Block Chain:
History | Description
| Applications | Bitcoin | Blockchain Roles | Case Studies
Blockchain technology has a large potential to transform business operating models in the long term. Blockchain distributed ledger technology is more a foundational technology—with the potential to create new foundations for global economic and social systems—than a disruptive technology, which typically "attack a traditional business model with a lower-cost solution and overtake incumbent firms quickly." Even so, there are a few operational products maturing from proof of concept by late 2016. The use of blockchains promises to bring significant efficiencies to global supply chains, financial transactions, asset ledgers and decentralized social networking.
As of 2016, some observers remain skeptical. Steve Wilson, of Constellation Research, believes the technology has been hyped with unrealistic claims.To mitigate risk businesses are reluctant to place blockchain at the core of the business structure. Blockchain technology can be integrated into multiple areas. This means specific blockchain applications may be a disruptive innovation, because substantially lower-cost solutions can be instantiated, which can disrupt existing business models. Blockchain protocols facilitate businesses to use new methods of processing digital transactions. Examples include a payment system and digital currency, facilitating crowdsales, or implementing prediction markets and generic governance tools.
Blockchains can be thought of as an automatically notarised ledger. They alleviate the need for a trust service provider and are predicted to result in less capital being tied up in disputes. Blockchains have the potential to reduce systemic risk and financial fraud. They automate processes that were previously time-consuming and done manually, such as the incorporation of businesses. In theory, it would be possible to collect taxes, conduct conveyancing and provide risk management with blockchains.
Major applications of blockchain include cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, and blockchain platforms such as Factom as a distributed registry, Gems for decentralized messaging, Storj and Sia for distributed cloud storage, and Tezos for decentralized voting.
New distribution methods are available for the insurance industry such as peer-to-peer insurance, parametric insurance and microinsurance following the adoption of blockchain. Banks are interested in this technology because it has potential to speed up back office settlement systems. The sharing economy and IoT are also set to benefit from blockchains because they involve many collaborating peers. Online voting is another application of the blockchain. Blockchains are being used to develop information systems for medical records, which increases interoperability. In theory, legacy disparate systems can be completely replaced by blockchains. Blockchains are being developed for data storage, publishing texts and identifying the origin of digital art.
Banks such as UBS are opening new research labs dedicated to blockchain technology in order to explore how blockchain can be used in financial services to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
Land registration
Frameworks and trials such as the one at the Sweden Land Registry aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of the blockchain at speeding land sale deals. The Republic of Georgia is piloting a blockchain-based property registry. The Ethical and Fair Creators Association uses blockchain to help startups protect their authentic ideas.
The Government of India is fighting land fraud with the help of a blockchain.
In October 2017, one of the first international property transactions was completed successfully using a blockchain based smart contract.
In the first half of 2018, an experiment will be conducted on the use of blocking technology to monitor the reliability of the Unified State Real Estate Register (USRER) data in the territory of Moscow.
As of 2016, some observers remain skeptical. Steve Wilson, of Constellation Research, believes the technology has been hyped with unrealistic claims.To mitigate risk businesses are reluctant to place blockchain at the core of the business structure. Blockchain technology can be integrated into multiple areas. This means specific blockchain applications may be a disruptive innovation, because substantially lower-cost solutions can be instantiated, which can disrupt existing business models. Blockchain protocols facilitate businesses to use new methods of processing digital transactions. Examples include a payment system and digital currency, facilitating crowdsales, or implementing prediction markets and generic governance tools.
Blockchains can be thought of as an automatically notarised ledger. They alleviate the need for a trust service provider and are predicted to result in less capital being tied up in disputes. Blockchains have the potential to reduce systemic risk and financial fraud. They automate processes that were previously time-consuming and done manually, such as the incorporation of businesses. In theory, it would be possible to collect taxes, conduct conveyancing and provide risk management with blockchains.
Major applications of blockchain include cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, and blockchain platforms such as Factom as a distributed registry, Gems for decentralized messaging, Storj and Sia for distributed cloud storage, and Tezos for decentralized voting.
