Dr. Tali Rezun & Denis Jazbec, the Round Table Interview (April 2021)

Blockchain has been acknowledged, which is a fact by now. With its ability to improve online trust, transparency and efficiency, blockchain is developing at a light speed with the potential to revolutionise digital communication and collaboration. To enable future adoption and users to benefit from this groundbreaking special technology, foundations must be built. The goal of this interview is to deep dive into 4thTech project research & development, the clarification and the potential of data digitalization and exchange over the blockchain.

The questions were asked by the round table moderator Nina Cerar at the live streaming event, which was held on April the 20th 2021. The questions and answers were later typed and adapted to suit the written interview form.

Moderator:

My work experience ranges from investment banking (former Lehman Brothers) and corporate finance (Washingtonpost.com) to various project management positions at the Sandoz/Novartis pharmaceutical group. Despite having a finance background, I am most devoted to organizational consulting, with a special interest in blockchain and the crypto industry. Out of curiosity during the ICO era in 2017/18, I conducted interviews for a crypto Youtube channel (HODLTV), got introduced to the 4thTech team and supported them in their initial stages.

Moderator:

Dr. Tali Rezun is the head 4thTech’s initiative, a lecturer at Cotrugli Business School and a UNCEFACT expert. His expertise includes blockchain enterprise adoption, digital identity, electronic data and document exchange as well as blockchain technology in general.

Denis is a software engineer with over a decade of experience. He is a researcher and developer of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) solutions. As the main solution architect for 4thTech, Denis singlehandedly innovated the 4thTech solution for blockchain electronic data exchange.

Moderator:

Before I give word to our guests, let me say a few words about 4thTech’s background. Back in 2017, 4thTech proposed and developed a blockchain solution, which leverages the trust provided by the blockchain to bring secure, immutable, on-chain communication in the form of W2W data exchange. This solution is technically referred to as the FOURdx protocol. After FOURdx, the team developed the FOURid protocol, which serves as a digital identity that can also verify the connection between a blockchain wallet and a person using the X.509 EU certificate standard (this is the “standard” in public key certificates, which we will touch upon later). Last, but not least, 4hTech’s third ecosystem component is called FOURns protocol. The FOURns protocol is an on-chain dNotary that provides a unique digital document timestamp and authenticity verification.

In short, 4thTech is solving email, data and document exchange by providing a safe, fast and affordable online alternative to existing centralised email and data file exchange systems.

Moderator:

Tali, can you please take us further and give us practical examples to better understand what 4thTech is all about and provides?

Guest, Dr. Tali Rezun:

Thank you Nina and hello to all the readers. Let’s simplify by telling that 4thTech enables end-users and enterprises to privately communicate online by exchanging data from wallet A to wallet B, based on the blockchain of their choice. Currently, we are supporting Ethereum, Polkadot Substrate Edgeware and HashNet. Furthermore, 4thTech supports document and data on-chain notarisation by utilising file checksum and enables blockchain digital identity by mapping the X.509 digital identity certificate with blockchain wallet address.

Let’s put this into perspective using an example: Now anybody can privately send valuable, confidential data in the form of pharmaceutical receptures, blueprints, personal sensitive documents, contacts, payslips, bills of lading, confidential data zip packages, security certificates, diplomatic mail and more from wallet A to wallet B, peer-to-peer, at any time, cross-border without the risk that the data could be intercepted.

Furthermore, the FOURns serve as an on-chain dNotary, that enables the timestamp and data checksum verification, so the authenticity of the received data is clear. Our dID enables users such as administrators from the public and private sector, notaries, enterprises, organizations to use 4thTech data exchange between verified and identified users, while our multi-blockchain support enables them low transaction prices and transaction speed choice.

Moderator:

This brings us to our next topic and a major update, 4tTech 2.0, which went live just this month on April 9th. 4thTech 2.0 brings impressive new functionalities packed in a modern minimalistic design. The main updates are the following; (1) the 4thTech wallet extension (i.e. FOURwaL) has been rewritten and now supports Google Chrome and Mozilla browsers; (2) the UI platform codebase is rewritten in Vue 3.0 and the interface is completely redesigned with a minimalistic modern design and new features; (3) also additional Polkadot/Edgeware protocol support was added, for the users to choose from when executing email, data and document exchange; (4) furthermore, service payments are now possible also in native chain tokens (i.e. ETH, EDG…)…

Moderator

Denis, as a father of the code, can you explain this breakthrough and the tech behind it? We talked before about the clever logic behind the 2.0 platform to add additional chain support and so on… can you comment on that?

