DEV Community: Josh Digital

How is Blockchain Technology Impacting Android App Development?

Josh Digital — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 17:27:31 +0000

A recent claim by the Harvard Business Review predicts that what the internet did to print and tele media, blockchain will do to traditional banking. The analogy seems incomplete without also noting that akin to how online media has been fuelled by mobile apps, the penetration of blockchain is also likely to be steered by mobile app development, making mobile blockchain a household term.

So, let’s try and get a feel of how to integrate blockchain technology into android app development.
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What’s all the Fuss About Mobile Blockchain?

The core of blockchain technology, strong encryption, provides a long-term solution for many industries looking to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to securing transactions—real estate consortiums, healthcare organizations, and financial institutions to name a few.

Using several advanced methods through blockchain protocols, blockchain mobile app technology has changed the face of digital transactions, making them even more accessible. This digital ledger blockchain technology promises to be particularly suited for mobile apps, facilitating smooth peer-to-peer transactions. Furnishing dedicated and unaltered records of transactions solely based on mobile app needs, along with offering lower-cost solutions and automating time-consuming processes, blockchain is now nigh-indispensable to mobile app development, ushering in the era of Mobile Blockchain.

Though a mobile-first blockchain system seems far-off, the convenience of a mobile interface can certainly enrich blockchain-based systems.

Are Blockchain Apps More Than Just a Passing Fad?
Though they have quite a lot going for them, a few critical features appear to be at the heart of blockchain apps gaining so much traction.

Seamless Transaction
Even though providing mobile services for financial transactions is no more an alien concept to the FinTech Industry, issues like rejected transactions, commissions, and exchange rates are still a few roadblocks impeding this industry’s growth. With blockchain apps and integrated blockchain wallets, customers can choose to make a purchase with cryptocurrency, without any additional fees.

Enjoyable Crypto Exchange Experience
Buying and selling cryptocurrencies have to be centred around the customer’s convenience, what with the extreme volatility of the cryptocurrency market that demands quick action. Mobile blockchain crypto apps have managed to achieve this quite successfully, garnering great popularity.

Advanced Data Security
With data breaches on the rise, security has been a major challenge for banking and finance apps. During transactions, blockchain mobile applications are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. Employing decentralized data that ensures to keep a record of all chains for each member of the network, blockchain based mobile apps development reduce the probability of such attacks.

So, even if crypto ends up failing, blockchain apps seem to be here to stay.

Blockchain applications optimize digital business operations, increasing business revenue, and improving security.
**
**What Makes Blockchain Applications Tick?
Widely known as DApps (Decentralized Applications), blockchain apps do not use any central servers acting as intermediaries. Instead, data is exchanged through what is known as a blockchain network, where users themselves serve the role of mini-servers. However, setting up a blockchain could require storage space ranging from a few GBs up to 1 TB. DApps tackle this problem by functioning as links in the chain, with every user at the helm of data validation and transmission.

Want to Build Your Android Apps Leveraging
Blockchain Technology?
Here’s all that you’ll need to consider.
Step 1: Formalizing Ideas
As with every business and product, conceptualization or proper planning should be your first step. Your DApp should be targeted towards solving specific problems. You should also consider your needs and ensure that blockchain is a viable solution, and not just a buzzword that you want your app to feature.

Step 2: Researching Market Competition
Though the blockchain market has not yet become saturated, there are a lot of good ideas out there. Looking at the current playing field, you can try to pinpoint your niche, or draw inspiration from existing solutions to evaluate what can be improved.

Step 3: Analysing Technical Options
You can choose to build your DApp using any of these options.
Private networks, using blockchain software
Open blockchain networks like Ethereum or Bitcoin, integrated into your application
Cloud-based services of BaaS (Blockchain as a Service) providers like Amazon and Microsoft, integrated into your own app
Building your own blockchain network on any suitable platform.

Step 4: Selecting a Platform
If you have your heart set on building your own network, you can choose a suitable platform from among these.
Ethereum - allows you to develop a blockchain application development and also create your own ecosystem. Though it uses Solidity as the programming language, which allows for the creation of smart contracts, Ethereum is still one of the most popular blockchain app development platforms.

