Companies are increasingly interested in blockchain technology as a means to digitize and improve business processes. According to Forbes, citing International Data Corp, total corporate and government spending on blockchain is expected to hit $2.9 billion in 2019, an increase of 89% over the previous year, and reach $12.4 billion by 2022.
Many enterprise blockchain projects are currently in the proof-of-concept or pilot stage. But as these implementations are rolled out in production, companies will need access to expertise in maintaining and operating large-scale, often cloud-based, systems.
“A blockchain network is like the power grid: it is there for the long term and must never go down,” explains Duncan Johnston-Watt, CEO of Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP). “You cannot just deploy it and walk away. The network needs to be maintained and updated. That’s where we can help”.
Companies that launch blockchain initiatives are making a commitment that a distributed ledger will be available indefinitely. In order to realize this commitment, they need to combine operational know-how with blockchain expertise. Duncan Johnston-Watt and Kevin O’Donnell saw an opportunity to apply their experience in open source, operations and cloud to the implementation of blockchain networks. Thus, Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP) was born. The company aims to make it much easier for enterprises to adopt blockchain technologies. Their mission is to ensure that businesses can not only roll out blockchain networks but also operate and maintain them over the long haul.