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Blockchain + Low-Code for Financial Services: The Perfect Marriage

Appian Contributor
June 27, 2018

Blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) could fundamentally change the financial services industry, transforming the way financial transactions are executed, making them more efficient, resilient and reliable. To realize the potential of this revolutionary technology, financial institutions will need a foundation of technology solutions built for speed and power. Low-code development platforms have significant promise in enabling the efficiency, transparency, and security needed to take the first steps into the exploration of blockchain.

Using a low-code platform to build blockchain applications will allow financial institutions to reduce the cost, time, effort, and risk associated with building production-ready blockchain applications. Low-code provides the flexibility to work with both public and private blockchain implementations, without requiring a deep knowledge of how the blockchain technology works. Those complexities are instead managed by the low-code platform. Low-code development platforms allow financial institutions to ease into the use of blockchain, taking advantage of its benefits with fewer challenges and risks.

How low-code can aid in blockchain adoption.

Whether using public or private blockchain implementations, financial institutions can use their established business process management technology as an entry point to overcome blockchain challenges. Graphically based low-code development capabilities allow blockchain application developers to abstract the complexity of blockchain and model it visually, so that it's easier to quickly integrate applications with any blockchain technology. Low-code enables financial institutions to be nimble enough to change in response to the ever-shifting sands of blockchain, expediting the development of blockchain applications while lessening the burden of heavy investments not only capital, but also in time and talent.

Bringing AI and blockchain together.

Blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) are trends that leaders in financial services are watching closely. Each one shows significant potential in financial services, but are even stronger when combined (see our earlier blog for specific blockchain use cases). The technologies complement one other and provide opportunities for enhanced oversight and accountability. Take a look at fraud detection. Financial institutions will increasingly rely on AI algorithms to make decisions about the authenticity of financial transactions and whether they should be blocked or investigated. Compliance and regulatory reporting requirements will undoubtedly mean that humans audit those decisions for accuracy, and blockchain is designed so that no one, not even a system administrator, can alter data once it has been written. This makes auditing simpler and provides greater confidence that no one has tampered with the record.

This is just one example of this symbiotic relationship. We know that data is king, and blockchain and AI will enable greater sophistication for analyzing and storing data. Financial institutions who are first-movers in exploiting the power of this dynamic duo are sure to gain digital dominance.

The Appian Low-Code Platform: when you're ready, we're ready.

Blockchain technology is enabling a paradigm shift in how assets are exchanged. Already, many top financial institutions are experimenting with blockchain technology to digitally track assets and their ownership. With Appian, you can create new blockchain-driven applications at a fraction of the time and cost, quickly and easily extending existing apps to use blockchain, and providing blockchain-as-a-service to any system in your enterprise via web APIs.

Find out how leading financial services organizations are using Appian to speed app development.