New distribution methods are available for the insurance industry such as peer-to-peer insurance, parametric insurance and microinsurance following the adoption of blockchain. Banks are interested in this technology because it has potential to speed up back office settlement systems. The sharing economy and IoT are also set to benefit from blockchains because they involve many collaborating peers. Online voting is another application of the blockchain. Blockchains are being used to develop information systems for medical records, which increases interoperability. In theory, legacy disparate systems can be completely replaced by blockchains. Blockchains are being developed for data storage, publishing texts and identifying the origin of digital art.
Banks such as UBS are opening new research labs dedicated to blockchain technology in order to explore how blockchain can be used in financial services to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
Land registration
Frameworks and trials such as the one at the Sweden Land Registry aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of the blockchain at speeding land sale deals. The Republic of Georgia is piloting a blockchain-based property registry. The Ethical and Fair Creators Association uses blockchain to help startups protect their authentic ideas.
The Government of India is fighting land fraud with the help of a blockchain.
In October 2017, one of the first international property transactions was completed successfully using a blockchain based smart contract.
In the first half of 2018, an experiment will be conducted on the use of blocking technology to monitor the reliability of the Unified State Real Estate Register (USRER) data in the territory of Moscow.
The Big Four: Each of the Big Four accounting firms is testing blockchain technologies in various formats. Ernst & Young has provided cryptocurrency wallets to all (Swiss) employees, has installed a bitcoin ATM in their office in Switzerland, and accepts bitcoin as payment for all its consulting services. Marcel Stalder, CEO of Ernst & Young Switzerland stated "We don’t only want to talk about digitalization, but also actively drive this process together with our employees and our clients. It is important to us that everybody gets on board and prepares themselves for the revolution set to take place in the business world through blockchains, [to] smart contracts and digital currencies."PwC, Deloitte, and KPMG have taken a different path from Ernst & Young and are all testing private blockchains.
Smart contracts: Blockchain-based smart contracts are contracts that can be partially or fully executed or enforced without human interaction. One of the main objectives of a smart contract is automated escrow. The IMF believes blockchains could reduce moral hazards and optimize the use of contracts in general. Due to the lack of widespread use their legal status is unclear.
Some blockchain implementations could enable the coding of contracts that will execute when specified conditions are met. A blockchain smart contract would be enabled by extensible programming instructions that define and execute an agreement. For example, Ethereum Solidity is an open source blockchain project that was built specifically to realize this possibility by implementing a Turing-complete programming language capability to implement such contracts.
Another example of smart contract utilization is in the music industry. Every time the dj mix is played, the smart contracts attached to the dj mix pays the artists almost instantly.
An application has been suggested for securing the spectrum sharing for wireless networks.
Some blockchain implementations could enable the coding of contracts that will execute when specified conditions are met. A blockchain smart contract would be enabled by extensible programming instructions that define and execute an agreement. For example, Ethereum Solidity is an open source blockchain project that was built specifically to realize this possibility by implementing a Turing-complete programming language capability to implement such contracts.
Another example of smart contract utilization is in the music industry. Every time the dj mix is played, the smart contracts attached to the dj mix pays the artists almost instantly.
An application has been suggested for securing the spectrum sharing for wireless networks.
Alternative blockchains: Alternative blockchains, also known as altchains, are based on bitcoin technology in concept and/or code. The term encompasses all blockchains but bitcoin's main chain. Compared to bitcoin, these designs generally add functionality to the blockchain design. Altchains can provide solutions, including other digital currencies, though tokens in these designs are not always considered as such. Altchains target performance, anonymity, storage and applications such as smart contracts. Starting with a strong focus on financial applications, blockchain technology is extending to activities including decentralized applications and collaborative organizations that eliminate a middleman.
Notable non-cryptocurrency designs include:
- Steemit combines a blogging site/social networking website and a cryptocurrency
- Hyperledger — cross-industry collaborative effort from the Linux Foundation to support blockchain-based distributed ledgers. Most notable projects under this initiative includes Hyperledger Burrow (by Monax) and Hyperledger Fabric (spearheaded by IBM).[citation needed]
- Counterparty — open source financial platform for creating peer-to-peer financial applications on the bitcoin blockchain
- Bitnation is the world's first operational Decentralized Borderless Voluntary Nation, a Blockchain Powered Jurisdiction.
