Everybody Blockchain?
One of the most promising technologies in the upcoming years next to AI, machine learning and smart robots is the Blockchain technology. It has become a very hot topic, attracting the interest of companies such as UBS, Microsoft and IBM. Some people even say that it could be the next generation of the Internet. And just like the Internet, Blockchain is revolutionary as it will completely change the way we share information and sell all kinds of assets.
As this is our first blog, let’s briefly introduce ourselves. We are Senne Theunis and Viktor De Saeytyd, 2 software engineering students from KULeuven. For our master thesis we are exploring the possibilities of storing medical data on the Blockchain at Craftworkz. We both have a technical background, but our research ranges from technical research to exploring the business possibilities of Blockchain as well.
When talking about Blockchain, we can’t forget how it all started: Bitcoin. As many new technologies, it all started with the promise of a revolution in the financial market. The impact it had and opportunities it created seemed endless. But we can’t stress enough that the possibilities of Blockchain extend far beyond financial services (cryptocurrency).
Block-chain
Blockchain is essentially a distributed network which shares a replicated ledger with all participants. This ledger is considered to be the single source of truth. It contains blocks, which are linked together by adding a reference in each block to the previous one, forming a chain of blocks. In these blocks, transactions who are considered by the network to have happened at the same time, are stored. Both the transactions and the blocks are (key) encrypted, providing privacy and security. So actually Blockchain is a gigantic distributed database.
To add a block to the chain, the network needs to accept it and reach a consensus about the validity of it. There are different kinds of consensus mechanisms depending on the Blockchain you use. Depending on which one you use, the blocktime will vary. For instance, Bitcoin has a blocktime of 10 minutes while Ethereum has a blocktime of about 10 seconds.
Once a transaction/block is on the Blockchain, it will stay there forever and can not be modified. This aspect combined with the distributed character and the elimination of the need for a third trusted party are the biggest advantages of Blockchain. The distributed character means that the transactions are not in control of any entity. This is the biggest advantage but at the same time, the most difficult aspect to sell to enterprises.
Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric
There are 2 open source blockchain-based platforms that we explored, Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. They both run software on a network of nodes. This software ensures that the ledger and the smart contracts are replicated and executed on all nodes on the network.
Ethereum focuses on public, permissionless networks. It uses proof-of-work consensus at the moment, which is taking up a lot of computational resources. This will change in the near future to a less heavy consensus protocol, proof-of-stake (Ethereum Caspar). A build-in cryptocurrency is used to resolve the known double spending problem. It has already experienced some problems which required a hard fork of the Ethereum chain to resolve them.
Hyperledger Fabric puts the emphasis on private/permissioned networks. This means that (non)-validating nodes are run by known organizations. It tries to make an cross-industry open standard but is still under development. This is looking very promising, convincing us to dive a bit deeper into Hyperledger Fabric in the next weeks.
That’s it for now. See you in the next blog!
