Nothing Ventured, Nothing Blockchained

While it is fun to talk about the future of the blockchain and potential use cases, it is foolish not to consider its early-stage red flags. In the last post we discussed how bad data put into the blockchain can make it a liability. Today we'll discuss three other areas of concern with the blockchain that decision makers should consider before adopting the technology. The three areas of concern that the edX course, " Blockchain for Business - An Introduction to Hyperledger Technologies " highlights early on are a lack of standards, a lack of regulation, and a lack of know-how about distributed ledger technologies (DLT). Let's take a closer look at each of these. Does the lack of standards concern you? The course minces no words in admitting that "there is no agreement on standards in the developer and business community, as of yet" (Fall 2017). What are standards? Here's a business definition of the term: For example, every rim in the NBA i...

Have you heard the saying, "Bad data in, bad data out?" Here's an example of what it means: Let's say you create a personal budget. You plug in housing, food, and transportation costs. Things you have a pretty good grasp on. But when it comes to entertainment, you're not sure so you say $20 a month. Yeah, that'll do. Right? If you're just guessing off the top of your head or from what happened last month, this could be considered bad data going into your personal budget. The "bad data out" part comes when you actually spend $100 a month on entertainment and are $80 short every month in your bank account. Bad data in, bad data out. The edX course, " Blockchain for Business - An Introduction to Hyperledger Technologies ",  shows how the blockchain is good for supply chains by following a fish from when it's caught to when the fish arrives at the appropriate restaurant.  My problem with this example is, if I'm the restaur...

Aside from the Proof of Work and Proof of Stake blockchain consensus algorithms, there are others to consider. Needless to say, it is early days not only for the blockchain, but for its consensus algorithms. In other words, what is here today may be gone tomorrow and the industry's best practice may not even exist yet. Here are a few other consensus algorithms that the "Blockchain for Business - An Introduction to Hyperledger Technologies" edX course briefly notes with some additional explanations.   Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET)   Here's how the edX course describes PoET : "Developed by Intel, the Proof of Elapsed Time consensus algorithm emulates the Bitcoin-style Proof of Work. Hyperledger's Sawtooth implementation is an example of PoET at work. Instead of competing to solve the cryptographic challenge and mine the next block, as in the Bitcoin blockchain, the PoET consensus algorithm is a hybrid of a random lottery and first-come-first-s...

I like learning new languages and I can always tell when I've started to get a handle on one when I start kidding around in it. At that point I know I've gone from learning how to construct a sentence to using what I know to do new things. When I started writing "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Blockchained" I did it to help myself flesh out the lessons from the edX course, " Blockchain for Business - An Introduction to Hyperledger Technologies ". This approach has worked well. While I've enjoyed the edX course, I've learned even more digging further into key concepts behind the blockchain to better understand how it works. During those blog posts I wrote with myself as the reader in mind. Taking this course has been similar to learning a new language. At first I had to build up my vocabulary and get a feel for how to pronounce all these new words. And as I've done that, I've started to think about what I can do with all these new words...