Alternative Uses of The Blockchain I (2019!12!17 19-12-19 UTC)
Alternative Uses of The Blockchain I (2019!12!17 19-12-19 UTC)
Alternative Uses of The Blockchain I (2019!12!17 19-12-19 UTC)
2
Objectives of Session 6
Understand the original purpose of Bitcoin’s blockchain
Explore some alternative uses of the blockchain (e.g. colored coins, smart contracts, etc.)
Glimpse at possible future uses of the blockchain
Before we begin with this session, we need to clarify that boundaries between concepts are not always 100%
clear in an area of constant innovation. Being able to understand each innovation is more important than
agreeing what label should be given to its category.
Bitcoin is at its core, a technology that enables a series of achievements that were not possible before, and not
just “magic internet money”. Decentralized consensus can create more robust systems in a multitude of
ownership or attestation related roles. Currency is the first “app” of this technology and definitely not the last. In
the upcoming 2 sessions we aim to introduce a few different potential applications.
Introduction to Digital Currencies
MSc in Digital Currency 3
Agenda
1. Purpose of the Blockchain
2. Alternative uses of the Blockchain – Privacy Coins, Asset Management,
Sidechains, Contracts
3. Blockchain solutions for various industries
4. Conclusions
5. Further Reading
All blocks in the blockchain are chained together via header hashes; as a result, the name
"blockchain" seems to be more than appropriate.
Introduction to Digital Currencies
MSc in Digital Currency 6
2. Alternative uses of the Blockchain
Alternative uses of the blockchain
As we have already discussed in session 2, Bitcoin has provided a practical solution to the
Byzantine General’s Problem through its use of the blockchain. Since BGP is a general
problem in distributed systems, the same concept can be employed for other purposes.
We will explore the following alternative uses of the blockchain in the areas of:
Altcoins Smart Contracts
Sidechains Smart Property
Asset Registration Financial Contracts
Colored Coins and Instruments
Solar Energy Distribution Digital Rights Management
Academic Certificates Supply chain
Permissioned Blockchains Real Estate Management
Source: gigaom.com
While some users may currently work around some of Bitcoin’s privacy issues by employing
multiple addresses for separate payments, transaction graph analyses are still possible.
The authors of Zerocash (now forming the Zcash team) point out that Bitcoin exhibits the following
privacy concerns:
It is less private than a traditional bank account (due to its public ledger)
It makes your transaction history public for anyone to see (i.e. user identity can be deduced)
It introduces privacy-intrusion concerns (e.g. data-mining by third parties, etc.)
Over the next page we will see briefly how Zcash works
A recent bug found in Zcash could reveal shielded full nodes’ IP addresses!
The first Grin hard fork was completed on July 17, 2019 with the aim to discourage ASIC mining and to include
a new iteration of its bulletproof rewind scheme for Grin wallets.
The Grin mainnet will continue to be hardforked at regular intervals, approximately every 6 months, where
previous transactions will no longer be recognized by the new mainnet.
This raises issues on how decentralized and secure the network can be.
Source: gendal.wordpress.com
Colored coins is now a forgotten concept as better alternatives have emerged, mainly ERC-20 tokens.
The value of such assets (Securities, shares, bonds, cars, documents, smart keys, digital rights etc.) is tied to a real
world promise (contract) by the asset issuers that they are willing to redeem digital tokens for these assets
Example: Color 1 btc – each satoshi is tied to 1 share of XYZ stock. XYZ stock can be traded on the btc blockchain,
not the stock market
Disadvantage: Real world promise is a contract done outside of blockchain. So trust must be built. If I have 10k
satoshis and go to XYZ company to take my shares, they are not forced by the protocol to give me the shares.
Coins can be tracked. Anyone can color. But a special wallet is needed to check b/ces and distinguish which bitcoins
are colored. Colored coins are staying irrelevant because other solutions emerge which do not depend on bitcoin
blockchain e.g. ERC 20 Tokens
An examples of a Colored coins-enabled wallet is the ChromaWallet. The Government of Sweden tested a
blockchain system for registering and recording land titles in partnership with ChromaWallet in 2016.
Anonymity, integrity and security by storing an online distributed proof of existence for any
document
Abstract from website: “The document is certified via embedding its SHA256 digest in the
bitcoin blockchain. This is done by generating a special bitcoin transaction that
encodes/contains the hash via an OP_RETURN script. This is a bitcoin scripting opcode that
marks the transaction output as provably unspendable and allows a small amount of data
to be inserted, which in our case is the document's hash, plus a marker to identify all of our
transactions. Once the transaction is confirmed, the document is permanently certified and
proven to exist at least as early as the time the transaction was confirmed”
Problem solved: How to advance the functionality of bitcoin without affecting the network
Sidechains become source of innovation and extension of the bitcoin blockchain - Can be built on top of any blockchain
Process:
Assets are transferred at a fixed or otherwise deterministic exchange rate
Coins “leave” the bitcoin network(in reality sent to a special address), so they are actually frozen not leaving the network
When a tx is confirmed – bitcoin owner sends a message to the sidechain containing verification of ownership
Sidechain creates an equal amount of pegged bitcoins(or other specified tokens) and send to the owner
These coins can be involved in transactions in the sidechain under whatever rules the sidechain has
Pegged coins can be redeemed back for bitcoins in the same way. Sidechain will destroy the pegged coins and bitcoins will be released on the main
blockchain
Advantages: Extensions to original bitcoin capabilities with other capabilities - Environment for innovation - Better performance on
parent chain because of offload transactions in sidechains - Increased privacy
Source: cryptobizmagazine.com
The “Symmetric two-way peg” model, whereby the transfer mechanisms between any chain are the same
and are based on SPV proofs. To transfer coins from the parent chain to a sidechain, the coins are sent to a
special output on the parent chain that can only be unlocked by an SPV proof of possession on the sidechain.
