Hi John,
Thank you for the articles! There’s a lot of good stuff in them.
However, I don’t agree with some of the points and there is a bit of confusion between Bitcoin and block chains across the documents as a whole (e.g definition of Bitcoin).
There is a lot happening around block chains in the bigger picture, particularly in parts of Europe and Asia, and much less so in the USA - although I am sure this will change soon.
As someone involved in many aspects of blockchains and DLTs, and as a co-author of the UK gov report you mentioned (which was written for politicians and has stimulated political action!), I would comment that:
- Within the IGF, block chains are seen as potentially the most disruptive technology impacting the future of the Internet. New secure mobile technologies will magnify this impact.
- There is block chain activity in nearly every sector and in a small, but increasing, number of government organisations and international organisations, including in refugee camps.
- Meantime, new Block chain 2.0 technologies are emerging that are more tailored to meeting specific and diverse needs much more efficiently. Block chain as a platform is not far away. (I can provide details next week after a UK gov announcement next monday).
- Financial use of block chains is primarily for payments (customer and inter-bank), clearing, investments, trading and settlements. The banks are only just waking up to the wider use of block chains to support new services.
- Bitcoin
- Society is very confused about Bitcoin, and whether it is good or bad.
- Bitcoin benefitted from first mover advantage, but it suffers from the historic inevitability that any economic system without adequate governance will collapse when those that can, abuse others too much. Hence the drive to introduce much more governance into cryptocurrencies and have suitable mechanisms in the underlying block chains. Practically, some of the banks have been looking at how to establish “trusted Bitcoin” i.e. to put a cryptographically bound wrapper around the Bitcoin transaction and the provenance/traceability trail, which would more normally be met in a permissioned chain.
- Bitcoin has been a contributory factor to a significant rise in cyber crime, which has increased by 300% since 2011, and last year stood at $7.4 trl according to Red Dragon Rising and agencies. Hence there is likely to be a move by authorities to take down untrusted Bitcoin in the future. Much of this blurs with dark web and anonymisation/privacy networks, which KI probably ought to understand, if only to appreciate the implications for trust, IAWG etc.
- Bitcoin is slow and suffers from scalability problems, although temporary remedies are being suggested. More efficient and effective solutions could arise out of leading startups or the R3 collaborative group of 43 banks which is exploring new block chain and cryptocurrency possibilities.
- There are many other uses of block chains that we can discuss.
- Very importantly, the main value of DLTs and permissioned block chains is where they hold valuable or sensitive information that is distributed across a great many organisations. Such block chains cannot realistically function without:
- Federated identity and access management at High Assurance (LoA 3+)
- Trusted attributes from authoritative sources. As all entities and attributes in cyberspace bind to an organisation, so trusted registers for organisations fit for digital economies and societies, are becoming a major issue in many nations, including USA. New national and international legislation for traceability of people and things is increasing the pressure.
- Those nations and some industries that already have a standards-based, federated identity management are recognising that PKI federation will become very important to the future use of block chains, because:
- Block chains require PKI to provide the recordset or “block” binding into a chain
- Permissioned chains, particularly with smart contracts, require federated authentication, signature and encryption.
- Crucially, PKI federation could replace the Proof of Work, dramatically reducing the operating cost and risks of the chain and significantly increasing its speed, scale, reliability and assurance. The advent of a new X.509 standard that includes certificate whitelisting (goodbye Certificate Revocation Lists) would enhance this. Same goes for node operations.
- Several international projects, such as EU MAPPING, are tracking developments and factoring these into the drafting of new legal instruments that may result in regulations, directives and laws, particularly around privacy and surveillance. Law enforcement and security & intel services are also involved, as work continues to ensure that block chains evolve consistent with fundamental human rights.
- Finally, Australia has initiated a discussion in ISO about the possibility of a new Sub Committee for Block Chains, which touches/overlaps with the work of several other SCs, notably SC27 which meets in Abu Dhabi in late Oct. The UK has replied with proposed improvements and we await to see what happens. Meantime, in some nations, local initiatives to develop standards are being corralled to feed into international standardisation efforts.
There are a few collaborative groups operating in London, with international participation, shaping developments and communicating/coordinating. Some governments are involved. The possibility of the first Policy Management Authority for block chains, with a Common Policy, is being considered, to anticipate and feed into current operations and future standards - and all points in between. Maybe some KI members could join in. Or some of their members join KI.
How KI might fit into all of this (and more), I don’t know, but I have some ideas where it could acquire a USP. I welcome the opportunity to talk.
regards,
Patrick
Patrick Curry
Director
British Business Federation Authority - BBFA Ltd
M: +44 786 024 9074
T: +44 1980 620606
patrick.curry@bbfa.infowww.bbfa.info – a not-for-profit, self-regulating body
The IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals) has published a number of small pieces for privacy professionals about blockchain on its web site and newsletters. I've attached a representative sample for your edification
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<A Privacy Engineer’s Analysis of Bitcoin.pdf><Blockchain and big data privacy in healthcare.pdf><Unravelling the mystery of blockchain – Should privacy professionals be concerned_.pdf>_______________________________________________
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