Beyond digitalizing money, payments, economics, and finance, and governance, smart property and smart contracts, blockchains secure automated fleet coordination
The implications could be an orderly transition to the automation economy and trust-rich digital smartnetwork societies of the future
Why Teams call analytics are critical to your entire business
Blockchain Smartnetworks: Bitcoin and Blockchain Explained
1. U Penn, Philadelphia PA, Dec 9, 2016
Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga
Bitcoin and Blockchain Explained
Melanie Swan
Philosophy & Economic Theory
New School for Social Research, NY NY
melanie@BlockchainStudies.org
Blockchain Smartnetworks
Bitcoin and Blockchain Explained
Part of a Series on Cryptophilosophy
cryptophilosophy
2. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Thesis
1
Beyond digitalizing money, payments,
economics, and finance, and governance,
smart property and smart contracts,
blockchains secure automated fleet
coordination
The implications could be an orderly transition
to the automation economy and trust-rich
digital smartnetwork societies of the future
3. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained 2
Melanie Swan, Blockchain Futurist
Philosophy and Economic Theory, New School
for Social Research, New York NY
Founder, Institute for Blockchain Studies
Singularity University Instructor; Institute for Ethics and
Emerging Technology Affiliate Scholar; EDGE
Essayist; FQXi Advisor
Traditional Markets Background
Economics and Financial
Theory Leadership
New Economies research group
Source: http://www.melanieswan.com, http://blockchainstudies.org/NSNE.pdf, http://blockchainstudies.org/Metaphilosophy_CFP.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NewEconomies
5. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Bitcoin-FinTech-Blockchain Growth
4
https://angel.co/bitcoin, http://thefinanser.co.uk/fsclub/2015/02/the-fintech-scene-is-so-hot-its-boiling.html
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/04/16/bitcoin-is-the-worlds-most-dangerous-idea/
Silicon Valley Bank:
Global investment in
FinTech is set to
double from $10
billion in 2014 to
$19.7 billion in 2015,
and reach $46.1
billion by 2020
6. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Gartner Emerging Technology Hype Cycle
5
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/04/16/bitcoin-is-the-worlds-most-dangerous-idea/
Cryptocurrencies added July 2014
7. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
How does Bitcoin work?
6
1. Download software wallet app
Blockchain.info, Mycelium, etc.
2. Transfer Bitcoin via QR Code / public key address
3. See your transaction confirm, post to the blockchain
8. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Technology: What is it?
7
Blockchain technology is the secure distributed ledger
software that underlies cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin
“Internet of Money” leapfrog technology; Skype is an app allowing
phone calls via Internet without POTS; Bitcoin is an app allowing
money transfer via Internet without banks; ‘decentralized Paypal’
Internet
(decentralized network)
Blockchain
Bitcoin
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
Application
Layer
Protocol
Layer
Infrastructure
Layer
SMTP
Email
VoIP
Phone
calls
OSI Protocol Stack:
9. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain (not Bitcoin) is the revolution
8
Internet phase transitions
Phase I: transfer information
Modernize publishing, books, music,
news, information
Phase 2: transfer value (money,
property)
Modernize of economics and finance
Providing the digital payments layer the
Internet never had
Instantiating the qualitative good of
trust in the infrastructure
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
10. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Smartnetwork vision
Pushing more complexity through the Internet pipes
9
Information
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
Sci-fi inspiration: Accelerando, Lady of Mazes, Blindsight, The Golden Age, Glasshouse
Confirmation of Automated
Distribution of
Transfer of
Growing classes of activities for smartnetwork execution
I: Information; II: Money, finance, economics; energy; supply chain, logistics,
transportation; health; IOT; III: identity, preference, intangible resources
Value Identity Preference
Registration of
20161990 2025e 2050e 2075e
Automated
Propagation of
Voting
Policy
Opinion
Participation
GBI
Energy
Trust
Autonomy
Recognition
Economics Politics
Ideas
Health
Collaboration
opportunities
Instantiation
Upload integrity
Smart-
resources
Smart-
currencies
2090e
Internet Smartnetwork
11. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained 10
Currency
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
Property:
Assets
Inventory
Securities: stocks, bonds, government issue, futures and
options, FX contracts
Hard assets: cars, houses, global supply chain, medical
inventories; Intangible assets: IP
Money, digital payments, remittance
Programmable smartmoney
Fundamental enabling infrastructure
Economics
Governance
& Legal
Services
Global-scale
projects
Politics
Singularity
All contractual arrangements
Blockchain’s vast reach beyond currency
Financial instruments: mortgage, loans
Million-person genome banks, supply chain
management, autonomous driving fleets
Voting, identity, citizenship, civic services
Legal documents, contracts, wills, agreements
12. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Why is it called blockchain?
