Blockchain Development: How Much Time And Cost Does It Require?

Blockchain Development: How Much Time And Cost Does It Require?

Blockchain application development is a trending technology that is gaining enough craze.

This technology is in pursuit of Liberty that allows the active distribution of digital information. Simply put, blockchain technology represents a decentralized network which is also known as the ‘new internet of today’. Let us walk you through the cost and time required for the blockchain app development and the factors that can have an impact on the overall cost.

Blockchain App Development Services And ROI Development

The blockchain industry experts are expecting that the investment in the technology will significantly grow in the coming years. A recent survey states that the market for blockchain development will be more likely to cross $57.641 billion by the next 5 years. The thought of return on investment (ROI) is not easy to estimate in terms of blockchain development. To ensure the effective implementation of blockchain development it is required that the businesses must share their findings optimally among the team. For example- any blockchain development company or supply chain platform can share huge data over a singular platform. This instance helps to draw an understanding that not all the action across the company requires internal business access.

It is natural to not be able to control everything across the blockchain development platform that is shared across multiple enterprises. Therefore it gets hard to calculate the ROI for blockchain development for the implementation of the processes. Various platforms are using Blockchain apps to fulfill their business needs, the major ones include financial services, healthcare, supply chain, government, and many others to transform their business models. Blockchain technology has the potential to add value to the business irrespective of its size by offering security, efficiency, and transparency to it. 

  • More Transparency- The implementation of blockchain Technology the history of overall transactions is becoming more and more transparent. As blockchain development is a distributed ledger the members of the same network share a similar ledger which is validated as well.
  • Enhanced Traceability- When the supply of the goods is recorded from one point to another through blockchain it represents the entire audit trail where it gets easy to search the asset and recover its journey. The uniform combination of blockchain and IoT Application Development allow the businesses to save their previous record and verify the authenticity of the goods.
  • Increase Speed- The traditional business process is usually paper-based which is not only time consuming but also requires third party involvement to verify the authenticity of the process. Automating blockchain development helps to simplify the business processes fair transactions can be carried out fastly and securely.
  • Cost-Effectiveness- Reducing the development cost is the top business priority and deploying blockchain app development services you do not have to worry about the validation of third-party integration. Blockchain Technology will save you from reviewing the documentation because every user will have access to its immutable version.

Factors On Which The Blockchain Application Development Cost Depends 

While conducting IoT solution development or app development, the cost is specifically incurred depending upon the personalized choices of the company. When the platform chooses to develop a blockchain app various factors have to be considered before developing the app. All these factors help to determine the budget of the project and give a quick estimate regarding the overall development cost. Take a look at them below:

The Size Of The Agency Or The Blockchain Development Company

The cost structure of the blockchain development app is divided into three broad categories which are-

  • Large-sized organizations
  • Medium-sized organizations
  • Small companies or agencies

When all these categories are compared it can be found that the small agencies or companies will charge less for blockchain app development as compared to the medium or the large ones. If we will move to large scale organizations it is evident that they will pick up the particular projects. They make the project selection for the clients who they feel would be able to pay the highest amount.

The Type Of The Blockchain Application Required

Every business irrespective of its size requires a digital platform/solution to efficiently run its business functions. Building a blockchain application also builds trust and transparency towards the business along with removing the intermediaries from it. Before beginning the development process it is advised that you understand the type of blockchain application required, such as if you required a permission blockchain application for a permission-less application. You have to analyze which application can meet your business requirements and how different its cost is across the industry.

The Professionals Involved In The Blockchain App Development

The overall cost of blockchain app development also depends upon the number of individuals or resources involved in the development process. For example, the salaries which you have to initiate for the blockchain experts or app developers are counted as a significant expense that cannot be missed out while calculating the app development cost. Blockchain technology is still in its nascent stage, and hence you won't get the right talent pool easily. While investing in such an app make sure to have the best talent for your project that can add value to your app.

Read the blog- How much does it cost to build a blockchain-based platform?

Third-Party Subscription

The blockchain app may require third-party subscription tools like Amazon Web Services, notification services, software marketing services, bug tracking tools, data analytics tools, etc. All of these tools are critical in determining the success of the application and the cost of their subscription also contributes to the overall cost of app development. Various companies can use agile methods like Confluence, Trello, and many more to manage their production app projects. All of these tools are required to test the application and determine its efficient development.

The Niche Of The Organization

The blockchain app development costsdepend upon the type of the industry required by the application under the specific niche. Across different sectors, various factors are involved like the complexity of the application, the number of interactions, and so on. All of these factors can change the app development cost because the requirement in each case differs from the other. For instance, a public sector application might cost more than $80K while a financial application would cost you around $60K.

The Complexity Of The Application

As per the blockchain development service providers, the complexity of the application plays a crucial role. The organization is advised to have a clear understanding of the below-mentioned aspects-

  • The purpose of the application
  • The problems which the current users are facing
  • The existing solutions for the problems
  • Why it is required to invest in the blockchain app development

While dealing with the app’s complexity it is important to have consideration for factors like mechanism, stack, platform, and UI/UX.

How Much Does Blockchain App Development Cost?

Blockchain technology is entirely planned to facilitate different features other than economic transactions. Blockchain is a chain of records having necessary details or files known as blocks. These blocks are connected uniformly along with hashes. It may take months to evolve a blockchain application from scratch and it takes years to assure its complete execution. Blockchain app development takes plenty of deliberation and time to execute the algorithms effectively. Any IoT application development company possesses wide knowledge about the languages, app development contexts, tools, and other prerequisites required to develop a consistent blockchain app.