*- Ripple- *
is primarily targeted towards financial apps. Connecting users with banks and payment providers, it facilitates fast, global monetary transactions at incredible speeds of up to 5 transactions per second.

- Hyperledger Fabric
is most suitable for creating corporate tools that facilitate intra-organization data exchange.

- R3 Corda
specializes in the creation of permissioned blockchains. Easily integrable with legacy systems, it is particularly suitable for healthcare, commerce, trade finance, and supply chain related DApps.

- Platform
selection for your blockchain app and the programming skill set of your development team must complement each other. While several platforms allow Android app developers to create blockchain apps using common languages like C++, Kotlin, Java and JavaScript, others make use of unconventional languages like Simplicity and Solidity.

Step 5: Choosing Programming Languages
With a variety of options available—C#, Python, Java, Solidity, Go, C++, Michelson, Plutus, Scilla, and Rholang, to name a few—you must carefully decide what’s best for your project development.

The tech stack for your blockchain app development must strike a balance between your needs and your team’s expertise. Some languages are more suitable for things like Smart Contracts, while others handle asynchronous code much better. Going for unconventional languages would require you to hire experts or take the time to train your existing teams.

Step 6: Initiating Development

Besides the languages and the platform, the development processes for android apps using blockchain technology can vary depending on three other aspects:

What strategy you’re using for the interactions between nodes
What your consensus mechanism is Whether you’re employing an existing blockchain, a BaaS or creating your own Whatever the case, the development process would typically involve these stages.

Step 7: Deploying and Maintaining the DApp

To be successfully deployed, you must ensure that your DApp is operating smoothly and is compliant with all Google Play Store rules and conditions. Post deployment, you must start collecting and analysing data on app development performance and user analytics.

Right after the successful deployment, maintenance emerges as the most crucial service of blockchain app development. Regular security and feature updates to your app are required to meet changing user and business needs, and to support newer frameworks, libraries and operating systems.

Final Thoughts
The business landscape in the near-term future is likely to be coloured by mobile apps, with Blockchain technology being one of the key resources they tap into. Finance, Supply Chain, Healthcare and Retail are but a few of the industries that will benefit from the secure options that mobile blockchain furnishes. There are also signs that a blockchain-based app store may soon come into the picture.

Amidst that outlook, a project envisioning the development of a blockchain distributed mobile app or the integration of an app with a blockchain warrants expert help.

With our years of experience developing robust and scalable blockchain mobile apps and our expertise of the newest technologies, we at Josh Software can help you accomplish the confluence of blockchain technology and mobile app development in your project.

Dominate the World of Blockchain developing dynamic Android Apps with Josh Software.

**Get in touch now!

Josh Software**
As an open-source novel OS, we at Josh Software are super excited to follow the journey of Flutter app development embraced with Cloud. Watch this space for more updates!

Start your app development journey with us today. Reach out to us if you need any information.

Cloud Migration: Upgrade Your Business to the Next Level!

Josh Digital — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 08:29:03 +0000

Gone are the days when ‘migration to the cloud’ was still an emerging concept.
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Providing an unending array of business benefits, cloud migration involves moving varied organizational elements, data, or applications to a more secured and centralized server—a cloud computing environment. Transferring pretty much all of the local data center capabilities into the cloud, companies are nowadays tapping into ‘cloud-based infrastructure as a service, provided by some of the popular cloud migration service providers—AWS, Azure, Google Cloud to name a few.

cloud migration services can be of several types, providing varied options for enterprises to opt for the most suitable one for them.

How Cloud Migration Is Directly Proportional to Business Growth?

Deploying digital assets like resources, services/applications in the cloud, and protecting unauthorized access to the migrated assets using a firewall, cloud migration services paves the way for organizations to enhance the scalability, security, and transparency of their core assets.

Loaded with smart features like user-friendly applications, enhanced security, ease of access, time-saving features, and qualitative outputs, cloud computing is not only fuelling the growth of businesses but also beckoning non-cloud users to take the leap into this business-changing landscape created by the Cloud.

Discover the Best Types of Cloud Computing

Once you think about the public cloud, it is quite natural to visualize it like any other utility, because this type of cloud deployment model is engaged in shifting applications and data from a local data center to the common centralized server—the public cloud. On the other hand, a model built on the principle of ‘cloud-to-cloud migration’ involves data transfer from one cloud platform/provider to another. Now, what type of cloud deployment model is that?

