1. Industry-specific blockchains Aron van Ammers
Blockstars.io
2. A bit about me Aron van Ammers Active in fintech (more
"TECH" than "fin") Background: Model Driven Software engineering,
University of Twente
3. A bit about me Background: CTO of I&DT, building
Curasoft, SaaS for health care
4. Blockstars.io Incepted 2014 A full-service agency dedicated
to designing, developing, launching and managing blockchain
businesses Projects MoneyCircles.com AssetCha.in More projects in
stealth Consultancy
5. Perspectives I look at (de-)centralized development from a
business perspective within an ethical social and environmental
context. The development and usage of decentralized systems is in
its infancy. Much of what is actually useful and how to apply it is
yet to be discovered. Blockchains can range from fully public to
fully private, fully open to permissioned, each have their
(dis)advantages.
6. Smart contracts on a blockchain Verifiable, incorruptible
shared data "The Bitcoin balance of address 1AbCdE.. is 3 BTC"
"This land deed is owned by Ms. Jane Doe since March 20, 2011"
Verifiable, incorruptible shared logic "The vote has been executed
fairly" "The land deed has been transferred to the new owner
according to the agreed upon rules" Achieved through a consensus
mechanism
7. The technology landscape
8. Public? Private? Decentralized? Fully public blockchains
have great merits but also great challenges (see Bitcoin block size
debate) "Permissioned blockchain" does not mean: "all open
principles of Bitcoin go down the drain" or "slamming the
'blockchain' label on a fully centralized solution"
9. Examples of "traditional" industry-wide systems iDeal
payment system: banks working together to achieve something larger
XML-EDI systems: structured information interchange between
companies in a certain industry Electronic invoicing of insured
health expenses (VECOZO)
10. Some ideas Agriculture: traceability of foods from field to
mouth Logistics: traceability and interchange of cargo Banking:
transfers, settlements Health care: electronic health records
Centralized approaches have failed (Dutch national EPD, Google
Health, Microsoft HealthVault, ). Maybe the blockchain was a
missing link? Health care: financial flows
11. Some first attempts ABN AMRO: internal fork of Ripple
(which is not a blockchain but has similarities)
http://www.bitcoincongres.nl/, start video at 1:38:00 Industry-wide
or company-wide? Blockchain Health (Melanie Swan) Electronic health
records, medical document verification
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/swan20140929 IBM ADEPT,
Internet of Things PoC with Samsung
http://www.slideshare.net/_hd/ibm-adept
12. What could an industry-specific blockchain look like?
Shared rulebooks and data are in the blockchain Permissioned
commits, public insight Inception: Top-down: consortium of industry
bodies, businesses Bottom-up: independent parties create a system
that can't be ignored Governance: Voting through smart contracts
Membership (who is allowed to commit) Development of the smart
contract system itself
13. Opportunities Open, verifiable systems Smoother interaction
between organizations Solving the N^2 problem (50 companies talking
to each other require 2500 implementations) Lower trust barriers
Both for new entrants and incumbents
14. Challenges Unknowns: Infancy of technology, business
models, experience Incentive to start: from the perspective of a
single business, the system is only useful once it's been realized
Privacy of data Publicly verifiable logic and private data are
opposing forces Methods for secret sharing and homomorphic
encryption are being developed (see also
http://enigma.media.mit.edu/) Adoption Borders (where does "this
industry" end and the other begin?) Smart contracts might turn into
a centralizing factor, not a decentralizing one See Ian Grigg's
http://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001553.html
15. Takeaway Industry-wide systems are difficult in any case;
blockchains and smart contracts might help Blockchains can
contribute to more open, verifiable systems even if not fully
public Large-scale implementations are quite far away, but when
they gain traction, impact will be profound
16. Contact @aronvanammers @blockstarsio Slides will be on:
http://www.slideshare.net/Blockstarsio