"Back to the Future": Blockchain Today and Tomorrow
Blockchain industry has grown to a multi-billion dollar market from a small and bold concept. For example, Bitcoin capitalization today is 69 billion dollars.
This technology is already changing the economic environment and approaches to company management. And in the near future she has every chance to penetrate into the daily life of each of us.
/ Image CC BY
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The technology was first mentioned in the original Bitcoin document published in 2008. But it began to develop long before that - with the advent of distributed databases and technology related time stamps (linked timestamping).
Together they are something like a proto-blockchain. Linked timestamping collects transactions into blocks and links them together using hashes, and the principle of distributed databases is that parts of the system are located in different network nodes accessed from a single interface. Surveys in this area were conducted in the 80s of the last century .
In 2008, the description of Bitcoin appeared in the public domain, and the technology began to rapidly gain popularity. A few years later, the blockchain was talked about in isolation from the cryptocurrency exchange processes: new ways to use it are emerging.
For example, we at Bitfury Group are developing technologies for converting government registries to blockchains. In the digital era, humankind is still holding on to dozens of official documents, extracts and certificates, which, although duplicated somewhere in the state information systems, are still more important than digital copies.
In case of loss of rights or passport, we are forced to wait for new ones. The tax office still issues paper TINs. And although electronic document management systems are actively used by many organizations, we cannot completely abandon paper documents.
Therefore, blockchain technologies are interested in the governments of many countries. Thus, Georgia plans using Bitfury solutions to launch the first pilot blockchain project in the field of land management.
Each digital extract from the registry is assigned a hash identifier, and in the network blocks, information about the time of the transaction (timestamping) is indicated. Such a trading system allows you to quickly confirm ownership, check real estate transactions and protect the market from fraud and corruption - property data cannot be falsified.
Another way to use blockchain in the public sector is to provide electronic public services to citizens. Despite the fact that in recent years, the interface between a person and the state has become more friendly, and the experience has become “user-friendly,” the processes have not changed much. You can apply for an extract from the USRN via the Internet, but somewhere there is still a person who will handle your request almost manually.
The Ukrainian government, together with Bitfury Group, plans to abandon some of these imperfect processes and transfer state registries to blockchain technology. In the future, the result of the experiment will be a safe state system that will be transparent. It will make the life of a person easier, and at the same time save serious sums to the budget.
Based on these (and many other) developments, we wrote an open framework for developing blockchains. With the help of the Exonum platform , companies and government organizations will be able to implement blockchain solutions themselves, which guarantee data security.
You can use it, for example, to verify the election results and protect the copyright of producers of digital content.
In the near future, the blockchain will make it possible to completely eliminate paperwork. For example, in Dubai they plan to transfer all government documents to the blockchain in 2020.
According to preliminary calculations, the rejection of paper carriers will allow the government to save more than 5.5 billion dirhams (about 1.5 billion dollars).
And in Delaware, a law has entered into force allowing companies to maintain lists of shareholders and other corporate records using the blockchain. Delaware is the unofficial capital of America's corporate law, with more than two thirds of Fortune companies registered there. According to rumors, the state government plans to switch to the document on the blockchain.
In late July, the Bitfury Group held a large Blockchain Summit conference on Richard Branson's island, where the leading players of this young market discussed the current state of the industry - including the social consequences of blockchain implementation - and shared their plans.
According to the conference participants, the blockchain technology can replace some of the environmental functions. Another promising area is the right to intellectual property, which can be realized through the blockchain.
This approach will eliminate intermediaries between the consumer and the copyright holder, as well as improve censorship. This is especially true for musicians, writers and other content producers.
Social consequences are also significant: if the exchange of information is transparent and it cannot be hidden or forged, then corruption, manipulations with official documents, fraud will go into the past. The actions of any object will leave a digital mark that cannot be erased or changed. This technology will find its application in the public sector, manufacturing, the Internet of things and other areas.
However, in fairness it should be noted that the technology has a drawback - it is in bad agreement with the so-called right to oblivion . It concerns redundant data or information, the legal basis for which storage has disappeared over time.
Another promising area is the private blockchain , which will store, for example, all of our medical records, prescriptions, prescriptions and history. Doctors, pharmacists, insurers will be able to connect to this blockchain.
This will allow us, for example, to monitor the distribution of medicines and screen out fake prescriptions, control the consumption of medicines, record the actions of doctors and nurses, and examine the medical data of the population. If you make a little visualization, then the blockchain has every chance of becoming the future Internet - an absolutely natural technology for our mind, organically woven into everyday life.
Additional reading:
This technology is already changing the economic environment and approaches to company management. And in the near future she has every chance to penetrate into the daily life of each of us.
