Tokenize with SoftUni!
As more people are introduced to the world of Blockchains & Cryptocurrencies, the number of courses and conferences around the world have increased tremendously to educate the public!
On 14 May 2018, Tokenize engaged a guest speaker, Svetlin Nakov to share with the community regarding the fundamentals of Blockchain technologies!
About Svetlin Nakov
- 3 Successful Tech Educational Initiatives:
a) National Academy for Software Development
b) Telerik Academy
c) SoftUni - More about Svetlin Nakov, please click here
So, for those who were unable to turn up, we got it covered! Without further ado, here is what you have been waiting for!
Content
- Introduction to Blockchain
- Evolution of Decentralized Computing
- Decentralized Organizations
- The “Decentralized Cloud Platforms”
- Conclusion
- References
Introduction to Blockchain
Most of us have heard from mainstream media that Blockchain is the future, it is the new “Internet”! But… what exactly is Blockchain?
- Distributed ledger — It is secure as transactions are verified by the entire network.
- Decentralized — There’s collusion resistance as no individual or organisation will have control over the network. To find out more, click here.
- Peer-to-Peer network — Every node of the network is a client as well as a server, holding identical copies of the application state.
- Immutable — To manipulate data on the blockchain, one will have to manipulate data on majority of the network, hence it is tamper resistant. To find out more, click here.
Blockchain Applications:
- Cryptocurrencies — Digital money with no central bank controlling.
- Decentralized applications (DApps) — Apps that remove the middleman services.
- Digital investments — Popular channel for fund raising (ICO/ token sales).
Potential use case:
The blockchain process of transacting and storing information on a decentralized, distributed ledger yields many benefits for enterprise application data:
- An integrated network, updated in real-time with always-consistent data
- Ability to set rules for each blockchain enforces compliance
- Tracing data from provenance to present to reduce disputes or discourage fraudulent activity
- Increased efficiency of industry processes, reduced auditing costs
- Consent, protection, and control of consumer/customer data
- High level of trust in repository of transaction data
While blockchain use cases are exciting to explore and research, it’s important to point out the gap between potential and tangibility of implementation.
Evolution of Decentralized Computing
The models of computing have evolved over the years:
Single Computer > Data Centres > Cloud Platforms > Decentralized Cloud Platforms
Although there are many benefits from decentralization, not everything is possible to be decentralized and not everything should be decentralized as well!
For the case of building decentralized organizations and decentralized apps (DApps), decentralized cloud platforms are needed; with it we are able to develop and deploy DApps, which uses decentralized database, decentralized storage and other decentralized services.
Decentralized Organizations
A truly Decentralized Organization involves:
- Decentralized Processes — The implementation of the organization’s activities should be done in decentralized way; for example, through smart contracts or some other kind of programming, executed in public decentralized network (ETH, EOS, NEO). Currently the decentralized computing platforms combine smart contracts with oracles to execute decentralized data processing. So, in the upcoming decentralized cloud platforms these computing services will be further extended, scaled and improved.
- Decentralized Data — All the data in the organization should be stored in a public decentralized network. This includes decentralized database system, decentralized storage system, decentralized APIs to access the data, etc. We have decentralized storage systems like STORJ and SIA, but we don’t have strong enough players in the decentralized database services, nor in the decentralized messaging service. Such systems will emerge and will become typical for the decentralized cloud platforms.
- Decentralized Governance — In the Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) model the governance is also decentralized, which means that the decisions about the future of the organization, about the changes in the protocols, processes or data structures and data flow are taken by its stakers (voting by token holders or community voting). Thus, the organization has collective ownership and is driven by its community. Decentralized cloud should have services and APIs to simplify common governance processes, such as voting.
The “Decentralized Cloud Platforms”
Svetlin Nakov’s vision about the upcoming decentralized cloud platforms is that they will copy the existing Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) cloud model and will implement it in a decentralized way, into a highly-replicated peer-to-peer incentivized distributed environment.
So, let’s name this DPaaS (decentralized Platform-as-a-Service), which means that new generations of blockchain and P2P networks will emerge, thus providing hosting of decentralized apps, along with services like decentralized computing, decentralized databases, decentralized storage, decentralized messaging, and many others like token transfers, interaction with the external data, decentralized governance services, etc.
Conclusion
The Decentralized Cloud Platforms are coming! Currently, the blockchain and peer-to-peer technologies are not mature enough to provide a robust infrastructure for fully DApps, but with emerging technologies and platforms, this will change in the coming years.
Lastly, blockchain is about the decentralization of computing and economy, not about cryptocurrencies, coins, tokens, and exchanges!
