A detailed Step-by-Step method to design the Architecture of your Blockchain project

1. Identify the Use case:

• Analyze whether you need a blockchain as a solution or if there are other ways to solve an existing business problem.

• Dont start churning up detailed technical specifications without any validation.

• Blockchain should solve a problem for an existing centralized system, eg., expensiveness, transparency, and reliability.

• Have a feasible layout for integrating the technology into your development strategy.

2. Identify the Consensus Mechanism:

Depending on your use case choose the Consensus Mechanism. A few of the popular Consensus Mechanisms are:

• Proof-of-work

• Proof-of-Stake

• Delegated-Proof-of-Stake

• Proof-of-Authority

• Proof-of-Weight

3. Identify the Platform:

Depending on the consensus mechanism of your use case requirement, select the appropriate platform which suffices the business needs. A few of the popular platforms are:

• Bitcoin

• Ethereum

• Multichain

• Hyperledger

• Corda

• Quorum

• Solana

• BigChainDB

• Stellar

4. Design the Architecture:

• The architecture includes elements such as infrastructure, software, and hardware configuration.

• The solution may be architectured on the cloud, on-premises, or in a hybrid model depending on the organization’s need.

• Further architecture can be designed according to permission-less, permissioned, public, private, or hybrid.

5. Design the Blockchain Instance:

You need to plan your instance carefully. In specific platforms, it's difficult to configure some parameters once set. Things needed under configuration can be as follows:

• Permissions

• Asset Issuance/Reissuance

• Atomic Exchanges

• Key Management

• Multi-Signature

• Block Parameters

• Limits

• Network Protocols/Handshaking

• Key and Address Formats

• Native Assets

6. Building the APIs:

APIs are required by the developers and applications to interact with your Blockchain. Usually, platforms come with APIs, and if you are building from scratch, you need to look into the design and schemas for your APIs carefully.

As per your requirements you need to see which APIs to expose for your Blockchain. Some of the APIs that you might need are:

• Generating Key Pairs

• Asset Issuance

• Data Authentication

• Checking Blockchain Parameters

• Create and Read operations

• Smart Contracts

• Address Specifications

7. Designing the Front End:

• You require a Front End for your users and administrators.

• Most platforms work on JSON format which can be collaborated with major programming languages.

• Some of the platforms offer SDKs to integrate existing front-end applications with Blockchain.

• You can use languages like HTML5, CSS, PHP, C#, Java, Javascript, Python, Ruby, Goland, Solidity, AngularJS, and NodeJS.

• Moreover, you can also use external storage like Cloud Storage, NoSQL, RDBMS, etc.

8. Futuristic

• Once you have the stable application up and running, you can look into future integrations with other technologies.

• You can enhance the power of your Blockchain solution by integrating Artificial Intelligence, Biometrics, the Internet of Things, Bots, Cloud, Cognitive services, Containers, Data Analytics, and Machine Learning.