How To Develop A Blockchain Application – A Step-By-Step Guide For Startups

How to Create a Blockchain App

We’re all impressed by the success of crypto exchange platforms, but the true hero behind them is blockchain technology. Cryptocurrency platforms thrive on the transformative power of blockchain technology. Blockchain is a digital system of recording immutable ledger transactions that makes it difficult to attempt malicious damage. Without the robust and transparent framework provided by blockchain, these platforms simply wouldn’t be able to function as they do today.  

Moreover, the market size of blockchain technology is valued at $17.46 billion U.S. dollars in 2023 and is expected to grow 87.7% of CAGR from 2024 to 2030. A fusion of skills in technology, user-focused design, and a futuristic view of the financial sector is required to create a blockchain application. But how to build a blockchain application? and how it finely works. It will be the biggest confusion for the majority. This blog tells you the underlying technology, and you can explore the process of how to build a blockchain application along with its diverse use cases right here. 

But first …

How Does a Blockchain Application Work?

The special feature of a blockchain network is its ability to share information among its members and organize it into a sequence of ordered blocks. Each block contains data that is secured through an encryption algorithm, which generates a unique hexadecimal number known as a hash. Think of this hash like a fingerprint for the block, it’s unique and essential for maintaining security. If any data within a block is altered, the hash changes, making it immediately obvious that tampering has occurred.

Additionally, each block contains the hash of the previous block, linking them together in a chain. This connection between blocks is what makes blockchain technology so secure. The first block in the chain, known as the “Genesis Block,” is unique because it doesn’t have a previous block to reference. This structure ensures the integrity and security of the entire blockchain.

Transaction Process

In the blockchain transaction process, when you initiate a transaction on Bitcoin’s blockchain using your crypto wallet, it triggers a series of steps. First, the transaction is sent to the memory pool, where it waits until a miner picks it up. The miner then includes the transaction in a new block, encrypts it using an algorithm, and begins the mining process to solve the block’s hash.

Moreover, Miners use a nonce, a unique number, and add it to their hash in an attempt to match or be below the target hash value. They keep adjusting the nonce and generating new hashes until they find a valid one. Once a valid hash is found, the block is closed, and the transaction is processed. However, the block remains unconfirmed until it is validated by other blocks in the chain, a process that typically takes about 10 minutes but can vary across different blockchain networks.

Let’s see how to develop a blockchain app in the upcoming section.

How to Build a Blockchain Application in 7 Steps?

Here are the primary seven steps for developing blockchain applications…..

  1. Analyze the Industry
  2. Choose the right blockchain platform
  3. Do Competitor Research
  4. Design Your Blockchain App
  5. Development and Testing Process
  6. Deployment
  7. Maintenance and Support

Step 1: Analyze and Identify the Industry

Numerous industries require blockchain technology such as gaming, banking & finance, insurance, healthcare, real estate, and security, etc… Now, Let us delve into each sector and understand it for blockchain app development.

Gaming

The gaming industry has evolved from a game to a professional sport. There are some gaming competitions these days that have a blank market and high financial expenses. Blockchain technology possesses the capability to tackle legacy-related issues within the gaming industry. Sky Mavis, Playkeu, Dapperlabs, The Sandbox, and Uplandme Inc. are some of the blockchain gaming companies. 

Real Estate

In the real estate industry purchasing, and selling often carries the danger of excessive paperwork, fraud, and mistakes in the public record. With the help of blockchain technology, the real estate business can easily eliminate the requirement for paper-based records. Further, the blockchain helps in recording, tracking, and transferring land titles along with ensuring accuracy and credibility. Propy and Chromaway are the industries in real estate that have implemented blockchain. 

Healthcare

The most difficult method in the healthcare business is the usage of several systems to handle and store data. Such kinds of systems include sensitive data, including personally identifiable information, which is highly vulnerable to attack.

Therefore creating a single system for sharing data among the entire institution is highly dangerous. The healthcare sector can share the data with other networks easily. This technology shares the data with integrity and high security. HealthVerity and Hashed Health are the industries that implemented blockchain. 

Banking and Finance

Considering transparency, efficiency, and ease of use the financial sector requires the help of blockchain applications. Payments, Clearness, and Settlement Systems, etc… all the primary services in the banks can be easily sorted out with this technology. JP Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse, and Western Union are already making the most out of blockchain applications. 