Let’s find out a few best types of cloud computing models and their respective features, that are successfully transforming global businesses.

5 Strategies Enterprises Should Adopt for Migrating to the Cloud

Research by Gartner suggests five options to migrate to the cloud successfully for any organization. These strategies are often known as the “5 R’s”.

Rehost –
Thought of as ‘lift and shift’, rehosting involves the use of an IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) for the enterprises that choose this strategy. Providing the flexibility of redeploying the organizational existing data and applications on the cloud server, rehosting is getting popular to the organizations that are still behind the adoption curve in cloud migration. Also, rehosting comes as a definite choice for such organizations that are keen to migrate their applications intact, while having difficulty in modifying the codes properly.
Refactor –
Come off as ‘lift, tinker, and shift,’ refactoring provides the companies with advantages, like tweaking and optimizing their applications for the cloud. Enterprises that adopt this strategy are able to reuse the existing code and frameworks, and run their applications on an employed model—PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service). The core architecture of the applications that run through the PaaS platform, remains unchanged; however, a little adjustment of those applications can enhance the efficiency of cloud-based tools.
Revise –
As the name implies, this strategy deals with partially revising or rewriting the code base, and then deploying those codes to the cloud by either using rehosting or refactoring, following any of the above methods.
Rebuild –
Rewriting and re-architecting the application on a PaaS provider’s platform from the scratch is what this strategy ‘rebuilding’ entails. Despite being a labour-intensive process, this strategy excites developers in terms of taking advantage of modern features that come with the PaaS model/platform.
Replace – Businesses that are choosing to discard their old applications altogether are adopting this strategy, while switching to readymade SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) applications from cloud service providers.

Blueprint for the Cloud Migration Process

Before starting the cloud migration journey, it’s imperative for enterprises to take an end-to-end look at the tools and services that are involved in the journey, along with the potential roadblocks ahead. This ensures effective execution of all the capabilities and activities across the crucial steps of cloud migration, later on, and to overcome some common challenges hindering the process.

There is no one-size-fits-all, when it comes to shifting to the cloud. You need to truly understand your business model, the size and complexity of your on-premise infrastructure, and the migration goal that you’re looking for, before executing the “5 R’s”.

To understand the ins and outs of the existing infrastructure, and realize the true capabilities in terms of having the right tools, businesses should leverage the capabilities of their respective IT teams. With that in the bag, designing a roadmap for ‘what apps to transfer, how and when’, will be much easier to perceive.

Besides the tools, organizations could also rely upon cloud service providers, who help them in seamlessly navigating through different phases of the cloud migration, including migration planning, data migration, server migration, and database migration. Some of the renowned IaaS providers, AWS, Microsoft and Google, provide cost-effective, tiered cloud migration services, including free trials. There are also some Cloud Cost Calculators and Estimation Tools available, that help enterprises determine the cloud configuration cost, before the migration.

However, businesses are often sceptical, from the services and apps transfer standpoint, not being able to make up their minds on whether they should move all the apps and services at once or opt for the hybrid model to store a few assets on-premise.

To avoid this dilemma, you should take a thorough look at the basic migration steps.

1. Execute Your Migration Plan

Easier said than done, moving to the cloud requires multiple approaches, where solid planning in advance should always be the first step towards successful cloud migration. Being clear with your migration goals, and selecting the migration approach that is well-suited for your business needs are indispensable, when it comes to creating a proper cloud migration roadmap.

To start with your cloud migration plan, you should first do a thorough analysis of where your organization is falling on the cloud maturity curve. Upon a careful survey on your existing infrastructure, the evaluation of server, security, and performance requirements, and providing necessary trainings of your teams in DevOps with a specific cloud provider, it will be evident to you, which cloud migration tools are right for you.

2. Select Your Cloud Environment Wisely

After the evaluation of your resource requirements, you can move to the next step of selecting a cloud provider that promises to match your business needs.

Each cloud service provider offers different cloud models to adopt: whether public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud. Setting up a virtual workspace to test how things will look in the deployment stage, in terms of infrastructure, cost, etc., will provide you with transparency while taking a final call on the cloud environment.

