BitShares Forum

Main => General Discussion => Topic started by: bytemaster on November 12, 2015, 08:20:15 pm

Title: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: bytemaster on November 12, 2015, 08:20:15 pm
I am looking for the best articles / education sources that describe the benefits of blockchain technology.

Please post links below and/or give your own opinion. 
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: Ben Mason on November 12, 2015, 08:42:26 pm
Blockchain technology, properly applied, has the potential to establish a new global paradigm where people can trust and secure information. Allowed to mature it is difficult to imagine any aspect of society that will not be positively influenced. By swinging the balance away from pervasive systemic corruption designed purely to enrich a handful of individuals at the expense of the majority, a more civil and equitable society can be achieved.  One based on maximising individual potential, unleashing human innovation and achieving peaceful endeavour on an unimaginable scale.
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: mint chocolate chip on November 12, 2015, 08:51:16 pm
http://www.wired.com/tag/blockchain/
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: Ben Mason on November 12, 2015, 08:51:59 pm
https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/internet-in-chains
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: valzav on November 13, 2015, 03:53:28 am
The Value of Values with Rich Hickey https://youtu.be/-6BsiVyC1kM (https://youtu.be/-6BsiVyC1kM) - great video that explains benefits of the stream of immutable values (facts) vs. more traditional approach of representing knowledge as some current mutable state.
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: lovejoy on November 13, 2015, 04:16:25 am
Quote from: donkeypong on October 30, 2015, 03:43:49 pm
This is a short piece from The Economist. It mentions a public ledger for banks. Most importantly, it looks beyond Bitcoin.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21677198-technology-behind-bitcoin-could-transform-how-economy-works-trust-machine (http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21677198-technology-behind-bitcoin-could-transform-how-economy-works-trust-machine)
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: xeroc on November 13, 2015, 07:58:25 am
Quote from: valzav on November 13, 2015, 03:53:28 am
The Value of Values with Rich Hickey https://youtu.be/-6BsiVyC1kM (https://youtu.be/-6BsiVyC1kM) - great video that explains benefits of the stream of immutable values (facts) vs. more traditional approach of representing knowledge as some current mutable state.
I liked that talk .. however, as a Communications Engineer, I disagree with most of his definitions of "Information" :)
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: Samupaha on November 15, 2015, 11:10:17 am
Bitcoin 101 - A Million Killer Apps - Part 2 - Blockchains, The WWL & A Global Shared History (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uci0Df7zO8c)

"History has always been written by the victors. But beginning in 2009, this limitation has been disrupted. Designed to be electronic cash, Bitcoin has proved to be so much more. In this video we focus on re-thinking the blockchain, and understanding why this technology can prove to be revolutionary for how humanity records, remembers and keeps track of itself. Indeed by providing an immutable and transparent database, open to anyone, blockchain technology is destined to disrupt deeds, journalism, scientific publications, patents, artistic rights, and history itself. This is much more than a public ledger or proof of publication, this is a global shared history."
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: lovejoy on November 17, 2015, 05:42:32 pm
While I continue formulating my own personal response to your question, I've been wondering about how a solution to the Byzantine Generals Problem is explained in terms of DPOS.

Beyond benefits of 'the blockchain' in general, one of the difficulties I have in communicating the value of this technology as it applies to BitShares is that the mining metaphor is so pervasive due to Bitcoin, that DPOS almost needs an equally strong metaphor to hang on.

But how does it work, this blockchain?  They say...  and people, even really old people are willing to accept the 'mining with math' idea.  It's math they say, those crazy kids figured out how to mine digital gold with cash.  However inadequate this is in expressing the true state of affairs in Bitcoin, it certainly has a strong memetic quality.

I like the Byzantine General's problem because it's illustrative in a very helpful way, but how would it be explained in terms of BitShares?  Would @bytemaster or anyone care to take a crack at it?  I haven't been able to fully articulate it yet.
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: betax on November 17, 2015, 05:58:27 pm
Blythe Masters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Yo8bt8JAU
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: jakub on November 17, 2015, 08:37:50 pm
Quote from: betax on November 17, 2015, 05:58:27 pm
Blythe Masters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Yo8bt8JAU

At 10:30 Blythe asks quite a few very valid questions about the capacity of the blockchain technology.
And all of them have already been answered by Graphene.
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: betax on November 18, 2015, 04:52:31 pm
Cap paper is good talking about the current state. Interesting to see they have selected the technologies I also recommend, including Bitshares.  Funny they mention things like Bonds and recurrent payments, I thought they were more active on the community but they are not.

https://www.in.capgemini.com/resource-file-access/resource/pdf/blockchain_2015.pdf
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: fuzzy on November 18, 2015, 08:06:10 pm
Quote from: mint chocolate chip on November 12, 2015, 08:51:16 pm
http://www.wired.com/tag/blockchain/
#btstip "mint chocolate chip" 25 BROWNIE.PTS
#btstip "betax" 25 BROWNIE.PTS
#btstip "Samupaha" 25 BROWNIE.PTS
#btstip "valzav" 25 BROWNIE.PTS
#btstip "Ben Mason" 25 BROWNIE.PTS


For helping bm find articles.
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: btstip on November 18, 2015, 08:07:00 pm
Hey fuzzy, here are the results of your tips...
Curious about BtsTip? Visit us at http://btstip.io and start tipping BTS on https://bitsharestalk.org/ today!
Source: https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,19947.msg258286/topicseen.html#msg258286
Created by hybridd (https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=40140)
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: lovejoy on November 18, 2015, 08:46:46 pm
Quote from: betax on November 17, 2015, 05:58:27 pm
Blythe Masters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Yo8bt8JAU