/ Image CC BY')
A bit of history
The technology was first mentioned in the original Bitcoin document published in 2008. But it began to develop long before that - with the advent of distributed databases and technology related time stamps (linked timestamping).
Together they are something like a proto-blockchain. Linked timestamping collects transactions into blocks and links them together using hashes, and the principle of distributed databases is that parts of the system are located in different network nodes accessed from a single interface. Surveys in this area were conducted in the 80s of the last century .
From underground to public sector
In 2008, the description of Bitcoin appeared in the public domain, and the technology began to rapidly gain popularity. A few years later, the blockchain was talked about in isolation from the cryptocurrency exchange processes: new ways to use it are emerging.
For example, we at Bitfury Group are developing technologies for converting government registries to blockchains. In the digital era, humankind is still holding on to dozens of official documents, extracts and certificates, which, although duplicated somewhere in the state information systems, are still more important than digital copies.
In case of loss of rights or passport, we are forced to wait for new ones. The tax office still issues paper TINs. And although electronic document management systems are actively used by many organizations, we cannot completely abandon paper documents.
Today's projects
Therefore, blockchain technologies are interested in the governments of many countries. Thus, Georgia plans using Bitfury solutions to launch the first pilot blockchain project in the field of land management.
Each digital extract from the registry is assigned a hash identifier, and in the network blocks, information about the time of the transaction (timestamping) is indicated. Such a trading system allows you to quickly confirm ownership, check real estate transactions and protect the market from fraud and corruption - property data cannot be falsified.
Another way to use blockchain in the public sector is to provide electronic public services to citizens. Despite the fact that in recent years, the interface between a person and the state has become more friendly, and the experience has become “user-friendly,” the processes have not changed much. You can apply for an extract from the USRN via the Internet, but somewhere there is still a person who will handle your request almost manually.
The Ukrainian government, together with Bitfury Group, plans to abandon some of these imperfect processes and transfer state registries to blockchain technology. In the future, the result of the experiment will be a safe state system that will be transparent. It will make the life of a person easier, and at the same time save serious sums to the budget.
Based on these (and many other) developments, we wrote an open framework for developing blockchains. With the help of the Exonum platform , companies and government organizations will be able to implement blockchain solutions themselves, which guarantee data security.
You can use it, for example, to verify the election results and protect the copyright of producers of digital content.
Paperless office work
In the near future, the blockchain will make it possible to completely eliminate paperwork. For example, in Dubai they plan to transfer all government documents to the blockchain in 2020.
According to preliminary calculations, the rejection of paper carriers will allow the government to save more than 5.5 billion dirhams (about 1.5 billion dollars).
And in Delaware, a law has entered into force allowing companies to maintain lists of shareholders and other corporate records using the blockchain. Delaware is the unofficial capital of America's corporate law, with more than two thirds of Fortune companies registered there. According to rumors, the state government plans to switch to the document on the blockchain.
No notaries, corruption and plagiarism
In late July, the Bitfury Group held a large Blockchain Summit conference on Richard Branson's island, where the leading players of this young market discussed the current state of the industry - including the social consequences of blockchain implementation - and shared their plans.
According to the conference participants, the blockchain technology can replace some of the environmental functions. Another promising area is the right to intellectual property, which can be realized through the blockchain.
This approach will eliminate intermediaries between the consumer and the copyright holder, as well as improve censorship. This is especially true for musicians, writers and other content producers.
Social consequences are also significant: if the exchange of information is transparent and it cannot be hidden or forged, then corruption, manipulations with official documents, fraud will go into the past. The actions of any object will leave a digital mark that cannot be erased or changed. This technology will find its application in the public sector, manufacturing, the Internet of things and other areas.
However, in fairness it should be noted that the technology has a drawback - it is in bad agreement with the so-called right to oblivion . It concerns redundant data or information, the legal basis for which storage has disappeared over time.
Another promising area is the private blockchain , which will store, for example, all of our medical records, prescriptions, prescriptions and history. Doctors, pharmacists, insurers will be able to connect to this blockchain.
This will allow us, for example, to monitor the distribution of medicines and screen out fake prescriptions, control the consumption of medicines, record the actions of doctors and nurses, and examine the medical data of the population. If you make a little visualization, then the blockchain has every chance of becoming the future Internet - an absolutely natural technology for our mind, organically woven into everyday life.
Additional reading:
- “What are they eating?”: What is a blockchain?
- “One more step to blockchain”: Bitfury Group presented Exonum 0.2
- How to translate cryptocurrency into another blockchain: a little about sidechains
- Bitfury Group conducted the 1st transaction in the Lightning Network using the bitcoin protocol
- "Ultimate" blockchain digest: useful materials on Habré and other sources
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/339388/
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