While approximating the budget of blockchain-based applications it is essential to consider the following factors:

  • Evolving the application with a particular in-house app development group
  • Hiring service providers for the expansion of the blockchain app
  • Hiring blockchain app development growth companies or agencies to check on the application’s progress

Collaborating with an in-house company or a group of app developers is exclusive and also provides better control over the application progress. This part can be considered to facilitate the growth of the business. You will find an analysis of the estimated cost (minimum viable product values in multiple resources) for blockchain app development below:

In-House

  • Beginners- $500,00
  • Experts- $2000,000

Freelancer

  • Beginners- $30,000 to $ 50,000
  • Experts- $50,000 to $ 90,000

Agency

  • Beginners- $150,000 to $250,000
  • Experts- $250,000 to $500,000

Working with an in-house team is quite expensive but it also provides effective control and monitoring over blockchain app development. On the other hand, if you are outsourcing the project or hiring offshore developers, it could be the least expensive measure and yet it is considered to be the riskiest one. You can hire freelancers if the blockchain app development services project is small as the risk increases when the scope of the project grows over time.

How Long Does Blockchain App Development Take?

Blockchain app development has changed over the years where it has evolved from being a cumbersome solution for cryptocurrency into a highly scalable decentralized platform for developing an industry-specific application. Blockchain applications are extensively used across startups as well as large corporations to manage their business processes. Blockchain technology is not limited to financial transactions, rather, it can provide virtual services to users across different sectors. Blockchain is also a feature-dependent solution and the exact cause of app development can never be precise because it may vary for different project requirements.

Read the blog- Blockchain And Smartphone Technology Empowering An Evolution In Food Distribution

The duration of blocks and app development depends upon the application’s requirements and technology. The project for any such application is initiated with PoC treks of around 20 to 30 days. Once that is achieved, it takes another 30 to 40 days to bring a minimum viable product having limited features. To launch an application it takes two to three months based upon its specific requirements.

What Is The Process Of Blockchain App Development?

The process of blockchain app development is extremely complicated which requires thorough monitoring to ensure its success and good functioning. In this section, we will understand how to initiate blockchain development and what are the steps required to ensure its success.

Step 1: Identifying The Problems Which You Are Trying To Solve Using The Application

Before conducting the development, it is essential to come up with accurate problem statements and have an understanding of the same. Make sure that your blockchain solution will benefit either your customers or business partners. It is critical to analyze whether it is required to migrate the current solution to a blockchain version for your platform that would need a whole new application to be built from scratch. Once you choose the motive of your blockchain app solution the next step will be to choose the development platform or tools for your project.

Step 2: Choosing The Right Blockchain App Development Platform

Building a blockchain application from scratch needs a thorough understanding and research that may take years. Therefore you must develop the blockchain solution on the top of the same platform that can meet your business requirements without causing any inconvenience. You must also identify the accurate platform that can fulfill your requirements. Consider analyzing factors like services, problems, or consensus mechanisms that you are trying to solve using your application.

Step 3: Blockchain Ideation And Brainstorming

Once you have identified the blockchain app development platform you can focus on drafting business requirements and start brainstorming ideas. Focus on what technology solution or components can be added to the off-chain or on-chain entities of the application that can add value to the solution. You can create a roadmap for the app that will help you to build a project that underlines and possible steps to take. You should also come up with an application model that represents the conceptual workflow of the app. Decide if the solution needs to be developed on permission or permission-less network. 

At this specific stage, you have to make a selection of a front-end programming language, external databases, servers, and other components that have to be used.

Step 4: Doing A Proof Of Concept

Proof of concept for a mobile app development services application is done to represent its practical applicability across platforms. Proof of concept can either be a theoretical buildup or an application prototype. In a theoretical build up the project needs theoretical components so that customers can understand the app’s applicability or viability. The project parameters for the same can be proposed to create a theoretical build-up. Once it is developed and feedback is received, developers can initiate building prototypes of the application including sketches, test products, information architecture, mockups, designs, etc. Once the POC of the application gets approved by the client the next step will be to develop technical and visual aspects of the application.

Step 5: Technical And Visual Aspects

At this stage, you will have the entire road map of the application and now you can start creating the user interface for its components. The design APIs will be integrated with the same interface to run an application successfully in the back-end. Visual effects and designs are developed to give an attractive look and feel to the application whereas the technical aspects are designed to represent its technology architecture. As soon as the admin consoles and the application interfaces are designed it gets ready for further development.

Step 6: App Development

App development or any sort of IoT solution development is a significant phase of the whole process. In this particular stage, you have to either build or integrate the blockchain app APIs for different use cases of the application. The application can be developed under different versions and it is not essential to undergo formal testing under its pre-Alpha version. Once its initial version gets approved by the client the application moves to an Alpha version where app developers test its software. After this version is released, the application is prepared for the beta version - during this phase, the software has the entire feature set. This version of the application is shared by developers with a particular team member to test the functionality of the application.

Once the beta version of the application gets approved and tested the application releases its candidate version which is an advanced beta version. After effective testing, the application moves to the development phase and gets ready for delivery.

Final Verdict

In the application development space, blockchain technology has been a unique thing. This technology is evolving at a rapid rate and if deployed in a difficulty-free manner it can be the best option to develop an app. Blockchain is based on the peer-to-peer technique which is a dispersed ledger technology that permits files or documents to be universally connected across multiple servers. App development platforms are looking for ways to implement blockchain mobile app development services across various industries.

The development cost for blockchain applications may differ substantially due to some features that you are going to implement in your project. The described price and time estimates are the average components and if you are willing to know the exact cost and time required for the development of your blockchain app, it is advised that you consult professionals. You can consider that hiring a blockchain app development agency or company is the best measure to get an app developed as compared to any other option like hiring freelancers or outsourcing the project.