The formation of a group of collaborative business is not a new concept. Various types of consortium exist and flourish today. One form of consortium developed by the Japanese demonstrated that forming alliances between complementary companies can be a very effective approach. They called these alliances Keiretsu. Vertical Keiretsu and horizontal Keiretsu enable better collaboration between organizations in a cooperative relationship. Globally, other diversified non-Japanese business also have been described as similar to the Keiretsu model, such as the Virgin Group(UK), and Tata Group(India), and the Colombian Grupo Empresarial Antioqueño.1Although a true Japanese-style Keiretsu involves cross-ownership of stock in member companies, this facet is not examined in detail here. We will discuss the complementary nature of the business relationships between the members of the Keiretsu. More generally, we could describe these collaborative alliances as “ecosystem” or “consortium”. We could even more generally describe a specific collaborative ecosystem as a blockchain “use-case”.
With the recent advent of blockchain technology, a consortium or ecosystem can collaborate more efficiently (and cost-effectively) than ever before. We can think of a trusted blockchain as a "bank" or financial intermediary. The distributed blockchain can serve as the mechanism of “trust” among these semi-trusting parties. The blockchain provides real-time reconciliation of asset balances and transactions. This real-time reconciliation is extremely valuable since it eliminates or reduces the costly reconciliation processes prevalent today (think accounts-payable and accounts-receivable) when dealing with both trusted and un-trusted entities. The consortium members can streamline a variety of inter-company business processes between them by using the blockchain. Payments is only one of the processes that can be made more efficient using blockchain.
In looking at different types of consortium, we can see tremendous value when we apply the blockchain to both the Horizontal and Vertical types. For example, an Automotive Company could use the blockchain to streamline the coordination and payments between the parent company and the vast array of suppliers. In this vertical ecosystem there are actually multiple tiers of suppliers that could be part of the blockchain consortium. For horizontal consortium, we can see tremendous benefits of allowing complementary companies to collaborate using a blockchain. In both the horizontal and vertical examples the compelling benefit is real-time-reconciliation. This is the super-power of all blockchains. This super-power is vastly under appreciated by the world, so far.
Blockchain technology is a game-changer and a brain-changer. Genius developers around the globe have built many sophisticated blockchain protocols such as Cardano and Ethereum, among many others. Some of these blockchains are public and some are private (like Hyperledger). The nature of most business consortium is that they are largely collaborative. There are burdens and benefits that these collaborators share. By distributing these benefits on a private blockchain, they can significantly streamline their common interests and activities. Much of the ROI for blockchain will likely come from process improvements in these collaborative business areas. We believe there are strong value proposition for both public and private blockchains. Here we are making a case for the “private” blockchain, such as Hyperledger Fabric. The Keiretsu or consortium model is most suited to a permissioned blockchain. Many ecosystems where natural synergies exist between entities and participants are (more) suited to a private blockchain. In addition, a private blockchain, while supporting the consortium objectives, is extensible to public blockchains.
As we survey the blockchain landscape more broadly a few things come to mind:
Blockchains themselves are mature. Functionality built upon blockchain less so.
Blockchains, although sophisticated, will become “Certified Secure” or “Audit-ably Transparent”. In some cases the privacy(encryption) will be protected by hardware (e.g. Intel chip). As blockchain technology becomes a semi-commodity, large cloud and computing vendors will provide “provably secure” blockchains that will be marketed and sold as the new databases of Web 3.
People in IT (and consumers) will no longer be talking about POS vs POW or “how many nodes are required to prevent a 51% attack?”. These are plumbing details that will be taken-for-granted in the near future.
Blockchain interoperability will be the next major phase in this technology evolution. As several recent hacks have shown what we already knew. Cross-chain integration will be very difficult. By building on the blockchain now, organizations will be better prepared to participate in the cross-chain blockchain evolution.
If you or your organization have a natural ecosystem that you collaborate with frequently, you should be using blockchain TODAY, to start to streamline your ecosystem business processes.
:Your idea or "use-case" doesn't require you to build a blockchain
Pravici TLP is a blockchain-based, consortium-building toolkit. Pravici TLP allows any organization to flexibly represent their ecosystem as a consortium of blockchain participants. Whether the consortium is a vertical organization that includes a single company and their network of suppliers, or a horizontal consortium of complementary companies. Pravici TLP consortium-building toolkit allows you define and deploy YOUR Ecosystem, YOUR use-case. YOUR Keiretsu. YOUR Consortium etc.
Pravici has leveraged the industrial-strength Hyperledger Fabric blockchain to provide a hosted and permissioned blockchain that you can administer easily. With Pravici TLP you and your organization can enjoy the benefits of this blockchain technology using a low-cost, easy-to-use tool-kit. The toolkit is made of the following components:
Blockchain Issuer Administration: Define the Asset(s) that will be created and managed on the blockchain. These can be points, tokens, coins or a combination of asset types.
Ecosystem Consortium-Manager: Tool that allows you to setup the blockchain participants and organization that represents your ecosystem.
Offer Engine: Allows participants to create and publish offers to earn, burn or convert blockchain assets. An offer is a prime vehicle to allow the transfer of assets between wallets.
Mobile App: The mobile app allows participant access to their wallet and transaction history. It also supports location-based and online offers to earn, burn or convert assets.
Pravici TLP API: An API layer that supports integration with external IT systems, blockchains and mobile applications.
Loyalty-Connector: Connectors to legacy Loyalty Systems allowing their expansion and extension to the blockchain.
Pravici TLP offers a Trial Subscription for under 200 USD monthly. This is a low-cost way for your organization to define and deploy any ecosystem or consortium on the blockchain. No matter how small or large is your target ecosystem or use-case, Pravici TLP can handle it. The setup is easy and the platform can support a huge global corporate consortium as well as a local community ecosystem. There are limitless use-cases supported by Pravici TLP. Here are a few examples of the types of ecosystems that can be setup:
Customer Loyalty Programs
Employee Rewards
Social Network or Purpose-Built Ecosystems
Public-Private Partnerships
Peer-to-peer Asset sharing
Vertical integration of payments
Complementary business cooperation
YOUR USE-CASE here
Pravici TLP is available to allow you to start taking advantage of blockchain technology TODAY!
You can learn more about these products and services at PraviciTLP.com or Pravici.com
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiretsu
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