3. Migrate Your Database Carefully

With the right execution of your planning, the process of your apps and data migration should go seamlessly.

Depending on the type and amount of data you need to move at a specific speed, your provider will guide you to take any of the below approaches that lead to successful transfer of your local data to the public cloud:

An online transfer
Transferring data either using the public internet or over a private network
A physical approach to transfer data offline, by uploading the local data onto an appliance (a medium) to ship to your selected cloud provider
Closing Thoughts
Cloud migration may seem like a daunting task; but the benefits far outweigh the challenges. Partnering with an experienced cloud migration service provider can help you ensure a seamless migration process, tailored-made for your applications and data ecosystem.

Josh Software has been bringing about digital transformations of leading global brands, by helping them successfully migrate to the cloud, using the right strategies and workflow models. Using proven templates, we ensure that migrating to the cloud does not accidentally disrupt our client’s business operations, and is carried out systematically.

Start your digital transformation journey, with cloud migration services by Josh Software.

Reach out to speak to our consultants.

Cybersecurity In FinTech: Why You Must Focus on Securing Your App

Josh Digital — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 10:03:35 +0000

The Fintech industry around the globe is revamping its cybersecurity architecture, bracing itself for a continuous spree of data breaches and cyberattacks. This threat-counter mechanism seeks to minimize the huge financial losses, reputational damage, regulatory consequences, and general mistrust that manifest after cyberattacks and data leaks.

However, in a time when digitization is at its peak, cyber attackers are also expeditiously resorting to newer ways of committing cyber crimes, adopting next-level hacking techniques.

Parallelly, it becomes easier to commit cybercrimes when global Fintech companies rely upon mobile data transfers, end-to-end user systems, electronic payments systems, cryptocurrency trading, and so on, in order to boost their efficiency.

Major cybersecurity challenges faced by Fintech
Common cybersecurity threats for Fintech apps
How robust cybersecurity frameworks aid fintech in mitigating threats
Technologies & trends to minimize cybersecurity threats for Fintech
Takeaway

Major Cybersecurity Challenges Faced by FinTech

Following the technological revolution, the Fintech industry has invested in online core banking systems like one-click payments through apps and online purchases to cater to its customers’ growing habit of getting things done on the internet. Cybercriminals have also optimized several attacking strategies to destabilize the Fintech sector—carrying out phishing attacks and DDoS attacks to steal login credentials and sabotage online transactions.

Apart from this, owing to the shift of crucial data to the cloud, the Fintech industry is faced with other prevalent security threats, what with the over-reliance on fingerprint and OTP-based login.

Furthermore, towards the goal of building a robust online transaction system, the banking sector has been collaborating with third-party IT companies to launch distinct payment options such as mobile wallets.

However, huge misalignments with nascent Fintech organizations while mainstreaming the app-based payment protocol have left the BFSI sector prone to cyberattacks. Many times, this also happens due to poor implementation of security guidelines.

Additionally, all the crucial financial data and critical personal information that the Fintech sector handles always makes it a prime target for advanced hacking groups.

Cybercriminals have also optimized several attacking strategies to destabilize the Fintech sector—carrying out phishing attacks and DDoS attacks to steal login credentials and sabotage online transactions.

Common Cybersecurity Threats for Fintech Apps

Identity theft and fraud – Dealing with users’ sensitive data and transferring money with a single click, Fintech apps are at the forefront of cyberattack targets, leaving room for hackers to crack passwords and gain access to accounts. It is a constant challenge to keep users’ digital IDs secure from attackers, through password verification processes.

Malware attacks – The way Fintech provides PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and financial access, makes Fintech apps attractive targets to conduct malware attacks. Below are the most common malware attacks targeting Fintech apps:

•Denial of service attacks: Flooding the application with traffic, making the app inaccessible to its legitimate customers

•Phishing attacks: Posing as businesses or even government agency portals, extracting valuable information from users, to gain access to the application

•Ransomware: Infiltrating system files and encrypting them, to demand a ransom payment for gaining back access to the files

**Data breaching – **As the primary operation of Fintech companies revolves around collecting, managing, and storing bulk data on a day-to-day basis through Fintech apps, the data is more prone to leak due to the rising popularity of online transactions. Once hackers breach payment apps and users’ data, it is the Fintech company that is held responsible by regulators.