Supply Chain

Blockchain technology is now being used in the supply chain business. This means that when different companies work together in the supply chain, it helps to track and show all the steps involved, making everything very clear. For your understanding imagine a restaurant that wants to know where its meat comes from. With blockchain, they can easily trace the history of the meat they use in their dishes. This isn’t just for restaurants but also for other industries like farming, transportation, and fashion can also use blockchain to keep track of their products. Some companies in the supply chain industry that use blockchain are Provenance, Fluent, and Blockverify. They use this technology to ensure transparency and trace the origin of products.

Step 2: Choose the right blockchain platform

Create a blockchain application by choosing the right type of blockchain for your business.  Considering the consensus process and the challenges you desire to address, blockchain apps have 4 different types. They are

1. Permissionless blockchain (public) – This blockchain is used by all the members of the network and on any device. Anybody can be a part of the blockchain and can make the transactions, can verify, and still stay anonymous. For instance -Bitcoin is a public blockchain.

2. Permissioned blockchain (Private) – This blockchain is accessed by authorized users alone. Further, this type of blockchain has a set of rules that regulate the transactions between network participants. Organizations mostly prefer private blockchains for internal use.

3. Hybrid blockchain – Some organizations prefer choosing the best from both the blockchains. By using this way, we can control access to the specific data stored inside the blockchain and which set of data is open to all the network participants. 

4. Consortium blockchain – Consortium blockchain is also called federated blockchain. It’s more or less similar to the previous blockchain offering limited access to a specific set of groups. This blockchain can initiate, receive, and validate transactions via the validator node.

After deciding on the type of blockchain platform, you need to analyze the suitable platform for app development. There are 2 ways of developing a Blockchain Platform. They are : 

Craft New Blockchain 

This choice empowers you to establish a new blockchain framework where every aspect, from algorithm design to transaction, is under your control. Despite its high cost, this approach is regarded as one of the most unique methods in blockchain development.

Replicate the Framework of  Leading Blockchain Platforms

Another effective way of creating a blockchain-based application is replicating a well-known blockchain. But these platforms are open source, only you can deploy the code on your servers by simply forking their repository. How effective a blockchain platform is will be determined by the number of network nodes that can validate transactions. Hence the platforms Ethereum, Hyperledger, R3 Corda, and Ripple are just a handful.

Step 3: Do Competitor Research

After planning, do competitor research and find what they are up to.  By doing competitor research, you can get an idea about the common features and functionalities. Find out the strengths and weaknesses of your competitor. Social media like LinkedIn or Facebook can help to identify your competitors. This is an important step in developing a blockchain application. 

Step 4: Design Your Blockchain App

Design your blockchain application, it might be a theoretical build-up or a design prototype. Every project under theoretical build-up needs theoretical incidents in order for customers to understand the product’s applicability and viability. It is possible to write suggestions that outline every aspect of the project. Following the development of a theoretical build-up and feedback, a prototype is created that consists of:

  • Drawings 
  • Mock-ups
  • Tested information architecture, and 
  • Product designs

Design APIs to integrate with the UI for backend functionality. Create visual layouts and designs to enhance the application’s appearance and user experience.

Step 5: Development and Testing Process

In this phase, you should either have to develop or integrate APIs for specific use cases of the application. Moreover, The Blockchain application is build under multiple versions. The development and Testing Process is a significant one.

Pre-Alpha – Firstly, A blockchain application development which is not yet undergone formal testing is called a pre-alpha version of the app. Once the client approves it, the next stage will be the alpha version. Here the Blockchain app developers will test the software with white-box techniques. 

Beta version – Once the alpha version is released, the Blockchain app will be prepared for the Beta version. In this version, it incorporates the complete features set up but with some unknown bugs. Developers will share the beta version with a certain group of people outside the organization to test its functionality.

Candidate Version – Once the best version is approved and tested, the Blockchain application is released for the candidate version. The final application will be launched as an advanced beta version.

Step 6: Deployment

After undergoing several tests, the application will finally move to the production phase and get ready for deployment. Deploy applications on a test network to promptly test their functionalities before going live.

The admin manages the deployment of different app versions. After provisioning the application, you can host it on the main chain. If the developed blockchain is a hybrid platform, i.e. it contains both off-chain and on-chain business entities, then it needs to be deployed on the cloud server and in the app store/play store. It should also be able to upgrade according to the needs and prioritization.

Step 7: Maintenance and Support

This phase is meant for updating OS, frameworks, libraries, and adding new features and modifying the application to meet your current business requirements. It also involves addressing any technical issues and implementing the needed updates. This is an essential step to maintain the working of blockchain applications. Maintenance and support are very important to achieve the long-term success and sustainability of the blockchain.