Blockchain: a chain of transaction blocks
Every 10 minutes, the latest
block of submitted
transactions is validated (by
cryptographic mining) and
posted to a single distributed
ledger
Each new block of
transactions calls the last
block, so that the
transactions are chained
together sequentially, hence
the word blockchain
11
Source: https://blockexplorer.com
13. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain crucial for the
Singularity-class project: Financial Inclusion
Just as the Printing Press and
the Internet flattened access to
communicating information...
…blockchains are giving the
power of the printing press to
banking, credit, and money
Access to economic and financial
systems (credit) as a basic human
right (2 billion under-banked)
Long-tail economics: any two
parties can transact on the
network (eBay of money)
12
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
14. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Issue: hierarchy is not scalable
13
Sources: What is Decentralization? http://futurememes.blogspot.com/search?q=datt.co,
http://blog.midem.com/2016/04/blockchain-broken-music-industry/
Blockchains are a form of trust-making technology
A system of checks and balances that is universal and
planetary-scale (Kardashev-level)
New tiers of scalability are needed
Million-genome repositories (largest is 3700 currently),
connectome databases to reveal brain structure
15. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Smartnetwork theme: design Optimality
Optimal mix of centralized and
decentralized models
Rethinking Coase’s firm size
Manufacturing reorganization per
electricity; industries rethought per
decentralized networks
Tighter supply chain integration
Complexity design principles
Decentralization here to stay
Proven decentralized scalability
paradigm: Internet
Bitcoin, blockchain, decentralization
14
Sources: Coase, RH, The Nature of The Firm, 1937, http://www3.nccu.edu.tw/~jsfeng/CPEC11.pdf
Decentralization
Blockchain
Bitcoin
16. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Economics and Finance
Apparatus for constituting the present and the future
15
Bitcoin, Crypto-currencies Smart Contracts
Economics Finance
Spot, Cash Market Futures, Options
Market
Present Future
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-payment-systems, http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-financial-
networks, http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-temporality-smart-contract-timespecifiability-with-blocktime
Real-time payments Utility Settlement Coin
(USC) (8/24/16)
Temporality
Regime
17. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Decentralized Economics and Finance
Current mode is one kind of system for organizing access to resources
16
The organizing assumption of
economic systems has been
scarcity; an orientation to the
production and distribution of scarce
material goods. This no longer holds
in an era of digital services, non-rival
goods, and complementarity
Mindset Shifts:
1. Scarcity to Abundance
2. Labor to Fulfillment
3. Hierarchy to Decentralization
The organizing assumption of
financial systems has been the
control or at least prediction of
the future value of assets and
liabilities; finance = credit (credit
is really about trust). Also no
longer holding.
Mindset Shifts:
1. Access instead of Ownership
2. Topological Ranges instead
of Point Values
3. Assurity instead of
Insufficiency
Sources: http://futurememes.blogspot.com/2016/09/defining-blockchain-economy-what-is.html and New Economies and Finance at
the New School: http://blockchainstudies.org/NSNE.pdf
Economics Finance
Present FutureTemporality
Regime
18. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Abundance Philosophy of Economics
Realization of decentralized economics and finance
17
Source: Swan, M. "Automation Economy: An Abundance Philosophy of Economics" In Emerging Technology and
Unemployment. Palgrave Macmillan. Forthcoming.
Phase I: transition to Automation Economy
Phase II: transition to Actualization Economy
A
B
C
Trust, Autonomy,
Recognition
19. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Technological Unemployment
Key singularity-class challenge: orderly transition to the
Automation Economy
Half (47%) of employment is at risk of automation in the next
two decades – Carl Frey, Oxford, 2015
Why are there still so many jobs in a world that could be
automating more quickly? – David Autor, MIT, 2015
18
Source: Swan, M. "Automation Economy: An Abundance Philosophy of Economics" In Emerging Technology and
Unemployment. Palgrave Macmillan. Forthcoming.
20. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Use Bitcoin to avoid Digital Identity theft
19
Amazon,
Overstock,
Newegg, etc.
www.bitcoinvalues.net/who-accepts-bitcoins-payment-companies-stores-take-bitcoins.html
21. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Economic and privacy arguments for Bitcoin
Vendor payments market
1-3% merchant transaction fee
Hack-able ‘honey pot’ identity databases
Banking services market
5 bn individuals worldwide without access
to banking, financial, credit services
Remittances market
$4 tn global market, 5-30% transaction
fee; immediate funds transfer solution
Successful examples suggest
demand for digital payments
Starbucks mobile app, Apple Pay
20
http://www.bitcoinvalues.net/who-accepts-bitcoins-payment-companies-
stores-take-bitcoins.html
22. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
How big is the market and is it liquid?
Which cryptocurrency should I use?
21
https://coinmarketcap.com/
24. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
What is the blockchain?
23
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin, https://bitcoin.org/en/download, https://getaddr.bitnodes.io/
The open-source software upon which
Bitcoin runs
A technology protocol layer like TCP/IP
A transaction database, a decentralized
public ledger of all transactions
Giant ‘interactive Google doc spreadsheet’
that anyone can view and administrators
(miners) continually verify and update to
confirm that each transaction is valid
Literally blocks (batches of
transactions) in a chain, a sequential
ledger of transactions
25. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
How robust is the network?
24
https://bitnodes.21.co/
5404 Global Nodes running full Bitcoind (Dec 2016)
26. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Financial and Public Records Applications
Financial instruments
1. Currency
2. Private equities
3. Public equities
4. Bonds
5. Derivatives Commodities
6. Spending records
7. Trading records
8. Mortgage/loan records
9. Servicing records
10. Crowdfunding
11. Microfinance
25
http://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/1402/how-to-get-started-your-first-dapp-under-one-hour
Public Records
1. Land titles
2. Vehicle registries
3. Business incorporations
4. Criminal records
5. Passports
6. Birth certificates
7. Death certificates
8. Voter Registration
9. Voting Records
10. Health/safety inspections
11. Building permits
12. Court records
27. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
What is Smart Property?
Register assets to blockchain via unique key
Blocktrace ledger tracks diamonds
Real-time GPS LoJack tracking for any asset
Blockchain becomes an inventory, tracking,
and buy-sell mechanism for all hard assets
Decentralized asset exchange
Digital authentication access system
Blockchain-based keyless entry
26
Asset-backed tokens, https://openbazaar.org/, http://www.edgelogic.net/blocktrace
28. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Decentralized Application (Dapp) Ecosystem
27
http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
Project Name and URL Activity Centralized
Equivalent
OpenBazaar, BitMarkets, BitPremier
https://openbazaar.org
Buy/sell items locally Craigslist
LaZooz
http://lazooz.org
On-demand ride service Uber, Lyft
Twister
http://twister.net.co
Social networking, peer-to-peer
microblogging
Twitter, Facebook
Gems
http://getgems.org
Social networking, private
token-based social messaging
Twitter, SMS apps
Bitmessage
https://bitmessage.org
Secure messaging (individual or
broadcast)
SMS services
Storj
http://storj.io/
File storage Dropbox, Google Drive
Onename
https://onename.com/
BitID
https://github.com/bitid/bitid
Bithandle
http://www.hackathon.io/bithandle
Digital identity verification VeriFone, Verisign, Facebook
29. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
What are Smart Contracts?
28
Agreements between parties posted to the
blockchain for automated execution
Cryptolaw: intersection of technological (inexorable,
uninfringeable) and legal frameworks (flexible)
Smart Contract Examples:
Bet on high temperature tomorrow
Inheritance pay-out at age 21 or death of benefactor
Mortgage with automatic interest-rate resets
Code: Ethereum and Eris
https://github.com/ethereum/
https://erisindustries.com/
https://eng.erisindustries.com/smart%20contracts/2014/12/17/dennys-smart-contracting/ ,
http://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/1402/how-to-get-started-your-first-dapp-under-one-hour,
http://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001555.html
30. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Smart Contract
Law Firm?
