Blockchain technology has moved past the hype phase and has begun finding real-world use cases. A prime example of this is its adoption among Big Tech companies in India, with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) deciding to adopt the technology for applications across verticals.

Blockchain is being leveraged for digital identity, tracking, asset monetisation and tokenization. Each of these verticals will have a standalone blockchain platform to enable transparency.

TCS’ solution will use Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain Cloud platform, along with blockchain support from global organisation R3. In this article, we take a deeper look into the project.

The Power Of Private Blockchains

TCS’ solution, known as the Quartz Blockchain, runs on trusted and verified processing nodes, as opposed to public nodes on traditional blockchains. While this not only allows for faster transactions on the network, it also enables a much more trustworthy view of the outputs generated by the system.

It also focuses on providing solutions for registries, payments, clearing and settlement, and corporate information exchange, all with a shared history across all parties. This can be painted as one of the biggest benefits to using blockchain, as all participants will have to sync their nodes before using the network. This leads to the reduction of duplication on the platform, along with more smoother processing when it comes to areas such as due diligence and payments.

The adoption of private blockchains also enables cost optimisation and the move to a digital structure of data. While distributed databases do fulfil most of the functions of a private blockchain, blockchains can enable easier integration with better scalability. Newer nodes can be added to the network with ease, which in turn increases the network effect of the product.

Quartz, in particular, has support for a feature known as smart contracts, which are the same as contracts except that they don’t require anyone to enforce it physically. Smart contracts can be used for something as simple as sending recurring transactions across the network, to creating tokenised versions of real-world assets, to replacing the voting process of a country entirely. This powerful feature is also expected to provide a value add for customers of the network.

The Potential Application Of Blockchain Systems

According to TCS, the company will be applying Quartz solutions towards solving problems such as affordable mobility, loyalty and rewards programmes, and shared telecom infrastructure for 5G. They will also focus on the anti-counterfeiting of luxury goods through traceability on the blockchain.

The Quartz blockchain also provides a quick and easy integration into third-party solutions with a feature known as Quartz Gateway. This enables interoperability between various blockchain platforms and technologies, thus creating a more comprehensive blockchain environment.

They also have a DevKit to enable the introduction and adoption of blockchain into IT teams for optimising business processes. Moreover, the use of blockchain also propels the growth towards a data-first approach in organisations, along with incentivising the creation of industry networks and ecosystems.

The Quartz solution provides an end-to-end package for customers with multiple benefits of adoption, such as processing and settling transactions in real-time and automation of higher-level business processes through the use of smart contracts.

The availability of a shared network will also enable the optimisation of data collected in the system and enables the elimination of data duplication and reconciliation. This data is also immutable once entered into the blockchain, due to the aforementioned shared history and encryption with industry-standard cryptography. If data privacy is an ultimate focus, such as in the BFSI, the ledger can also be made into a private permission-enabled ledger for extremely high security and uptime.

Collaboration With Industry Giants To Achieve Visions Of Profit

https://www.zeebiz.com/companies/news-tcs-expects-200-million-from-blockchain-business-in-fy19-55498

Before going all in on blockchain, TCS revealed that they expected a large revenue boost from entering the field. In mid-2018, TCS COO N Ganapathy Subramaniam stated, “Until now we have seen a lot of proof of concepts but over the next 12 months, we’ll see a lot of projects of significance, which will set us up for greater momentum in the coming years.” Added to this, he also predicted that the company’s blockchain vision will result in a valuation of about $200-$300 million by March 2019.

The use of Microsoft’s Azure Platform also signifies a shift to a larger more scalable backend, as Azure provides services fit for this process. Moreover, Microsoft has also shown a great interest in the blockchain, going so far as to specialise in it to offer customised services. The other company involved, R3 has been instrumental in creating a settlements network. This network, known as Corda, provides real-time settlement and is marketed as an alternative to SWIFT. They have also worked extensively with FinTechs around the world.

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