Wow, how have I not seen this before... Great talk, and the language she uses to describe blockchain technology is... masterful. ;)
distributed ledger technology is the most widely used phrase in her talk I believe.
Thanks for sharing!
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: xeroc on November 19, 2015, 09:02:53 am
Quote from: lovejoy on November 18, 2015, 08:46:46 pm
Quote from: betax on November 17, 2015, 05:58:27 pm
Blythe Masters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Yo8bt8JAU

Wow, how have I not seen this before... Great talk, and the language she uses to describe blockchain technology is... masterful. ;)
distributed ledger technology is the most widely used phrase in her talk I believe.
Thanks for sharing!
Actually, I am not a fan of the term "distributed ledger" .. simply because every kind digital data can be distributed .. git is a distributed ledger aswell just for code commits/history

I'd prefer to distinguish between:

* blockchain as an immutable database of "the past" events
* a protocol that describes how the blockchain "evolves"

The protocol may contain:

* the business model
* a finite state machine for any kind of "data transitions"
* how transactions are interpreted
* how transactions are bundled to a block
* how bundles transactions

if the last question is "decentralized" .. then the protocol also contains a

* distributed conensus finding scheme


Hence, a blockchain has nothing to do with "being decentralized" and only the
"consensus scheme" can be decentralized (assuming the blocks are broadcast
publicly, else it would be a private chain, which can also be decentralized BTW)
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: Ben Mason on November 19, 2015, 09:06:19 am
Quote from: xeroc on November 19, 2015, 09:02:53 am
Quote from: lovejoy on November 18, 2015, 08:46:46 pm
Quote from: betax on November 17, 2015, 05:58:27 pm
Blythe Masters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Yo8bt8JAU

Wow, how have I not seen this before... Great talk, and the language she uses to describe blockchain technology is... masterful. ;)
distributed ledger technology is the most widely used phrase in her talk I believe.
Thanks for sharing!
Actually, I am not a fan of the term "distributed ledger" .. simply because every kind digital data can be distributed .. git is a distributed ledger aswell just for code commits/history

I'd prefer to distinguish between:

* blockchain as an immutable database of "the past" events
* a protocol that describes how the blockchain "evolves"

The protocol may contain:

* the business model
* a finite state machine for any kind of "data transitions"
* how transactions are interpreted
* how transactions are bundled to a block
* how bundles transactions

if the last question is "decentralized" .. then the protocol also contains a

* distributed conensus finding scheme


Hence, a blockchain has nothing to do with "being decentralized" and only the
"consensus scheme" can be decentralized (assuming the blocks are broadcast
publicly, else it would be a private chain, which can also be decentralized BTW)

Thanks Xeroc.....these are really good points and food for thought.
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: betax on November 19, 2015, 04:24:47 pm
This is also a great article http://blogs.csc.com/2015/10/30/blockchain-in-healthcare-from-theory-to-reality/ ;)
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: roadscape on November 22, 2015, 10:41:18 pm
Quote from: xeroc on November 19, 2015, 09:02:53 am
Quote from: lovejoy on November 18, 2015, 08:46:46 pm
Quote from: betax on November 17, 2015, 05:58:27 pm
Blythe Masters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Yo8bt8JAU

Wow, how have I not seen this before... Great talk, and the language she uses to describe blockchain technology is... masterful. ;)
distributed ledger technology is the most widely used phrase in her talk I believe.
Thanks for sharing!
Actually, I am not a fan of the term "distributed ledger" .. simply because every kind digital data can be distributed .. git is a distributed ledger aswell just for code commits/history

I'd prefer to distinguish between:

* blockchain as an immutable database of "the past" events
* a protocol that describes how the blockchain "evolves"

The protocol may contain:

* the business model
* a finite state machine for any kind of "data transitions"
* how transactions are interpreted
* how transactions are bundled to a block
* how bundles transactions

if the last question is "decentralized" .. then the protocol also contains a

* distributed conensus finding scheme


Hence, a blockchain has nothing to do with "being decentralized" and only the
"consensus scheme" can be decentralized (assuming the blocks are broadcast
publicly, else it would be a private chain, which can also be decentralized BTW)

Yes, thanks for these good points.

Since both public and private chains can be decentralized (or maybe more accurate to say "distributed"), would you say that the main difference lies in if they are trust-free? Or private chains just do not let you read the raw blockchain state? Or is it that the full nodes of a private chain are picked by a central authority?
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: xeroc on November 23, 2015, 09:06:34 am
Quote from: roadscape on November 22, 2015, 10:41:18 pm
Since both public and private chains can be decentralized (or maybe more
accurate to say "distributed"), would you say that the main difference lies in
if they are trust-free?

Or private chains just do not let you read the raw
 blockchain state? Or is it that the full nodes of a private chain are picked by
 a central authority?

Yes.

IMHO a private chain i either means that the database/blockchain is not public
.. or it means that the shareholders can NOT participate in block production.
The latter also allows to use a propriatiary protocol and have data in the
blockchain that may be encrypted or only be interpreted by company X
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: valzav on December 01, 2015, 10:59:59 pm
Another benefit - private blockchains allow multiple entities to share database in read/write mode http://www.multichain.com/blog/2015/10/private-blockchains-shared-databases/

Quote
Financial institutions are heavy users of today’s database platforms, and those platforms do not enable a shared write scenario. This is what banks are looking for.
Title: Re: Benefits of Blockchain Technology
Post by: betax on December 02, 2015, 03:22:26 pm
Quote from: valzav on December 01, 2015, 10:59:59 pm
Another benefit - private blockchains allow multiple entities to share database in read/write mode http://www.multichain.com/blog/2015/10/private-blockchains-shared-databases/

Quote
Financial institutions are heavy users of today’s database platforms, and those platforms do not enable a shared write scenario. This is what banks are looking for.

Exactly, shared databases are the very basic use cases for private blockchains.