The blockchain is touted as the most significant technological innovations that have already captivated a good chunk of major industries. There has been an exponential growth in the adoption of blockchain technology in the past few years.

Yes, blockchain is a groundbreaking technology as most of the marketers state it to be, but still, it has a long way to go. We have already heard a lot about what is blockchain and how it is changing the market trends.

Now it is time to understand the significant challenges of blockchain industry.

1. Scalability:

The ability to manage a large number of users at a single time is still a challenge for the blockchain industry. Blockchain technology involves several complex algorithms to process a single transaction. As of October 2017, the total number of coinbase users is recorded to be 11.7 million. As more and more people are getting used to it, the average transactions have also increased dramatically. It severely hit the processing speed of the transactions as a higher number of people implies more computers writing and accessing the network creating an overall cumbersome system.

2. Hackers and shadow dealing:

The one thing that the blockchain industry lacks is a set of regulatory oversight making it a volatile environment and an easy target for market manipulation. For instance, the infamous one coin scam where a lot of investors lost money thinking it to be the next revolutionary digital currency was revealed to be a Ponzi scheme scam. No matter how good you are with your cryptocurrency understanding, there is always a chance that the online wallet you are using may get hacked or be blocked by the government due to some shadowy practices.

3. Complex to understand and adopt:

Blockchain technology and the complexities it involves makes it hard for a layperson to understand and comprehend its benefits. Before diving into this revolutionary application, one needs to read it through and understand the principles of encryption and distributed ledger. Another point that makes blockchain hard to adopt is that financial institutions are adequate to provide secure payment gateways and other services at affordable prices compared to the costs incurred with blockchain.

4. Privacy:

Blockchain is an open ledger which is visible for everyone to view. It is an essential aspect in many cases, but it becomes a liability if used in a sensitive environment. Blockchain technology still has to go a long way to be adopted on a broad scale. The ledger needs to be remodeled in a way that allows restricted access and is accessible only to people who are authorized to view it.

5.Costs:

Blockchain is implemented usually for eliminating the expenses related to the third parties and intermediaries involved in the process of transferring values. Though, the blockchain technology is quite beneficial it is still in the nascent stages of innovation making it tough to integrate into the legacy systems. It makes it an expensive affair overall preventing its adoption by the government as well as private firms.

6. Blockchain is still a distant dream:

The market pundits are going gaga over the blockchain technology, its benefits and how it is re-shaping the infrastructure of emerging technologies like InsurTech and others. But, the truth is that the challenges mentioned above are still hard to conquer, and it will take some good time before blockchain becomes an integral part of all the industries.

The Blockchain is an innovative technology but needs a lot of technological advancements. However, technology has an intrinsic property of evolving and can always find a way through any challenges. So, we cannot say that blockchain is going anywhere anytime soon but will take time to revolutionize the technology sector completely.

Why Netflix Broke Itself: Was It Success Rewritten Through Platform Engineering?

By : Sampada

Published on Nov 13, 2024

App development Platform Engineering

Let’s take a trip back in time—2008. Netflix was nothing like the media juggernaut it is today. Back then, they were a DVD-rental-by-mail service trying to go digital. But here’s the kicker: they hit a major pitfall. The internet was booming, and people were binge-watching shows like never before, but Netflix’s infrastructure couldn’t handle the load. Their single, massive system—what techies call a “monolith”—was creaking under pressure. Slow load times and buffering wheels plagued the experience, a nightmare for any platform or app development company trying to scale

That’s when Netflix decided to do something wild—they broke their monolith into smaller pieces. It was microservices, the tech equivalent of turning one giant pizza into bite-sized slices. Instead of one colossal system doing everything from streaming to recommendations, each piece of Netflix’s architecture became a specialist—one service handled streaming, another handled recommendations, another managed user data, and so on.

But microservices alone weren’t enough. What if one slice of pizza burns? Would the rest of the meal be ruined? Netflix wasn’t about to let a burnt crust take down the whole operation. That’s when they introduced the Circuit Breaker Pattern—just like a home electrical circuit that prevents a total blackout when one fuse blows. Their famous Hystrix tool allowed services to fail without taking down the entire platform.

Fast-forward to today: Netflix isn’t just serving you movie marathons, it’s a digital powerhouse, an icon in platform engineering; it’s deploying new code thousands of times per day without breaking a sweat. They handle 208 million subscribers streaming over 1 billion hours of content every week. Trends in Platform engineering transformed Netflix into an application dev platform with self-service capabilities, supporting app developers and fostering a culture of continuous deployment.

Did Netflix bring order to chaos?

Netflix didn’t just solve its own problem. They blazed the trail for a movement: platform engineering. Now, every company wants a piece of that action. What Netflix did was essentially build an internal platform that developers could innovate without dealing with infrastructure headaches, a dream scenario for any application developer or app development company seeking seamless workflows.

And it’s not just for the big players like Netflix anymore. Across industries, companies are using platform engineering to create Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)—one-stop shops for mobile application developers to create, test, and deploy apps without waiting on traditional IT. According to Gartner, 80% of organizations will adopt platform engineering by 2025 because it makes everything faster and more efficient, a game-changer for any mobile app developer or development software firm.

All anybody has to do is to make sure the tools are actually connected and working together. To make the most of it. That’s where modern trends like self-service platforms and composable architectures come in. You build, you scale, you innovate.achieving what mobile app dev and web-based development needs And all without breaking a sweat.

Is Mantra Labs Redefining Platform Engineering?

We didn’t just learn from Netflix’s playbook; we’re writing our own chapters in platform engineering. One example of this? Our work with one of India’s leading private-sector general insurance companies.

Their existing DevOps system was like Netflix’s old monolith: complex, clunky, and slowing them down. Multiple teams, diverse workflows, and a lack of standardization were crippling their ability to innovate. Worse yet, they were stuck in a ticket-driven approach, which led to reactive fixes rather than proactive growth. Observability gaps meant they were often solving the wrong problems, without any real insight into what was happening under the hood.

That’s where Mantra Labs stepped in. Mantra Labs brought in the pillars of platform engineering:

Standardization: We unified their workflows, creating a single source of truth for teams across the board.

Customization: Our tailored platform engineering approach addressed the unique demands of their various application development teams.

Traceability: With better observability tools, they could now track their workflows, giving them real-time insights into system health and potential bottlenecks—an essential feature for web and app development and agile software development.

We didn’t just slap a band-aid on the problem; we overhauled their entire infrastructure. By centralizing infrastructure management and removing the ticket-driven chaos, we gave them a self-service platform—where teams could deploy new code without waiting in line. The results? Faster workflows, better adoption of tools, and an infrastructure ready for future growth.

But we didn’t stop there. We solved the critical observability gaps—providing real-time data that helped the insurance giant avoid potential pitfalls before they happened. With our approach, they no longer had to “hope” that things would go right. They could see it happening in real-time which is a major advantage in cross-platform mobile application development and cloud-based web hosting.

The Future of Platform Engineering: What’s Next?

As we look forward, platform engineering will continue to drive innovation, enabling companies to build scalable, resilient systems that adapt to future challenges—whether it’s AI-driven automation or self-healing platforms.

If you’re ready to make the leap into platform engineering, Mantra Labs is here to guide you. Whether you’re aiming for smoother workflows, enhanced observability, or scalable infrastructure, we’ve got the tools and expertise to get you there.

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