in many other sectors experimenting with blockchain - manufacturing, energy, oil & gas, pharma, amongst others. Customers here in India have shown encouraging responses. We’re seeing blockchain projects quickly moving from pilot to production as enterprises and various government entities begin to see the inherent value of distributed ledgers and smart contracts.

For instance, retailers are using blockchain to increase supply chain efficiencies, reduce counterfeit goods and improve warranty management. Logistics players are leveraging blockchain to streamline supply chain finance, better track and trace ownership transfer and for compliance monitoring. In the energy industry, companies are piloting blockchain solutions for more effective asset management, certification of renewable energy and emission allowances as well as metering and billing.

What’s the USP of your blockchain solution?

With the industry’s most comprehensive, enterprise-grade blockchain platform, Oracle offers businesses a faster, easier way to adopt blockchain and transform their enterprise. With the Oracle Blockchain Platform, organizations can now securely extend their business processes and applications, enabling much faster processing of business transactions. Our platform is built on the open source Hyperledger Fabric and is offered to customers as an enterprise-grade, preassembled, managed service. With plug-and-play integration capabilities as well as automated operations, combined with our deep-domain experience, we offer an unmatched proposition to customers.

At Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco a few days back, we launched Oracle Blockchain Applications Cloud - these are a new suite of use-case-specific SaaS applications that enhance traceability and transparency throughout the supply chain. These blockchain applications include: Intelligent Track and Trace, Lot Lineage and Provenance, Intelligent Cold Chain and Warranty Usage and Tracking.

Can you share some examples of how your customers are benefiting from blockchain?

Indian Oil is running a pilot with us to streamline their bank guarantee process. Given the sheer number of vendors they work with and the volume of transactions involved, blockchain can prove to be a game changer for Indian Oil to accelerate business processes and achieve increased operational efficiencies.

We also recently tied up with NITI Aayog, India’s premier policy think-tank as well as Apollo Hospitals and Strides Pharma for a pilot that aims to end India’s fight against counterfeit drugs and bring complete transparency in the drug supply chain.

We are working with a few state governments on possible usage of Blockchain for various use cases, including verification of

Citizen ID for subsidies, efficient property registration / excise supply chain systems and the like.

We are also working with a few leading telecom players to explore the possibility of using blockchain to build an effective solution against unsolicited messages/calls.

With the inherent nature of blockchain technology, it’s possible for many different use cases to be explored for any vertical/segment which will benefit from transparent distributed ledgers.