Furthermore, to synchronize the two chains, two waiting periods are used: (a) A “confirmation period” during
which a coin remains locked on the parent chain before it can be transferred to the sidechain, and (b) A
“contest period” during which a newly-transferred coin may not be spent on the sidechain.
The “Asymmetric two-way peg” model, whereby each user can independently fully validate the state of the
parent chain, without requiring SPV proofs, because all users are aware of the state of the parent chain.
In order to use Sidechains, special SPV-aware Bitcoin clients must first be developed. Spearheading the
sidechains development is Blockstream, co-founded by Adam Back, the developer of Hashcash and the PoW
principle that Bitcoin uses.
The purpose is to enable faster coin transfers and privacy. Businesses can use the Liquid Network in order to
issue and manage security tokens on top of it.
Blockstream claims to tackle scaling, privacy and reliability issues faced by other blockchains like Ethereum,
which we will discuss further next week.
There are no coding requirements to launch a token on Blockstream, as several organizations intend to launch
coins on the platform, including BnkToTheFuture and TokenSoft.
The web interface allows such entities to set up rules such as regional restrictions and KYC/AML
requirements.
Source: cointelegraph.com
See here for some interesting solutions empowered by smart contracts technology
Smart contracts may provide several benefits, for instance:
They may automatically enforce power equality of all parties involved
They protect an individual’s rights by enforcing reasonable expectations for the signee
They eliminate the possibility of any signatory defaulting on their obligations
Much like a vending machine is a low risk automated contract with the vendor and the customer, the ownership
transference that blockchain provides, is a dis-intermediated way to enable digital contracts that depend on specific
parameters. These could be used to “access control” services and actual property including cars, home keys, etc. Szabo uses
this example in his paper:
At the same time, these contracts could enable a multitude of novel loan and collateral applications, but also in comparison
with oracles (independent digital arbitrators) a large array of property or financial instruments.
Let’s imagine that Alice and Bob want to play rock, paper, scissors and the winner of 3 games wins a bet of 1mBTC.
In this case, an oracle can:
hold both their funds in escrow until a winner is determined
make sure that both players do not know what choice the other player commits to before they commit their own
have a rule set that determines that rock beats scissors, paper beats rock, and scissors beat paper
keep account of the winner of each game until someone wins three times
pay out the full sum to the final winner of the 3 games
All these can be done objectively, transparently and without trust between Alice and Bob. The same can take place for more
complicated financial instruments which rely on various external conditions.
Ethereum and Augur which we will go into in Session 7, is poised to create a more robust contract base that
could enable increasingly complex contracts.
Another sidechain based protocol aiming to offer equivalent and compatible smart contract functionality, is
Rootstock.
Rootstock evaluation: https://medium.com/novamining/rootstock-rsk-smart-contracts-on-bitcoin-9ef28e135193
Voter records
Court records
Composer https://ujomusic.com/
Title http://myceliaformusic.org/
Official Video/Audio
Smart Contracts technology allows artists to set automated payments to them based
on licenses they design themselves
Costs of re-issuing certificates in the case the hard copy is lost are minimal
Universities and issuing authorities protect their brand names from being
tarnished
Eliminate fraud and costs: Funds of sender and recipient can be logged using the multisig technology and be triggered upon smart contract
execution i.e. transfer a land title when funds are received. A “digital ownership certificate” cannot be replicated, and can be linked to one
property in the system, making selling or advertising properties you don’t own almost impossible. No further middlemen, paper work and delays
Transparency: Creation of unique digital IDs for real estate assets, buyers and sellers. Enable faster mortgage process and transfer of o wnership.
For the buyer, credit history and income could be instantly verifiable, avoiding time-consuming tasks involving banks, lawyers and estate agents.
Homeowners can prove ownership and time of residence within a property. For assets, digital identities could be assigned, whi ch would include
the chain of ownership, list of repairs etc.
https://www.energymatt er
s.com.au/panels-
modules/choosing-solar-
panels/
Meta-coins enable more advanced applications, such as smart contracts, asset registration, remote attestation,
voting, etc.
Future uses of the concept of the blockchain will increasingly give birth to a large number of promising applications
and further concepts. Ethereum (more details next week) looks like the most promising platform at the moment to
host disruptive decentralized applications
Besides the material presented on this session, you can also check out next week’s additional material posted on
MOODLE, which will provide an overview of consortium blockchain use cases like Hyperledger and R3. These
communities work to provide distributed platforms and frameworks which are able to innovate procedures within
many industries.
We will evaluate the hype around Facebook’s Libra Blockchain on following sessions.
http://zerocash-project.org/paper
https://blockonomi.com/zcash-guide/
https://consensys.net/enterprise-ethereum/use-cases/
Grin Coin
https://grin-tech.org/
https://blockonomi.com/grin-mimblewimble/
Another Mimblewimble based coin: https://www.coinbureau.com/review/beam-coin/
https://block.co/
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/se/Documents/risk/DI_2019-global-blockchain-survey.pdf
Twitter: @mscdigital
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