29
http://www.robotandhwang.com/attorneys/
Law is something to be
radically reshaped by
the emergence of
technology, it is about
the management and
manipulation of data on
an entirely new scale -
Richard Susskind
31. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Financial Services
Distributed ledger
Instant transaction validation
Settlement, clearing, audit
Simpler, more secure, less
expensive financial services
Use case applications
Industry-wide collaboration
Securities asset registries
Value chain efficiency:
custody, titling, insurance
Financial-inclusion
addressable market
Digital identity, banking
30
Source: https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/financial-services-corporate-blockchain-investments
32. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Energy grid smartnetworks
Concept: the power grid of every
continent is an energy Internet
“Quantized units” are energy:
kWh/kWm
Use case applications
Automatic markets: off-hour and
lowest cost demand fulfillment
Smart grid management
Energy price and trade validation
Resource self-pricing
Source fungibility: wind, solar power
P2P microgrid infrastructure
31
Sources: Rifkin, J. The Zero Marginal Cost Society; https://www.newscientist.com/article/2079334-blockchain-based-
microgrid-gives-power-to-consumers-in-new-york/
Cryptosustainability Micropolis Example:
Peer-to-peer Microgrids
33. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Supply chain & logistics grid smartnetworks
Tamper-proof record-keeping
Register assets and inventory
Assure provenance, custody
Track quantity and transfer of assets
(pallets, trailers, containers) moving
through supply chain nodes
Track purchase orders, change orders,
receipts, shipment notifications
Assign and verify custody and product
certification
Link physical goods to serial numbers,
bar codes, RFID tags
Virtual reality rapid simulation and
event-history keeping (>transactions)
32
34. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Fleets: Secure, Automated Coordination
33
Source: Blockchain Singularities :http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-singularities-65443340
Modern fleet management operation via
digital smartnetwork coordination
Blockchain properties
Secure, trackable, automated coordination of
large-scale projects with many items
Automated system of checks and balances; all
transactions must confirm via smartnetwork
Moves any sort of quantized/unitized packets on
the smartnetwork: energy, cars, synapse firings
Fleet management
Autonomous vehicles, IOT sensors, social
robotics, synaptic connections, deep-learners,
medical nanorobots, planet terraformers, synbio
agents, environmental cleanup bots
35. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain IOT
34
http://www.zdnet.com/article/internet-of-things-market-to-hit-7-1-trillion-by-2020-idc/,
http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
https://gigaom.com/2014/09/09/check-out-ibms-proposal-for-an-internet-of-things-architecture-using-bitcoins-block-chain-tech/
M2M/IOT Bitcoin payment network to
enable the machine economy
The economic layer the web never had
IOT 2020: 26 bn devices in a $7 tn market
Smarthome IOT networks (dist. privacy)
Self-mining ecologies
Privacy orchestration: devices, personal
robotics, digital health assistants
IBM Adept
Blockchain + Messaging + BitTorrent
Blockchains as scalable communication and
coordination mechanism
Smartcity Connected
Car Orchestration
Smarthome IOT and
Personal Robotics
Coordination
36. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Health
Blockchain technology in health-related applications
1. EMRs: Personal Health Record Storage and Access
Personal health records stored and administered via blockchain
Users key-permission doctors and other parties into records
2. Health Research Commons (info processing)
Aggregated personal medical records, quantified self data
commons (DNA.bits), genome and connectome files
3. Health Document Notary Services
Proof-of-insurance, test results, prescriptions, status, condition,
treatment, physician referrals
4. Doctor Vendor RFP Services
(Like Uber drivers) doctors and health practices bid to supply
medical services; automated bidding via tradenets
35
http://futurememes.blogspot.fr/2014/09/blockchain-health-remunerative-health.html
37. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Genomics
36
Jurisdictional regulation prevents
individuals from having access to
their own genetic data
http://genomesunzipped.org/2011/03/people-have-a-right-to-access-their-own-genetic-information.php
38. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchains: Global and Liberty-enhancing
37
Global governance for transnational organizations
WikiLeaks, ICANN, Wikipedia
Benefits of blockchain administration
Uplift to cloud from local jurisdictional regulations
Universal administration mechanism for global organizations
Structure promotes transparency, accountability, freedom
Namecoin: decentralized DNS
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2010/12/07/visa-mastercard-move-to-choke-wikileaks/
Snowden Affair
39. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Government
Opt-in Personalized Government
Composting vs education
Reputation-based ID system, voting,
dispute resolution, national income
distribution, public documents
registration and repository
Neighbor.ly
Self-directed community bonds
Precedentcoin
Crowdsourced legal services, justice
entrepreneurs, blockchain arbitration
Sidekik
On-demand tele-attorney, private police
38
http://www.bitnation.co/, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/17066/first-blockchain-wedding-2/,
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/19813/sidekik-decentralized-video-streaming-storage/
World’s First Blockchain Marriage:
David Mondrus and Joyce Bayo, October
5, 2014, Disney World FL, Coins in the
Kingdom Bitcoin Conference, Jeffrey
Tucker (Liberty.me) presiding
40. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Representation and Voting
Delegative democracy (Liquid Democracy)
Voting power temporarily vested in
delegates not long-term representatives
Group proposition development
Futarchy, two-step program
1. Traditional vote on outcomes (ex: GDP)
2. Prediction markets to determine specific
proposals for achieving the outcome
Random Sample Elections
Randomly selected individuals vote on a
single issue, blockchain orchestration
Convergent Facilitation
Register group needs as smart assets
39
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/17066/first-blockchain-wedding-2/,
http://www.bitnation-blog.com/latest-update-dec-22nd-2014/
41. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Legal
Notary Service, Attestation
Register contracts, agreements, wills (Proof of Existence, Factom)
Register, protect, and transact IP (Monegraph, Ascribe)
How it works
Hash + timestamp + blockchain record
40
http://www.proofofexistence.com/
42. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Science and What is Mining?
