The blockchain is a form of technology that introduces for the first time, a cryptographic secure digital database of transactions that does not possess the points of failure and security issues of traditional databases. Its unique characteristics provide the potential for blockchain based products and services to disrupt many business models in many industries.

The benefits of blockchain technology have not gone unnoticed, resulting in many blockchain implementations existing today. Most of these use and operate on computer networks that are easy to join and participate in. These permissionless implementations are often known as “public blockchain protocols” (such as Bitcoin and Ethereum). However, the use of an existing blockchain comes with many problems for existing businesses, mainly due to the lack of control over its features and development. Desired functionalities include throughput performance and the ability for systems to scale. While private/permissioned blockchains aim to fulfil the promise of becoming “fit-for-purpose”, they entail immense costs in terms of infrastructure and forfeit the ability to evolve at the speed of open source.

The vast majority of both public and private implementations are in the early stages of their development (and currently use 3rd generation technologies). Projects typically focus on one type of blockchain versus the other. As such, most are only used for simple proof-of-concept (“PoC”) test-cases. Despite many such projects, the evolution of the blockchain stack is still stagnating, due to difficulties with enterprise IT integration and a lack of developer-friendly and easy-to-use software tools. Many implementations also lack the enterprise grade capabilities that are critical to run real business applications in both private and public deployments. The technology behind blockchain needs to mature and become more accessible for it to become a widely used and deployed architecture. Additional services and capabilities are also needed for it to be a commonly used business platform. It also needs to be much easier to program and use for it to be adopted across many sectors.

The AERGO Project is a serious disrupter. It is also very different. It proposes to be a 4th generation “enterprise ready” blockchain protocol combined with an IT platform that uses new and more advanced technologies. It proposes to include a comprehensive ecosystem of complementary decentralized application (“dApp”), technologies and service providers that leverage secure cloud delivery models. Underlying technologies in AERGO are proposed to be made open source as it is truly an open and decentralised system.