Unblocking Blockchain

Dr Ryan

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Dr Philippa "Pip" Ryan has been speaking on standards work to develop smart contracts at the Blockchain Technology, Data Management and Smart Contracts conference. Appropriately, but somewhat confusingly, Pip was not here, but in Chicago, on the end of a video link. She mentioned how the standards committee have tried to include developing nations by undertaking some of their work online.

Blockchain Challenges for Australia: An ACS Technical Whitepaper

The Australian Computer Society has released "Blockchain Challenges for Australia". This is a technical whitepaper produced after a workshop at the new ACS HQ in Sydney.  I contributed to the section on blockchain for education and will be speaking on "Mobile Learning with Micro-Credentials for International Students", at EduTECH in Sydney, 4pm 6 June 2019.

This is the third in a series of ACS Blockchain reports. The first was "Blockchain 2030: A Look at the Future of Blockchain in Australia" prepared by CSIRO (April 2019), and "Blockchain Innovation: A Patent Analytics Report" by IP Australia (November 2018).

"Bitcoin gave birth to the blockchain technology ten years ago. Blockchain promises to disintermediate interactions between individuals by offering security of exchanges without relying on a central authority of trust. As a result, blockchain has been trialled in various sectors ranging from finance and insurance to energy.

A decade later, Australia is at the forefront of blockchain technology in terms of regulation, research and industry applications. Among many achievements, its standards organisation has been chosen to lead the secretariat of blockchain standards for the ISO; ARC-funded research has produced one of the most scalable blockchain systems; and the World Bank chose an Australian bank to implement the first blockchain-based bond.

Yet, blockchain poses significant challenges that prevent Australia from fully exploiting its promised benefits for our economy and society. This technical white paper identifies some of the predominant challenges for applying blockchain technology in different contexts in Australia and proposes technical directions to overcome these.

The identified challenges are scalability, security, regulation, education and employment. These challenges are of strategic importance, as blockchain promises not only to reshape the Australian economy but also to rethink business interactions within the Australian society.

The directions that this technical white paper explores for solving these challenges include the analysis of use cases; the education of key actors; the exploration of blockchain development, especially surrounding consensus; and further understanding of regulations. They specifically include assessing the requirements for each use case in terms of speed, volume, scalability and security, in order to identify the most appropriate blockchain proposal for a given application. They also include a roadmap to help
technical and legal professionals interact on specific topics."

From: Blockchain Challenges for Australia, ACS 2019.

Blockchain 2030 Report

Greetings from the Australian Computer Society's (ACS) head office in Sydney, at the launch of the report "Blockchain 2030: A Look at the Future of Blockchain in Australia". Speaking at the launch, ACS President, Yohan Ramasundara, likened blockchain to a fifth generation fighter being launched from the deck of an aircraft carrier into a turbulent sky. Ed Husic, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy, was not wearing a green jacket (as those who launch carrier aircraft do), but launched the report. His main message was that we should not have to play catch-up on tech, such as blockchain.

This is the second report on Blockchain, from ACS. The first report was by IP Australia, the second (today), is by  CSIRO.

There was much talk about "trust" at the launch. However, I suggest that  blockchain is about doing business in the face of a lack of trust. Either you don't trust the people you are doing business with, or you don't trust the government, and the blockchain provides a way to work with this lack of trust.

One interesting question for the panel was what would be the effect of quantum computing on blockchain. Australia is a leader in both technologies. Unfortunately the panel did not have a clear answer.

ps: I am on the ACS Blockchain Committee.

'Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger technology whereby a database is distributed across numerous users, and changes to the database are validated by consensus among the users. While it is best known as the platform
for Bitcoin, blockchain technology can be widely applied to improve business processes, increase transparency, and drive the creation of new jobs and industries.

Over the last decade, blockchain technology has grown in popularity and use, and has already begun to disrupt existing markets in Australia and around the world. The opportunities blockchain presents have been invested in, studied, explored, and considered, in almost all sectors of the economy. Blockchain has attracted significant public and private investment, and introduced previously non-existent products and services across multiple industries.

Despite its potential, there is significant uncertainty regarding future adoption of blockchain technology in Australia. For instance, there are unknowns around blockchain’s capacity to work at scale while remaining decentralised, and protect confidentiality whilst also being transparent. The extent to which the public will trust decentralised systems is also uncertain. These uncertainties raise the question: can blockchain progress beyond the hype to deliver tangible, high-value applications and a thriving industry for Australia, or will blockchain amount to little more than a market bubble?'

From: "Blockchain 2030: A Look at the Future of Blockchain in Australia" CSIRO/Data 61, for ACS, 2019

Blockchain: What is it good for?

Greetings from the Australian Computer Society's new headquarters in Sydney. I am taking part in a workshop, as a member of the ACS Blockchain Committee. It is a little hard to focus on the details of what advice we should provide Australian government, industry and community on the how and why of blockchain, due to the view. The new ACS office is on the 27th floor of a building on the Sydney waterfront, with panoramic views all the way to the Blue Mountains.

Getting back to the workshop,  ACS has published a series of articles on blockchain. We have a mix of technologists, lawyers and industry people in the room, working out what the issues are. As an example, what are the issues in using blockchain in education?

Digital Economy: More than cryptcurrency

The Australian government has released a discussion paper on "THE DIGITAL ECONOMY: OPENING UP THE CONVERSATION". Four emerging technologies are identified: 5g, AI, Blockchain and Quantum Computing. Input is invited by 30 November 2017.

Taking Blockchain as an example, described more generally as "distributed ledger technology" (p. 19).  A point to emphasize is that this is not just about Bitcoin, as the discussion paper says: "It can be applied wherever a verified and trusted transaction is required—health, government services, real estate, media, energy and more." One area of interest to me is for education.

The paper asks two questions about distributed ledger:

"7. What opportunities do we have in standards development and regulation to:
– – enable digital entrepreneurship, innovation and trade?
– – mitigate the risks associated with digital disruption?

8.     What digital standards do we need to enable Australian businesses to participate in global supply chains and maximise the opportunities of the digital economy? " (p. 19)

Blockchain for Military Operations

Last week I had a call from the Australian Financial Review newspaper asking about blockchain for military operations. As noted in the article I could see some application, but was a little skeptical. Later I found a paper on it by Verma, Desai, Preece and Taylor (2017), but remain skeptical.

References

Abernethy, M. (2017, Jul 14) Blockchain becoming an integral part of some defence technology. AFR. URL http://www.afr.com/news/special-reports/cyber-security/blockchain-becoming-an-integral-part-of-some-defence-technology-20170713-gxaipa

Verma, D., Desai, N., Preece, A., & Taylor, I. (2017, May). A blockchain based architecture for asset management in coalition operations. In SPIE Defense+ Security (pp. 101900Y-101900Y). International Society for Optics and Photonics. Retrieved from https://allquantor.at/blockchainbib/pdf/verma2017blockchain.pdf