Technology & Innovation

We need to talk about blockchain

September 01, 2016

Global

September 01, 2016

Global
Ed Wallace

Director

Ed is MWR’s Director of Advanced Threats. He has worked with organisations across a wide range of industry sectors and, before joining MWR, spent 15 years working for the UK Government, with a remit focussing on the cyber arena. This has given Ed a broad view of the current cyber landscape and a keen understanding of both the macro and micro effects of the shift change in cyber risk now facing most organisations and what steps they need to take to secure their future.

 

“Blockchain? Isn't that the bitcoin thing, and aren't they always being stolen?"

Blockchain technology is more than just bitcoin and digital or cryptocurrencies.  In fact, using a blockchain for cryptocurrencies is probably near the bottom of the list when thinking of what and how it can be properly leveraged.

A blockchain system is a distributed database that maintains a continuously growing list of data records secured from tampering and revision. It can be shared with whoever you wish, or set as entirely public. Simply put, it is maths, running on computers.

Blockchain in action

Blockchain technology is going to have a huge impact on business and society but its benefits and pitfalls are numerous and highly debatable. In addition, public opinion on the issue is subjective.

Blockchain-based systems could have the means of keeping a record of who owns valuable assets.  This is already starting to happen in the diamond and gem industry, meaning that in the future “blood diamonds” or stolen engagement rings could become impossible to fence. What it also means is that one day there could be one master record, an “everything of things” record for “stuff.” Public opinion on whether or not this is a good thing probably depends on what items would be included, how the record is controlled and who has access to it.

Nonetheless, blockchain technology is likely to make many aspects of life easier, simpler and safer.

With regards to a blockchain medical system, an individual might be able to walk into any medical facility in the world and give permission to access their details. Instead of their records being held in a silo at a small-town doctor’s practice, (or even on a country-wide system), the individual could choose to make them accessible when trying to receive medical assistance while on abroad. In medical research, the ability to share human genome research securely and safely on a global scale would provide a huge boost to teams across the globe, looking into the latest life-saving techniques.

Blockchain systems could also make stock transfer and re-order systems simpler and could potentially enable linking (and order collating and triggering) back through the big ports and trans-shipping to factories and to the raw material processing plants.

It won’t happen overnight

Blockchain technology is not about to become an overnight revolution - the scale of its potential impact on society and business means that it will take time to be developed, properly understood and rolled out on a larger scale. For ordinary people, there will be little to no visible difference to their daily lives for some time unless their government or a similar authority heavily commits to a speedy approach to the technology. The UK government’s Department for Work and Pensions has quietly been testing blockchain technology in connection with the benefit payment system, according to , but a rollout that impacts wider areas of society is highly unlikely in the near future and for many governments, simply out of the question.

Not a cure-all … not yet anyway

All things considered, it must be remembered that blockchain technology is not a panacea – the security models can be badly implemented; the crypto and, most importantly the ability to change crypto in the future needs to be thought about at the start, as do issues like archiving and restoring data (not simple in a blockchain-based system).

A final point to consider is how hackers of the future will look at a blockchain technology and what tools they will have at their disposal to try and break it. Considering stress testing, access points, voting control systems and corruption attacks, there is still much to be learned.

 

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited (EIU) or any other member of The Economist Group. The Economist Group (including the EIU) cannot accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this article or any of the information, opinions or conclusions set out in the article.

 

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