Eight easy steps to create a blockchain like a pro

Forget everything you've always imagined about blockchain technology and its practice being something akin to rocket science. Besides learning to create a blockchain system from scratch, you can understand its nuts and bolts.

This article unravels the mystery so you can fall in love with the art of encoding blockchain software.   

Creating a custom blockchain

If you already understand the power of blockchain, you most likely believe building one is really hard; nothing could be further from the truth.

You can create a blockchain as long as you collaborate with a good blockchain provider. Developing a blockchain requires learning to write your own source code, which requires plenty of time and vast technical knowledge. While beginning from the genesis block development to creating the blockchain network can be a titanic undertaking, we will show you a simpler process.  

## Why create a blockchain?

If you already appreciate the power of distributed ledger technology, you know that creating your own blockchain is the key to ultimate flexibility.

This creation allows you to choose your preferred consensus algorithm, control database, scalability, and balance of security and your programming language. Moreover, you'll be free to update as and when you want to.

You want to create a blockchain fast so you can spend time on things that matter: stakeholder management, user interfaces, and perfecting the preferred use case for your application. The conventional way requires the expertise of a blockchain engineer, especially if you want to begin from ground zero, which can be overwhelming.

However, considering using a blockchain as a service platform, you don't have to start from scratch. Following are eight simple steps to create a blockchain:

1.   Identify a problem you want to address

Creating a blockchain application begins with defining a problem you intend to solve. While many misconceptions surround the industry, there's every chance you have identified a problem you might solve using a blockchain application.

Take the time to carefully perform a cost-benefit analysis and see whether investing your time and resources in the project is worthwhile. Once you identify a tangible issue, and consider the risks and positives involved positives, it's time to move to the next step.   

2.   Select an appropriate consensus mechanism

As decentralized systems, blockchains require all the network’s members to authenticate transactions in a consensus process. Different consensus mechanisms have varying pros and cons based on individual needs. From the proof of work used by Bitcoin, there are others like proof of stake, federated, Byzantine fault tolerant, proof of elapsed time, delegated proof of stake, and Round Robin. Ensure the method you choose ties in with your particular use case.   

3.   Choose a suitable blockchain platform

Choosing a blockchain platform is easier to build your decentralized application without creating a new blockchain from ground zero. Since most platforms are open-source, your choice will depend on the problem you wish to address and your preferred consensus mechanism.

Among the leading platforms you can choose from include Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, BigChainDB, and Quorum. Audit the pros and cons of each blockchain before you make a decision.  

4.   Design the architecture

There are three blockchain solution models: in-house, the cloud, and hybrid. Choose between hardware and software configurations like operating systems, processors, and disk size. Great care must be taken when designing the architecture based on your application and choosing from different types of blockchain solutions, permissioned or permissionless, private or public, and hybrid.  

5.   Configure the application

Plan carefully how to configure your blockchain application because you can't make any alterations after that. The primary components you will integrate include access issuance and re-issuance mechanism, user permissions, consensus, parameters, atomic exchanges, key management and structure, signatures, and address formats. You may want to outsource this step if you're a complete newbie.  

6.   Building the APIs

While getting a prebuilt Application Programming Interface (API) is possible, you could create your specific one for your unique use case. The most common purposes for creating an API include performing audit-related functions, addresses and key pair generation, data storage and retrieval, or triggering and managing smart contracts for payments, issuance, escrow, exchange, or retirement.

7.   Design the admin and user interface

The last step involves creating a user interface and admin console for your blockchain application. It would help if you now decided on your application's servers, front-end programming language, and external database.

Include the correct analytics into the system since this is the console you will use to manage the app's soft launch.

8.   Scale the POC and identify issues

It would be best to use the minimum viable product (MVP) model to scale your application when your blockchain is still in its infancy. You want to ensure you have developed a workable application to prove your hypothesis before launching a high-end user interface.

This is the stage where you identify performance issues, crashes, latency, and memory or storage glitches. Address any problems you encounter at this stage so you can save the resources you could have used to scale a meaningless application. If you're in doubt, you could consult an expert to help you scale your proof of concept (POC).    

Conclusion

Yes, it’s possible to create a blockchain by following these eight simple steps. While it may sound too simplistic considering the potential of the distributed ledger technology that supports Fintech uses cases cryptocurrencies, NFTs, DeFi, and many others, you’re now ready to launch your blockchain for free.