How to Develop a Blockchain Solution

Blockchain Development: Essence

Blockchain solution development is aimed at building software that will function within the blockchain platform, hence guaranteeing immutability and traceability of data. Blockchain software can introduce decentralization, workflow automation, and enhanced security to various businesses and enterprises.

Blockchain Development Guide Highlights

• Development plan: Feasibility study, solution conceptualization (choosing an architecture type, a consensus mechanism, a blockchain platform), development and QA, solution deployment and integration.
• Project roles: Business consultant, blockchain architect, project manager, blockchain developer, back-end developer, UX/UI designer, front-end developer, DevOps expert, QA engineer.
• Sourcing models: In-house, team augmentation, partial outsourcing, full outsourcing.
• Costs: Depending on transaction costs and other factors.

With more than 3,600 successfully completed software development initiatives and a dedicated blockchain team on board, ScienceSoft designs strategies for blockchain development projects and undertakes their implementation.

Types of Blockchain Solutions

Visit ScienceSoft's dedicated pages to learn about the capabilities, benefits, and cost factors of blockchain-based solutions.

Blockchain networks

Secure and scalable permission-based or permissionless decentralized ecosystems with minimized downtime.

Blockchain-based transaction platforms

Peer-to-peer platforms with no single point of failure for transparent, fast, and safe multi-party transactions.

Blockchain-based assets

Programmable crypto assets built on blockchain that may represent a digital form of money, tradeable assets, utilities, governance rights, and more.

Blockchain Development Process

Below are the typical blockchain development steps ScienceSoft takes when developing blockchain solutions for our customers.

Step 1. Feasibility study

ScienceSoft usually starts each blockchain development project by analyzing a customer’s specific needs and expectations. Quite often, we help clients understand whether a blockchain solution is viable and worth their investment. Depending on the industry you come from, we may ask some of these questions:

• Do you have cross-company workflows that require automated accountability?
• Does your company deal with continuous supply of assets?
• Do you want to get a third-party/centralized authority out of your processes’ loop?
• Does your company deal with sensitive documentation or records shared between multiple organizations?

If any of these questions yields a confident ‘yes’, you would most likely benefit from a blockchain solution. ScienceSoft’s consultants proceed to discuss the business specifics with you and then perform in-depth research to compile a list of tangible benefits that the blockchain technology can bring to your business. Once the research is done, we present high-level costs breakdown and ROI calculations.

Step 2. Blockchain conceptualization

After making sure that you would benefit from a blockchain solution, ScienceSoft’s consultants start building a solid business case that describes high-level requirements to your blockchain solution and client web/mobile apps that will interact with it. Our experts also cooperate with tech teams to decide on how blockchain will be incorporated into your current business processes and/or IT systems.

Upon forming a high-level vision, ScienceSoft moves on to detailed project planning, which involves several important technical decisions.

Architecture type choice

There are 3 major blockchain types: public, private (permissioned), and hybrid. The key difference is in whether the data is stored and shared on an unlimited number of nodes or across a restricted network. In the hybrid blockchain, certain types of data are shared privately while other types of data are public.

The choice usually depends on your business case. After analyzing the requirements assembled by the consultants, ScienceSoft’s blockchain architects suggest possible architecture types and discuss the pros and cons of every option with the project stakeholders.

Choice of a consensus mechanism

Consensus mechanism is a model that defines which nodes have the right to validate new blocks in the chain and describes how validation conflicts are resolved. The most popular consensus mechanisms that ScienceSoft implements in its blockchain projects are Proof-of-Work, Proof-of-Stake, Byzantine Fault Tolerance, and Proof-of-Authority, as well as their modifications.

Blockchain platform choice

The final choice concerns the blockchain network to deploy the developed solution on. ScienceSoft provides both the development of a blockchain from scratch and hard/soft forking of an existing blockchain platform.

• From scratch – costlier and longer development that results in a unique blockchain network with its own cryptocurrency. We suggest this option to blockchain startups or fintech customers, who have their individual vision of a blockchain platform, which they want to make competitive.
• Forking – since all existing blockchain platforms are open-source, their codes are easily available and can be modified. Modifications (also called ‘forks’) are x1.5-2 faster to deliver and yield fully functioning blockchain networks with as many differences from and/or similarities with the original as you want. Forking lets you choose to create your own cryptocurrency but doesn’t require many investments in the conceptual and architectural decisions. This is a typical strategy of our non-fintech customers.

To decide what existing platform to fork, ScienceSoft’s blockchain architects discuss with you such factors as consensus mechanisms, smart contract support, and software development languages.

The choice of the platform wraps up the necessary technical decisions and allows an architect and a PM to work on delivering elaborate project documentation: architecture design, requirement specification, and the development project plan (including task description and schedule).

Step 3. Blockchain development and QA

Duration: from 2 months (depending on the scope)

Blockchain solution development usually covers implementation of blockchain software, an off-chain client application (web and/or mobile) for interacting with blockchain software, and back ends for hosting the two components.

When implementing blockchain projects, we make sure that quality assurance of each part of the solution is done in parallel with coding to eliminate logic vulnerabilities and errors as soon as possible. Our QA engineers diligently prepare tests to ensure deep and high coverage and choose the most suitable test network for rigorous post-development testing.

Step 4. Deployment and integration

Duration: 1-3 weeks

Once the blockchain solution passes testing on the test network, ScienceSoft’s team starts deploying it on the actual blockchain network. DevOps experts oversee containerization of blockchain components for deployment and perform integration between the blockchain and regular software infrastructure. Real network testing, which is run in the presence of a client, is the last stage before we perform other requested integrations (e.g., with enterprise software) and set the solution live.

Consider Blockchain Development with ScienceSoft

In software development since 1989, ScienceSoft offers professional consulting on and development of blockchain solutions for all industries and domains.

Why Choose ScienceSoft as a Blockchain Development Partner

• Since 2020 in enterprise blockchain development and cryptotech.
• Dedicated C++, Golang, Node.js, Java, Python, and JavaScript departments.
• Experience with leading blockchain frameworks: Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, Graphene.
• Excellence in Solidity development proven by ScienceSoft’s presence on the Top 10% European Solidity (Ethereum) Developers list by Aciety.
• Quality-first approach based on a mature ISO 9001-certified quality management system.
• Robust security management supported by an ISO 27001 certificate.

• For the second straight year, ScienceSoft USA Corporation is listed among The Americas’ Fastest-Growing Companies by the Financial Times.

Typical Roles in ScienceSoft’s Blockchain Projects

Sourcing Models of Blockchain Development

• All in-house – you task your in-house team with the blockchain solution implementation and bear all responsibility for the project’s success.
• Team augmentation – you hire and manage several blockchain experts to cover the skill gap in your in-house team or shorten time-to-market.
• Partial outsourcing – you outsource most processes, save for project management, and rely on a vendor’s experienced blockchain professionals.
• Full outsourcing – you outsource the entire blockchain development project to a vendor and receive a complete, well-tested solution in time and on budget.

Benefits of Blockchain Development Outsourcing to ScienceSoft

Costs of Blockchain Development

One of the key factors that affect the costs of blockchain software development is blockchain transaction costs:

Among other cost factors are:

• Blockchain network type (private, public, hybrid).
• Blockchain consensus mechanism type.
• Number and complexity of a solution's functional modules (dApps, smart contracts).
• Number and complexity of web/mobile applications for interaction with the blockchain solution.
• Number and complexity of potential integrations with software via custom APIs.
• The planned deliverable (PoC or a full-scale solution).