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How Businesses Can Protect Their Digital Assets in 2023

Featured image by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay

Most corporate executives have kept up with the latest news and information regarding the potential uses, dangers, and advantages of blockchain technology. Some of those leaders may be wary of investing in blockchain technology because of recent reports of cryptocurrency company failures. The reality is, though, that there is a lot more to think about when it comes to digital assets of any kind.

Knowledegable business owners understand that new business solutions based on blockchain technology are safer and more robust than conventional database structures. These leaders have a firm grasp of technology. They recognize that blockchain technology has a history of proven use cases in which it has generated corporate value. They understand that it may well deliver even more value in coming years.

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More Businesses Are Adopting Blockchain Solutions to Safeguard Their Digital Assets

Many companies now exclusively use cloud-based solutions to manage their digital assets. However, this solution can create new cybersecurity risks. When conventional database technologies fall short in terms of security, trust, and openness for a cloud-based solution, blockchain technology provides a welcome alternative.

Because they lack the expertise to confidently build blockchain technology solutions in-house, some business owners have been reluctant to adopt this path. Many blockchain possibilities, however, are already sufficiently developed. These can serve as a gateway for established businesses whose owners wish to adopt the technology.

It’s only logical that blockchain solutions follow the as-a-service paradigm, which has flourished thanks to the cloud’s scalability.

Businesses are now discovering as-a-service providers for customized blockchain technology applications or even permissioned blockchain networks. These solutions offer welcome benefits of speed, support, low-code accessibility, and scalability.

Smart Contracts Offer a Proven First-Use Case for Protecting Digital Assets

Smart contracts are among the most essential use cases for blockchain in business. A “smart contract” is computer software that, under predetermined conditions, carries out a financial transaction on its own.

Though this level of automation may appear risky at first glance, the use of blockchain technology provides the safety and security necessary for commercial applications. In fact, smart contracts can reduce of even eliminate entirely many inefficiencies in contractual transactions.

Like other blockchain-based options, there is a rising ecosystem of partners and products that will assist organizations in establishing smart contracts. This eliminates the need for individual businesses to build these capabilities in-house.

Using these services, you can be certain that your contractual designs will have cutting-edge cryptographic, access management, and anomaly detection technologies. In short, these solutions will protect your digital assets.

However, in order to protect their contracts as well as other transactional systems, businesses need to learn how to implement controls. In the event of inconsistencies, enterprises must learn to employ the native blockchain application route for asset monitoring and recovery.

dApps and Web3 Will Spread Like Wildfire

Like the blockchain ledger and other digital assets, decentralized applications (dApps) are distributed among multiple networks in a blockchain network.

While dApps can be triggered by smart contracts as well as other programmable terms, their functionality is often more nuanced than that of a simple contract.

For example, they can take the place of conventional cloud-based internet applications. They do this by providing a decentralized model consistent with “Web3” or “Web 3.0.

That is, they represent a model that is able to remain online and verify itself by employing a redundant and distributed infrastructure. In contrast, traditional applications rely on a single remote server with constrained backups.

Providers of dApps can help businesses attain the security and trust of decentralized applications. This is because they provide solutions or features with APIs that allow larger solutions. This can be particularly useful when companies create new proprietary products that necessitate access to distributed resources.

Similarly, 2023 will see the further revolution of financial services brought on by decentralized financing (DeFi).

Asset Tokenization Will Continue to Advance

Tokens or other forms of digital assets that represent value can be created using blockchain technology. This thereby ensures their security and uniqueness.

This paves the way for the tokenization or separatist movements of assets that were previously ineligible for such treatment.

This accelerates the buying, selling, and settling of securities. Moreover, fractional ownership is not limited to financial assets. It may now also be used for property investment and other asset classes. This is especially the case when these assets fall under the supervision of genuine trading bots like the bitcoin method.

A Mature Governance of All Classes of Digital Assets Is on the Horizon

Blockchain technology can now help to track and verify cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. Such tracking can be used in conjunction with forensics to settle legal issues.

But the SEC, the CFTC, and the Financial Security Oversight Council of the United States Treasury Department will quite likely all issue more cryptocurrency-related guidelines and rules for all digital assets in the near future.

Additionally, enterprises will improve their internal governance of their own blockchain technologies as well.

Cryptocurrency’s Sustainability Will Prevail

Confirming a single bitcoin transaction can require more than 1,700 kilowatt hours of energy. This is roughly the same amount of energy the average US household consumes in two months.

This consumption is due to the fact that many conventional blockchains use the “proof-of-work” validation mechanism. Proof-of-work requires a large number of computers to process a massive quantity of data to guarantee the security and authenticity of each transaction.

Nonetheless, designers are on the lookout for alternate validation strategies that are easier on the environment and still protect everyone’s digital assets.

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Summing Up

Businesses are now investigating and reporting on their ESG effects. They have a compelling interest in environmentally responsible alternatives. However, the enormous energy requirements of conventional validation procedures continue to stand in the way.

The Ethereum blockchain has shown that it is possible to switch to a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain architecture. This is less harmful to the environment than the Bitcoin proof-of-work blockchain.

Instead of the energy-intensive proof-of-work protocol, PoS protocols use a consensus process to pick validators based on the amount of the associated cryptocurrency they have.

In 2023, organizations may be encouraged to implement blockchain solutions that have more pragmatic business value. This is because of a growing number of use cases, easier ports of entry, and rising competitive pressure.

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