Bitcoin: world’s largest supercomputer @ 42 petahashes/second
Mining is the process of adding
transaction records to the public
ledger by performing a computing
task that is costly to execute but
easy to verify
Issue: mining is purposefully
wasteful to deter malicious players
‘Green’ mining projects
Primecoin
Foldingcoin
Gridcoin
Zennet
41
http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoin-mining-hard-way-algorithms.html,
http://codinginmysleep.com/bitcoin-mining-in-plain-english/
43. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Smartnetwork Application: Friendly AI
Argument…
1. Digital intelligences will be
running on consensus-managed
smartnetworks
2. Good reputational standing is
required to conduct operations
Resource access, fund-raising,
services-providing, contracts
3. Consensus only validates and
records bonafide transactions
from ‘good’ agents
4. Therefore all agents ‘good’
42
Swan, M. Cognitive Applications of Blockchain Technology. Cognitive Science 2015: The Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society:
Mind, Technology, and Society, Pasadena CA, July 2015. submitted. Swan, M. Blockchain Thinking: The Brain as a DAC (Decentralized
Autonomous Organization). Texas Bitcoin Conference, Austin TX, March 27-29, 2015. accepted.
44. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Derrida: Ontology of Joycean Consensus
43
Derrida. Ulysses Gramophone: Hear Say Yes In Joyce. Pp. 267, 296.
http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
Affirmation is not solo, “saying yes” is dependent
upon another to hear it and acknowledge receipt
The affirmation relation is liberty-enhancing and
totalization-resisting, the affirming and acknowledging
parties, and the yes itself, remain distinct
“The two responses refer to each other without having any
relationship between them. The two sign yet prevent the
signature from gathering itself together [totalizing].”
The yes “addresses itself to some other which it does not constitute”
The yes avoids its own totalization, “The yes, by responding and
countersigning, does not let itself be counted or discounted [totalized].”
Well-formed consensus: preserve the integrity of
entities in a network of ad-hoc relations
45. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Cryptocitizen Sensibility
A new relationship with authority and
responsibility-taking
Digital safety: Backing up our money
Governance services vs. being governed
Trend: happened with news media,
entertainment, stock-trading, health services;
now happening with economics and politics
Freedom of choice, autonomy, and self-
determination of economic and political
systems as basic human rights
Responsibility for trust-generating
behavior per reduced government
involvement in decentralization
44
46. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Philosophy
Smartnetwork Trust & Consensus Realities
Trust is manufactured on
smartnetworks though consensus
protocols and independent
confirmations of truth states
Smartnetworks are a way of making
new and pluralistic reality
Different network consensus protocols
come to different truth states about the
world, thus…
…creating mulitple realities, and
…the notion that realitiy is maleable and
can be created; gives portability with reality
45
47. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Art
46
Rio, Tel Aviv, Hamburg, Barcelona, Seoul, Tokyo, New York
http://bitfilm.com/festival.html
48. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Art
47
http://cryptoart.com/
Fine art paper wallets
49. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Art
48
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=98392.0
Cryptographic art
Someone used Bitcoin's ability to
embed arbitrary text inside a
transaction to put an ASCII Art Ben
Bernanke into the Bitcoin blockchain
50. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Art
49
http://fiatleak.com/
Data visualization as art
51. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Art
50
http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-best-Bitcoin-visualizations
Data visualization as art
52. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Literacy
‘Bitcoin MOOCs,’ ‘Kiva for literacy’
Peer-to-peer learning contracts
Literacy beyond reading
Technical, Agricultural, Vocational Literacy
Blockchain-based personal development
contracts
QS-biometric utility function imputation and tracking
Maslow chains, subjectivation and actualization chains
Development Economics 2.0
Decentralized credit bureaus, literacy contracts,
remittances, blockchain-tracked aid, microcredit,
Open-source FICO scores
Peer-vouched reputation
51
53. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Applications by Sector (selected)
52
http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
