New p2p technologies are a fundamental and invisible base in the tip of the iceberg of Digital Platforms and of a comprehensive digital strategy
The blockchain technology as well as to have become a kind of mantra in fintech and government field is now attracting more and more in-depth interest for its possibile applications in businesses. The recent interest and involvement of IBM, for example, is a signal of this clear trend.
They have also a huge impact also on digital platforms, which are synonyms for the implementation of a comprehensive digital strategy for every company and every organization.
And they actually are a sort of “iceberg” in which what you see is only a minimal part of all the platform thing.
They can take different guise depending on the predisposition of various sectors and fields of supported application architecture, in adopting technology and services they provide.
For this reason a digital platform requires a complex structure, in order to enhance its usability and its features.
The creation of a digital platform may involve an extremely onerous and trivial investment for a company, especially if faced only with craft optics and tailor-made solutions.
It is therefore very convenient in terms of implementation times and costs to use a “motor” of engineered development for digital platforms. Enkronos has developed a highly sophisticated engine that allows the realization of complex digital platforms with the extremely competitive times and costs.
We see it on the base of our experience in the development of a large amount of very heterogeneous platforms. Application examples range in various types: mobile & web app, augmented reality app, solutions for management of customer loyalty and loyalty campaigns, solution for management of digital multichannel prize competitions, solutions for configuring systems, creation, storage and distribution of digital passes, ticketing, couponing, e-commerce and delivery, platforms for e-voting and e-democracy, for e-payment and fintech solutions. We have also integrated different technologies: GPS tracking, social media, Multimedia, fantasy games, sensors, semantic web etc.
Also the fields of application are multiple: Energy, Finance, Legal, Voting, Mass Brands, Large Retail Organisation, Publishing & Media, just to name a few.
Simplyfing, all our applications and structured solutions consist of three different logical layers: data, platform and services.
Starting from the bottom, the first conceptual level is the data (for example, a public register). We’ll se below how it works.
The second level is the core platform itself. The intermediate level identifies the true platform, which connects all the data to the end services, identifying the right logic and the access privileges for the wanted data.
The third level is the service to the end-users of the platform. This layer identifies the services and applications provided to the end user, who can be a consumer or an operator. It is often the only visible layer to the most part of people, the tip of our platform-iceberg.
Depending on the type of the service we want to provide, the architecture will integrate all the components in the required manner.
The level of data is the commom base and the lower level of our application model. Depending on the project and the solutions we want to provide, the data can be managed with public or private encrypted distribution systems, using for example blockchain and smart contract tecnology, or other p2p tecnologies, or even with traditional databases.
For example, a Fintech application could use a system of Distributed Public Ledger, because generally a finance institution needs regolation and compensation systems which are verifiable via cryptography and distributed globally for a reason of resiliency and complience with the various communications and reporting responsibilities.
From a technical point of view, our philosophy about the realization of public registry and contracts systems (using public and private ledger and smart contracts technology) is similar to the one provided today by Ethereum, with a particular focus on the adaptability features that guarantee a long term “technological” shelf life, as suggested by Tezos’ position.
Probably the first sector to have explored the possibilities of the technology blockchain application is financial, with banks, investment banks, financial markets and insurance companies that have played and are playing a pioneering role. Equally interesting appear the possibilities of use in government services. For example, they can vary from the digital citizenship and residence to the electoral system, from the tax system to health, state and social services.
Our view is that the real strength of blockchain technology and more generally of an integrated approach to the needs of data integration with every possible architecture, from p2p, to smart contracts, to public and private ledger technology (and not forgetting, of course, traditional databases), will constitute the assets of each winning digital platform and consequently in every business sector that requires interoperability.
In short, we think that blockchain revolution probably will be a necessary step towards business evolution.
Gianluca Busato
CEO – Enkronos d.o.o.
