A Distributed Future: Blockchain and Its Potential

Jointly presented by Columbia Blockchain Alliance and Blockchain at Columbia, ETC hosted an interactive workshop on blockchain. Featuring speakers Brian Rogers (Co-Founder, Columbia Blockchain Alliance) and Nir Kabessa (President, Blockchain at Columbia) the workshop dove deep into the technology and actual use cases of blockchain. By allowing digital information to be distributed but not copied, blockchain technology created the backbone of a new type of internet. Virtually anything of value can be tracked and traded on a blockchain network.

By
Markeisha Ensley
November 02, 2018

View Blockchain Slide Presentation

What is Blockchain?
  • Blockchain was created out of a need to decentralize information
  • Blockchain workflow: Announce ---> Show amount of transaction (block created) → crypt validators → validators solves problem → block is added to chain
  • Mechanisms
    • Proof of Work - Bitcoin
    • Proof of Stake - involving user's stake of ownership
    • Proof of Authority
  • 2 types: permission and permissionless
    • Dapp - decentralized app
    • Smart Contract - self-executing contract
      • AXA - airline delays - passenger automatically gets money
      • allows representation of anything with value
  • Currently, blockchain is virtually unhackable
Bitcoin Essentials
  • Bitcoin (there is a locked in supply of 21 million bitcoins)
  • Centralized Exchanges (Coinbase, etc) and decentralized Exchanges
  • Peer to peer
Today's Uses of Blockchain
  • Trustless voting - anonymous, but transparent voting
    • governments, company boards
    • Democracy Earth, Agora (Sierra Leone elections)
  • Identity and personal data
    • refugee identities, medical health records
  • Tokenization
  • Managing digital scarcity
  • IBM - Food trust, managing produce shipments with Walmart
  • Content management
    • Bit rights (managing songs, copyrights)
    • media platforms (Spotify, etc).
    • Attention Economies - decentralized ads
      • ads between consumers, advertisers, publishers
  • Decentralized file storage and computing
  • Clearing and settling money
  • Incentivize Work - Ncent
What will drive blockchain in the future?
  • Regulation
  • Applications
Tags
Blockchain