Increasing SME competitiveness with Blockchain solutions

Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) are rapidly re-shaping how society can benefit from digitalisation. Blockchain is one of the newest innovations of our generation. To put it simply, blockchain is for value sharing, what the internet became for information sharing.

Today, over 30 billion devices are interconnected within IoT (Internet of Things), with that number expecting to double by 2025. But what does this mean for tomorrow’s global socio-economic paradigm, and what opportunities can arise through Blockchain?

The Blockstart SME Training Programme aims to provide the tools to answer such questions and guide the next generation of SMEs through the digital revolution.

INNOVATIVE BLOCKCHAIN SOLUTIONS FOR SMES

The Blockstart project aims to foster innovation for the new generation of companies within the sectors of agribusiness, health and logistics. The project will incentivise the adoption of blockchain solutions for SMEs that lack the investment capacity or the tools to benefit from it. SMEs are called upon to join Blockstart and profit from its free training programme, which is tailored to provide its applicants with a learning platform as well as an ecosystem.

The free online training programme has officially started accepting applications and will support SMEs in two phases:

 

1. The anticipation phase: an initial grant (in-kind) of €7.500 awarded to all our applicants for training support.

2. The solution development phase: the best applicants from phase 1 will be awarded a second grant (in-kind) of €60.000 aimed at developing, piloting and implementing blockchain solutions within the business model of the applicant.

Photo: Nijkamp (the first SME to start Blockstart training)

The potential impact of blockchain on the economy is vast, but the main difference lies in how that value is shared and how it can be integrated within IoT. Instead of having a world where data is stored in separate systems, blockchain provides the capacity to store and transfer value within one integrated platform. In other words, the platform increases the availability of data through value sharing, whilst safeguarding its transfer. The trend of secure value sharing will have numerous effects on the economy and within specific industries, with supply chain and logistics, agribusiness and healthcare, all being greatly affected.

KEY FEATURES OF THE VALUE SHARING POSSIBILITIES WITHIN BLOCKCHAIN INCLUDE:

  1. Immutability – data cannot be changed or altered once inserted in the platform.
  2. Security – stored value is more secure due to enhanced cryptographic capabilities.
  3. Decentralisation – no central governing body or single governing entity.
  4. Consensus – validation of the data without the need for a central authority.
  5. Rapidity – fast transactions increasing the real-life use.
Support for this piece from  Blockstart partners Aditya Raj (Multitel) and Geoff Taylor (ChainPoint).

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