Money laundering – Most Fintech companies deal with cryptocurrencies nowadays. Using the anonymous nature of cryptocurrency, cybercriminals can engage in money laundering or even steal money from Fintech’s legitimate customers, resulting in tremendous financial losses and serious legal ramifications.

How Robust Cybersecurity Frameworks Aid Fintech in Mitigating Threats

Even without any massive technological overhaul, the Fintech industry can efficiently protect critical data from getting illegally accessed by cybercriminals, by implementing several multi-oriented cybersecurity tools. Apart from promising to neutralize a wide range of cyberattacks, these highly-resilient and agile threat-monitoring tools can also be effective in providing 24x7 monitoring as well as removing vulnerabilities.

Here’s how Fintech companies can reinforce their cybersecurity safeguards:

•Dynamic Threat Detection: Enhancing proactive threat detection mechanisms can ensure the safety, security, and identification of vulnerabilities resulting from third-party involvement.

•Authentication Based Login: Implementing secured authentication-based login— especially in app-based payment systems—in compliance with government-mandated laws like GDPR, HIPAA, GLBA, etc., can further protect core banking systems from attacks.

•Data Encryption for Customer Privacy: Incorporating high-level data encryption services as a security feature is instrumental in customers’ data protection.

•Collaborative Security Services: Collaborating with multiple security services, the Fintech industry can identify malware, monitor and detect malfunctioning code, and neutralize them accordingly.

•Certifications: It is true that certifications such as ISO 27001 may not be effective for an organization, when it comes to cyberattacks. Nonetheless, they can provide an advantage to a Fintech organization in keeping its cybersecurity risk management program on track. A few considerations in a program, including addressing vulnerabilities, assessment of third-party risk, etc. are extremely valuable.

By leveraging the latest tools and technologies in data security, along with upskilling employees in cybersecurity practices, the Fintech sector can look forward to offering safe and secure financial services to its customers.

Technologies & Trends to Minimize Cybersecurity Threats for Fintech

Here are some of the trending innovations and technologies that are making Fintech apps more secure.

Multi-cloud data storage

The safety that comes with private cloud storage is often preferable, in terms of meeting many financial needs. However, the multi-cloud storage solution is a clear winner, providing financial businesses with enhanced security and transparency in their data usage, besides offering a secure backup system for sensitive data.

AI fraud detection

Leading global Fintech firms, like MasterCard, are reaping the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) processes, incorporating them into their protocols to predict as well as prevent fraud. Leveraging these systems, companies can analyze data to rank the risks for their clients and examine clients’ behaviors, flagging potential vulnerabilities. AI/ML promises to be the ultimate solution for analyzing bulk data to quickly detect unauthorized usage, helping ensure security in Fintech systems.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) networks

Similar to multi-cloud storage, SASE network architecture brings multiple systems on the same page to yield effective security solutions. Combining wide-area networking with network security services, this latest trend in Fintech not only offers comprehensive cloud services but also helps in securing an organization’s operations and ensuring greater functionality.

Blockchain systems

As a decentralized data flow system, blockchain ensures enhanced security by storing data in cryptographic hashes, which renders hacking almost impossible. Because conducting a cybercrime in these cryptographic hashes calls for decrypting every node in the link, which is extremely difficult, the implementation of blockchain in Fintech enables secure and seamless transactions.

Regulatory technologies (Regtech)

Regtech promises to maintain Fintech security in a landscape where the push for broadening cybersecurity regulations comes directly from governments. Managing big data usage with utmost flexibility, these technologies ensure compliance with government-regulated standards, and commonly include data encryption and de-identification mechanisms that safeguard customer privacy.

Takeaway

Regardless of how useful and efficient your app is, if customers cannot trust you with the security of their sensitive data, your adoption and retention rates will drop.

That said, navigating the complex and ever-changing world of cybersecurity in the Fintech industry can be challenging for many organizations.

Ensure top-notch data security in your Fintech app.
Get in touch with us to understand your security requirements.