Guest, Denis Jazbec:

So first we needed to add support for Firefox browsers. And the second thing was that we changed some functionalities. So from now on our browser extension is used just for storing private keys, signing blockchain transactions, and decrypting received files. The platform was completely rewritten with Vue 3 and TypeScript. TypeScript allows us to write much more robust code which prevents some unwanted bugs. Also, we created code architecture that is written in a much more abstract way and this allows us to easily add support for more blockchains.

Moderator

Building a one-of-the-kind wallet that handles not only tokens but also electronic data exchange must have been a challenge, can you take us through this development and tell us how you solved this multi-blockchain support…?

Guest, Denis Jazbec

Of course. For multi-blockchain support, we needed to prepare smart contracts for each target blockchain. Also, we had to add account support to the wallet. And at the end, we had to put all interactions with the target blockchain into the code.

Moderator:

With the multi-chain deployment, 4thTech provides several options to choose from….from the perspective of interoperability, transaction cost or speed. Tali, can you elaborate further…

Guest, Dr. Tali Rezun

Compatibility with different blockchains is extremely important. Every blockchain offers unique adoption solutions and scenarios aimed at specific users or use-cases. More importantly, we don’t know which blockchain protocol will be dominant in the future, so blockchain Applications should support various blockchain networks.

To cover most use-cases, we are currently supporting three blockchain protocols:

• Ethereum is the most used and decentralized blockchain both by end-users and enterprise
• HashNet is one of the most advanced and fastest blockchain protocols, and
• Polkadot Substrate Edgeware. I don’t know if the audience is aware, but Polkadot is currently one of the most advanced regarding interoperability which opens new possibilities for adoption and development.

4thTech users have the option to select which blockchain network to use, and which blockchain suits their needs the most. There are many requirements when adopting blockchain technology: Speed, transaction price, interoperability with existing IT systems and more…

Moderator:

Before we get to speed and transaction price, Denis, what were the biggest challenges to achieving the multi-blockchain support?

Guest, Denis Jazbec:

When you work with new technology you often need to read a lot of documentation. Sometimes you need to learn a new programming language to accomplish work. Sometimes you are faced with problems that are not directly related to coding.

Moderator:

What are the adoption possibilities or in other words, how can the enterprise sector use 4thTech today? Tali?

Guest, Dr. Tali Rezun:

The first step would be to determine, where your use case lies? Where the implementation of blockchain in your organization makes sense? Do we choose public or private blockchains? What the transaction cost will be? So if your use-case is digital data exchange, accompanied by blockchain digital identity then we have the answers:

4thTech supports public and private blockchain adoption and offers a protocol choice that directly reflects the transaction cost.

We have constructed two adoption models. The first adoption model is based on network transactions using public permissionless blockchains. It is most suitable for users that have the necessity for traceability of executed transactions. The second adoption model is Subscription-based, where according to the chosen monthly subscription plan, the user will be charged a periodic FEE for email, data and document exchange transactions. Based on the private permissioned blockchains it is most suitable for regulated users from the private and public sector and civil society.

Both models are viable, as users are coming from two completely different groups. The trade-off is between fix-cost private chains with no open transaction traceability and public chains with volatile and in most cases higher prices but publicly traceable transactions.

Moderator:

There are three years of project development behind the 4thTech team, but I still have to ask, what are your plans for the future? Maybe we can start from the CTO’s perspective, Denis?

Guest, Denis Jazbec:

To fully enable Enterprise adoption and to connect to existing enterprise backend systems, a high-end blockchain-enabled Access Point is needed.
Access Point will serve as a connection point between existing enterprise IT infrastructure and the blockchain network. So it will act as an enterprise blockchain gateway and wallet, a connection point, and a bridge between both worlds.

And before all of that, we will introduce you to an on-chain W2W instant messaging protocol, SDK dMail & dChat framework and more. We will be revealing more in the following weeks.

Moderator:

Regarding adoption in general, Tali do you have anything to add?

Guest, Dr. Tali Rezun:

Now that the tech is at the production level, the adoption can begin. We build a data exchange solution that anyone can use NOW, with multi-blockchain support we are providing users with low transaction prices, so anybody that needs to exchange digital data can do it securely over the encrypted decentralised system. It is a basic solution, but it is one that is greatly needed!

Moderator:

Thank you both for a great discussion and all the best in future endeavours.

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