The Power of Blockchain Ecosystems

After the release of our collaboration with Deutsche Bahn Vertrieb (“Ecosystem Tokenization via Blockchain”), we received many questions on how we understand and use the term “Ecosystem”.
As blockchain technology becomes more sophisticated and its adoption grows, new ideas spring out left, right, and center. One of the most novel blockchain concepts is that of the blockchain ecosystem.
In this article, we’ll give you an inside perspective of these ecosystems and how Unibright is laying the foundations to build them.

Introduction

The word ecosystem was originally a biological term used to describe a group of organisms interacting with one another and their surroundings. When we talk about blockchain ecosystems, these are the groups of actors interacting with one another within the world of blockchain and with the surrounding off-chain world.

In your typical blockchain, actors include users, miners, developers, and more. The core interactions between these actors take place in the form of transactions, but these transactions are almost entirely limited to the blockchain itself.

A developed blockchain ecosystem, then, is one that allows this blockchain to communicate with other blockchains, their actors, and the off-chain world. This inter connectivity allows us to build systems that can selectively take advantage of the blockchain — in its trustworthiness, transparency, and decentralization — and leave off-chain systems to fulfill functions they already excel at.

Bridging on- and off-chain worlds is not about one of the two sides being superior to the other. It is about combining the complementary features both sides offer to come up with something greater.

In our collaboration with DeutscheBahn Vertrieb, we outlined the power potential of a blockchain based ecosystem in one specific domain — public transportation.

Inner Workings of a Blockchain Ecosystem

In nature, ecosystems tend to arise naturally. However, the long list of advantages of creating powerful blockchain ecosystems means that they’re often created by a single individual or group with a designated purpose.

To ensure the ecosystems fulfill their purpose, they’re often controlled — including the creation of applications, integration with external systems, and more — by the creator.

This reveals another advantage of using blockchain technology. Self-fulfilling agreements, the smart contracts, can manage the system automatically, so members of the ecosystem know exactly what to expect. They can even define expectations for the users, or smart laws, which allow the ecosystem to run smoothly.

Blockchain Ecosystems and The Creation of Unibright

While most blockchain protocols promise a new and improved blockchain solution that should be used in favor of the competitors, Unibright has dedicated itself to the integration of existing on- and off-chain protocols and systems, to build powerful blockchain ecosystems — but why?

Most protocols’ token models simply aren’t conducive to funding the high, ongoing costs of blockchain development, and with more than twenty years of experience in business integration, we of all people know that it’s simply not practical for companies to change their chosen blockchain protocol every time a competitor is created.

As a result, the market was in dire need of a solution that could link existing blockchains while funding its development, maintenance, and support costs indefinitely, and so Unibright was born.

With IT systems and architectures getting ever more complex, the number and structure of new ecosystems that can be built out of this elements is increasing along.

As industries grow and technologies mature and emerge, new solutions will surface offering unique solutions to existing problems. An increasing number of use cases can be implemented, always keeping in mind the idea of a blockchain ecosystem: Enabling different actors, roles and systems to interact in a defined way for the desired purpose.

Unibright offers a unified framework, bringing blockchain technology and smart contracts to mainstream usage. With its “no-coding-needed” approach, smart contracts get generated, deployed and updated automatically into different blockchains. Unibright works with visual, usecase-related templates and also automatically integrates existing IT systems into the blockchain.

Unibright Solutions, a dedicated consulting branch to support blockchain use in business processes, was additionally launched in December 2018.

More information on Unibright: https://unibright.io
Unibright Blockchain Consulting Services: https://unibright.solutions