Crucial Blockchain Properties
• Cryptoledger
• Decentralized network
• Trustless
counterparties
• Independent
consensus-confirmed
transactions
• Permanent record
• Public records
repository
• Notarization time-
stamping hashes
• Universal format
• Accessibility
Government
& Legal
• Transnational orgs
• Personalized
governance services
• Voting, propositions
• P2P bonds
• Tele-attorney services
• IP registration and
exchange
• Tax receipts
• Notary service and
document registry
Economics
and Markets
• Currency
• Payments &
Remittance
• Banking & Finance
• Clearing &
Settlement
• Insurance
• FinTech
• Trading & Derivatives
• QA & Internal Audit
• Crowdfunding
IOT
• Agricultural & drone
sensor networks
• Smarthome networks
• Integrated smartcity,
connected car,
smarthome sensors
• Self-driving car
• Personalized robots,
robotic companions
• Personalized drones
• Digital assistants
• Communication
(messaging)
• Large-scale
coordination
• Entity ingress/egress
• Transaction security
• Universal format
• Large-scale multi-
data-stream
integration
• Privacy and security
• Real-time
accessibility
Health
• Universal EMR
• Health databanks
• QS Data Commons
• Big health data
stream analytics
• Digital health wallet
• Smart property
• HealthToken
• Personal
development
contracts
• Large-scale
infrastructural
element for
coordination
• Checks-and-
balances system
for ‘good-player’
access
• Community
supercomputing
• Crowd analysis
• P2P resourcenets
• Film, dataviz
• AI: blockchain
advocates, friendly
AI, blockchain
learners, digital
mindfile services
Science,
Art, AI
54. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain downside and risks?
ISSUE
53
Satoshi Roundtable #3: Scaling Bitcoin Milan
Oct 8-9, 2016
Hacking Scandals
Mt Gox, Ethereum DAO, Bitfinex
Silk Road, drug dealers,
terrorists, criminals
Scalability, evolution
Block size, sidechains
Mining Centralization
RESPONSE
Centralization temporary; wide-spread at higher-
scale; move to 16 nm, solar/hydro-powered chips
Building resilient system constantly under open
attack 24/7 (remember early Internet DNS attacks)
Blockchains are a universal technology available to
all; non-criminal activity predominates
Early Internet: “this will never scale, insecure, not resilient;” Yahoo, AltaVista down for days due to DNS attacks
Source: http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-scaling-conference-italy
Technology Risk
Perception Risk
Regulatory Risk, Economic Risk
National government
regulation, bans
Governments modernizing economic infrastructure
with blockchains too; licensing, open dialogue
55. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Strategies
Leadership Edge
Blockchain is not a separate industry as
much as a new underlying technology
with applications in every industry
New kind of more sophisticated Internet
technology for transferring value
Multiple blockchains by industry with different
classes of encryption and mining paradigms
Money and financial assets
Energy, health, IOT, transportation fleets
Developing a blockchain strategy
Educate, via industry user groups
Engage with consulting firms
Prototype, test, launch applications
54
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
56. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Blockchain Strategies
Leading with New Applications
Re-invent value chain, identify…
Digital value transfer opportunities
Network intermediaries and coupling points
Automation possibilities and new markets
Example: banks targeting larger customer base
through blockchain-based eWallet solutions
1. Revenue-generating, customer-facing
Offer blockchain-based services to clients
Lead industry-wide blockchain initiatives: “Better EDI,”
single-ledger, supply chain inventory management
Digital billing customer interface, tokenized interaction
2. Internal cost-savings, efficiency-improvement
Quality assurance, test, audit, compliance, sales RFQ
Finance, treasury, accounting, expense management
55
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
57. Dec 9, 2016
Blockchain Explained
Conclusion
56
Beyond digitalizing money, payments,
economics, and finance, and governance,
smart property and smart contracts,
blockchains secure automated fleet
coordination
The implications could be an orderly transition
to the automation economy and trust-rich
digital smartnetwork societies of the future
58. U Penn, Philadelphia PA, Dec 9, 2016
Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga
Bitcoin and Blockchain Explained
Melanie Swan
Philosophy & Economic Theory
New School for Social Research, NY NY
melanie@BlockchainStudies.org
Blockchain Smartnetworks
Bitcoin and Blockchain Explained
Part of a Series on Cryptophilosophy
cryptophilosophy
Thank You! Questions?