Contents
Introduction…………………………1
Digital Ecosystem Framework……3
Recommendations………………….4
Conclusion………………………….5
Introduction
From the first days of commerce, businesses have created, operated, and participated within ecosystems to exchange value. However, this value was often linear and analog. In today’s digital world, new requirements to operate within those business ecosystems is needed. Digital ecosystems are different because they embrace the complexity of endless connections to be self-organizing, dynamic, and adaptive to exceed the sum of their connections.
Examples of digital ecosystems include platforms like Uber or Airbnb that show the reinvention of existing business models into a multi-sided platform business. This model is so pervasive it’s reflected by the top 10 companies world-wide based on market
capitalization.
Shifting to this rapidly growing digital space is becoming a key requirement to continue to deliver value with existing and new business models. Implementing a digital ecosystem with digital technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, IoT, and 5G fundamentally enables the redefinition of customers, value, and creating new ways to exchange that value.
Blockchain is being used by leading organizations to aid in the adoption of digital ecosystems. Blockchain provides compelling capabilities that enable the interaction between people and things that may render existing models either as ineffective or obsolete.
Blockchain-Enabled Digital Ecosystems Defined
A blockchain-enabled digital ecosystem is a value network that harnesses the unique capabilities of blockchain such as: data self-sovereignty, tamper resistant data, peer to peer data collaboration, and distributed governance.
A blockchain-enabled digital ecosystem has all the same complexities and facets of any other digital ecosystem; however, it
has several distinct advantages. These include:
- Self-Sovereign Data. Providing participants with data confidentiality and privacy over their data. This is also used for specific access control through blockchain-enabled decentralized or self-sovereign identify.
- Tamper-Resistant Data. As more digitization occurs it is vital secure data in shared ecosystems where there may be many different actors and devices interacting with data there is an increased need for cryptographically signed and irrevocable transactional records. Anonymization of data is another key factor here as well.
- Peer to Peer Data Collaboration. Blockchain was built as a shared ecosystem database instead of a relational database. While database can be architected to be shared across companies it requires custom development and other technologies to do so. Blockchain on the other hand fosters interoperability, standardization of data, quality, and overall availability.
- Distributed Governance. The downstream benefits of using a blockchain approach is that the business terms and conditions is distributed or shared among the participants through smart contracts. In some cases, some or all the governance can be implemented technically as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
- Enabling Digitalization of Business. Lastly, blockchain can be an enabler to the shift to a digital business by enabling additional technical capabilities such as: tokenization of assets, digital twins, decentralized applications, and decentralized consensus mechanisms.
