People who get involved with a new blockchain incubator are working on the ground floor with an initiative that could go anywhere.
It is not bound by basic conventions or industry expectations.
This is a blank canvas where creativity and innovation takes centre stage and it is an environment that breeds excitement and anticipation for what could be.
Yet the modeling to create a form of cryptocurrency that will be entirely unique is not an endeavour that should be engaged in lightly.
From the analysts and engineers to programmers, mentors, sponsors and affiliates, there are challenges that cannot be avoided.
No matter how many preemptive measures or safeguards are put in place, this is a practice that carries an inherent degree of risk.
Lack of structure and scheduling
Specialists that volunteer their time and energy with a blockchain incubator will enjoy the freedoms and lack of structure that is afforded to participants. In comparison to an industry designed workshop, university program or accelerator where time constraints, stated objectives and presentations are part of the agreement, this could be considered something of an underground movement and innovative culture that is open to its own community. Yet that also presents its own challenges for the people that host and oversee the initiative. Who comes and goes, where they stay, how much power they use, where they login from and who foots which bills all become sore points if the rules and guidelines are not stated from the outset.
Motivations of the mentor
Mentors within the blockchain incubator framework are available and on hand to guide young professionals and innovators towards outcomes that they would prefer. However, who is to know what their motivations are in joining the program. Do they have experience that is comparable to what the engineers are creating? Is their counsel relevant or helpful? Are they looking to take a percentage of any earned revenue and if so, how much? These questions should be asked of the mentor.
Entry level criteria
The people that are cleared to be involved in the blockchain incubator is one domain that deserves further scrutiny. Who makes these decisions and what criteria is used to make those judgments? Whilst it is a semi-professional environment where college and university students will come together for the initiative, it can also be grounds for discrimination. From age to race, gender to sexual orientation or those of high financial means and others who are not – these demographics can play an influential role in deciding who can affect change.
Resources and environmental suitability
For a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to be fully operational and working to its capacity within a blockchain incubator, there needs to be a computing system that is modern, adaptable and able to synchronise between modules. In other words, this is not an exercise that can be executed with a basic Microsoft program hosted on a few aged Apple desktops. This has to be an apparatus that is has the ability to create data that is resistant to modification and can be given a timestamp. It takes a great deal of expertise to develop a format of transactional data from the beginning stages to something more mature and developed, but that also necessitates the appropriate resources and type of environment that can facilitate the invention.
Security and privacy breaches
Given that a blockchain incubator is seeing technology created at the embryotic stage, there is a greater threat that security and privacy breaches can take place. There are black market operators and nefarious hackers who pray on these environments to obtain their information and leverage the forms of transactional data to their own benefit. Without the appropriate safeguards and practices where login details and personal information is exposed, then that is a challenge that has to be prioritised by the people charged with running the initiative. Unlike accelerators that are more matured and structured in their network, an incubator has to make more of a conscious effort to meet this threat head-on.