- JPMorgan Chase's Quorum permissionable private blockchain with private store for smart contracts
- Ethereum is a blockchain, with a Turing complete scripting language that enables the processing of smart-contracts on the blockchain.
Other uses
Blockchain technology can be used to create a permanent, public, transparent ledger system for compiling data on sales, storing rights data by authenticating copyright registration, and tracking digital use and payments to content creators, such as musicians. In 2017, IBM partnered with ASCAP and PRS for Music to adopt blockchain technology in music distribution. Imogen Heap's Mycelia service, which allows managers to use a blockchain for tracking high-value parts moving through a supply chain, was launched as a concept in July 2016. Everledger is one of the inaugural clients of IBM's blockchain-based tracking service.
CLS Group is using blockchain technology to expand the number of currency trade deals it can settle.
VISA payment systems, Mastercard, Unionpay and SWIFT have announced the development and plans for using blockchain technology.
Russia has officially completed its first government-level blockchain implementation. The state-run bank Sberbank announced 20 December 2017 that it is partnering with Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) to implement document transfer and storage via blockchain.
Commercial offerings
Distributed ledgers and other blockchain-inspired software are being developed by commercial organizations for various applications:
Blockchain technology can be used to create a permanent, public, transparent ledger system for compiling data on sales, storing rights data by authenticating copyright registration, and tracking digital use and payments to content creators, such as musicians. In 2017, IBM partnered with ASCAP and PRS for Music to adopt blockchain technology in music distribution. Imogen Heap's Mycelia service, which allows managers to use a blockchain for tracking high-value parts moving through a supply chain, was launched as a concept in July 2016. Everledger is one of the inaugural clients of IBM's blockchain-based tracking service.
CLS Group is using blockchain technology to expand the number of currency trade deals it can settle.
VISA payment systems, Mastercard, Unionpay and SWIFT have announced the development and plans for using blockchain technology.
Russia has officially completed its first government-level blockchain implementation. The state-run bank Sberbank announced 20 December 2017 that it is partnering with Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) to implement document transfer and storage via blockchain.
Commercial offerings
Distributed ledgers and other blockchain-inspired software are being developed by commercial organizations for various applications:
- Deloitte and ConsenSys announced plans in 2016 to create a digital bank called Project ConsenSys.
- R3 connects 42 banks to distributed ledgers built by Ethereum, Chain.com, Intel, IBM and Monax.
- Microsoft Visual Studio is making the Ethereum Solidity language available to application developers.
- A Swiss industry consortium, including Swisscom, the Zurich Cantonal Bank and the Swiss stock exchange, is prototyping over-the-counter asset trading on a blockchain-based Ethereum technology.
- IBM offers a cloud blockchain service based on the open source Hyperledger Fabric project
- Oracle Cloud offers Blockchain Cloud Service based on Hyperledger Fabric. Oracle has joined the Hyperledger consortium.
In August 2016, a research team at the Technical University of Munich published a research document about how blockchains may disrupt industries. They analyzed the venture funding that went into blockchain ventures. Their research shows that $1.55 billion went into startups with an industry focus on finance and insurance, information and communication, and professional services. High startup density was found in the USA, UK and Canada.
ABN Amro announced a project in real estate to facilitate the sharing and recording of real estate transactions, and a second project in partnership with the Port of Rotterdam to develop logistics tools.
National currencies
Companies have supposedly been suggesting blockchain-based currency solutions in the following two countries:
ABN Amro announced a project in real estate to facilitate the sharing and recording of real estate transactions, and a second project in partnership with the Port of Rotterdam to develop logistics tools.
National currencies
Companies have supposedly been suggesting blockchain-based currency solutions in the following two countries:
- e-Dinar, Tunisia's national currency, was the first state currency using blockchain technology.
- eCFA is Senegal's blockchain-based national digital currency.
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