Practical Blockchain: Navigating Through The Hall of Mirrors. Sandy Carielli Director of Security Technologies Entrust Datacard

Transcription

1 Practical Blockchain: Navigating Through The Hall of Mirrors Sandy Carielli Director of Security Technologies Entrust Datacard

2 Quick Survey

3 QUICK SURVEY "Blockchain In Banking: Success Depends On Technology And Market Maturity", Forrester Research, Inc., December 19, 2017

4 AGENDA Blockchain 101 Blockchain vs. Bitcoin Beyond Cryptocurrency Interesting Blockchain Applications Challenges Things To Consider Before Starting a Blockchain Project 4

5 Blockchain 101 5

6 BLOCKCHAIN VS. DATABASE Database: Centralized, Individual Can Make Changes Blockchain: Decentralized, Consensus-Driven Changes 6

7 TRANSACTIONS ARE IMMUTABLE 7

8 OTHER CHARACTERISTICS Blockchains can be permissioned or permissionless Permissioned: nodes need permission to join Permissionless: any node can join Blockchains can be public, private, or consortium Public: accessible to anyone on the Internet (e.g. Bitcoin) Private: accessible only to a particular enterprise or organization Consortium: accessible to a group of organizations 8

9 MINING? HARD FORK?

10 SO WHAT S THE BIG DEAL? Non-repudiation Proof of ownership Contract enforcement Data integrity Elimination of central authority Speed (in theory more on this later) Anonymity Data ownership 10

11 Blockchain Bitcoin 11

12 BITCOIN OVER 6 MONTHS (ENDING 1/23/18) 12

13 13

14 A number of concerns have been raised regarding the cryptocurrency and ICO markets, including that, as they are currently operating, there is substantially less investor protection than in our traditional securities markets, with correspondingly greater opportunities for fraud and manipulation. - Jay Clayton, Chair of Securities and Exchange Commission, December 11,

15 Blockchain Beyond Cryptocurrency 15

16 BLOCKCHAIN BEYOND CURRENCY AND CATS Currency Trading Identity Resolve trades instantly, reducing infrastructure costs Enable individual to own and control their identity and share with other entities Medical Records Supply Chain Resolve medical records more quickly Track shipments and improve food traceability 16

17 BLOCKCHAIN ECOSYSTEM Platforms Implementers Exchanges 17

18 CHALLENGES 18

19 SCALABILITY Because of a hardcoded limit on computation per block, the ethereum blockchain currently supports roughly 15 transactions per second compared to, say, the 45,000 processed by Visa

20 ENERGY CONSUMPTION The skyrocketing value of Bitcoin is leading to soaring energy consumption. According to one widely cited website that tracks the subject, the Bitcoin network is consuming power at an annual rate of 32TWh about as much as Denmark. By the site's calculations, each Bitcoin transaction consumes 250kWh, enough to power homes for nine days. - Bitcoin s Insane Energy Consumption, Explained 20

21 RESILIENCY 21

22 IT S NOT MAGIC; IT S JUST SOFTWARE Protocol versus implementation Software bugs The 51% problem 22

23 WHAT TO CONSIDER? 23

24 VALUE ADD What problem are we solving? How is it solved today? How does blockchain do it better? 24

25 HOW TO WORK WITH BLOCKCHAIN? 25

26 INCIDENT POLICY: PLAN, DON T PANIC What s the worst case scenario? What can you mitigate in your implementation? What can you mitigate by policy? How do you communicate that? What will you need community support to mitigate? 26

27 Blockchain Today PKI 25 Years Ago 27

28 SO WHAT TO DO Invest in proofs of concept Look for consortiums and partners Consider how blockchain helps solve the use case in a better way Don t get caught up in the hype Expect the technology to evolve 28

29 The blockchain Killer App is out there but it may not have been discovered yet 29

30 Thank