Overall, Blockchain requires gigabytes to terabytes of storage capacity for proper setup and maintenance. Since you’ve got the knowledge regarding how to build a blockchain application right?? You may now have a question like, what’s the benefit behind developing a blockchain application…. To clear your doubts, read ahead.

Benefits of  Developing a Blockchain Application

There are several solid advantages in developing a blockchain application. Come let’s uncover the top perks in the following

Public Verification

One of the main advantages of constructing a blockchain technology is it provides the public verification of transactions. Anybody from wherever can view all the activities carried away, which ensures the trust between parties.

Transparency

The achievement of transparency is by recording all transactions in a public ledger. This prevents fraudulence and corruption by tracking out the transactions in a simple way and ensuring they are legitimate.

Privacy

By using Blockchain technology, we can guarantee high privacy to the users and can have high confidentiality towards the data. For instance – Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin allows users to make transactions without revealing their true identity. 

Immutability

Blockchain technology uses cryptographic techniques to prevent unauthorized changes and ensure secure transactions. Once added to the blockchain, data remains immutable and cannot be deleted or altered.

We Easy Transactions

Implementing Blockchain makes it simple for transactions by neglecting the intermediaries. Also, This will help the business to reduce costs and at the same time improve efficiency by streamlining the process. It also reduces the required time.

Cryptocurrency Exchange

Constructing blockchain-based Cryptocurrency applications offers a more secure way to fast buy and sell cryptos. The blockchain technology helps to build a user-friendly interface, with low fees and fast transactions. 

High-Security

The maintenance of high security by using cryptographic techniques that protect user transactions. Blockchain technology prevents unauthorized access to participate in the network. This decentralized nature of blockchain apps makes them less vulnerable to cyber threats.

Thus, Astounded by the above benefits?? Let’s find out what it costs to build a Blockchain app in the upcoming section.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Blockchain Application?

Developing a blockchain application costs around $25,000 – $60,000. However, the final cost of the blockchain application depends on several factors such as :

  • Type of the App that you’re developing
  • Complexity of the features.
  • Blockchain platform.
  • Integrations of third party.
  • App complexity.Organizations mostly prefer private blockchains for internal use.
  • The number of targeted platforms.
  • Location of the blockchain mobile app development. 

The following are some of the examples of blockchain projects on the complexity level:

  • Low Complexity Blockchain – Payment apps, Smart Contracts Development App.
  • Medium Complexity Blockchain – Developing dApps on blockchain platforms, Semi-decentralized apps, Hybrid blockchain apps, and Blockchain dApps.
  • High Complexity Blockchain – Creating Blockchain Apps from scratch, A complete dApp.

Overall, Developing a blockchain application with an in-house development team is quite an expensive choice. However you have enough control over the blockchain Creation, one with deep pockets can opt for this. Apart from this, a wise choice would be approaching the best Blockchain development company. Taking up a blockchain development provider would benefit you based on budget constraints. 

Final Thoughts

In the ever-evolving realm of blockchain creation, turning your crypto dreams into reality requires a blend of expertise and innovation. As you set sail on this journey, let Coinsclone be a compass to your ambition that leads you to success. Coinsclone is not just a development platform, it’s your launchpad to the financial revolution. From coding to user-centric design, we shape your blockchain development, ensuring that your crypto business reaches new heights. So, why settle for the ordinary when you can redefine the extraordinary? Let Coinsclone be the architect of your blockchain destiny.

Invest in Innovation – Build Your Blockchain Application With Coinsclone

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Frequently Asked Questions

1.  What factors beyond technical specs influence blockchain platform selection?

Factors like community support, regulatory compliance, and ecosystem maturity influence the selection of a blockchain platform beyond technical specifications.

2.  What challenges arise in testing beta versions of blockchain apps and how are they addressed?

Challenges in testing beta versions of blockchain apps include identifying and addressing unknown bugs, which are typically managed through iterative testing and feedback loops during development.

3. How Much Will It Cost to Develop a Blockchain Application?

The approximate cost to create a blockchain app starts from $20,000. Depending upon the customization, and add-on features, the cost may slightly vary and can go up to $1,00,00 for a complex one. 

4. How Long Does it Take to Deploy a Blockchain App?

Deploying a blockchain application typically takes around 6 months to a year. However, if the application requires complex customizations or additional features, the timeline may extend further. 

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