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Week 4 [05-11.11.18] How the blockchain will radically transform the economy.

In the era of digitalization and information technologies, a lot of things becomes cybernetic and
we don’t need any more engagement of person to make an order of food delivery or call a taxi or
physically go to a bank to perform transaction or payment. Below video describes more of how our
lives could be digitalize with blockchain technology and how it can improve our lives..


Did you hear before about blockchain, not in context of cryptocurrencies?
Do you think that blockchain technology could replace such institutions as backs?

What do you think about the fact that your personal identity information will be stored in blockchain
and as result publicly available?

Comments

Did you hear before about blockchain, not in context of cryptocurrencies?
Yes, i worked a lot with this technology. I tested not only a lot of cryptocurrencies but i tried to understand how it works in terms of back end. Without any hesitation i would say, that it is our future.
Do you think that blockchain technology could replace such institutions as backs?
Maybe, but i'm not sure. Again, it will need a huge amount of time and resources to test it properly and to implement it.
What do you think about the fact that your personal identity information will be stored in blockchain and as result publicly available?
I don't really think that it will be available for public. Nowadays, we struggle about how to protect our personal information and do not allow hackers to use it against us. After 10 years, i believe, that our personal information will be fully protected. I don't think it will be a big problem, right we have it now.
Nataliya Tkach said…
I worked as a designer for more than six months in a company that was engaged in IT, and every day I heard about blockchain and smart contacts.
Blockchain networks are hardly editable, and the data stored in them is often impossible to update, delete, change or correct. Therefore, I still have a negative attitude to the storage of personal information in the blockchain, as mentioned above, in 10 years will solve this issue.
I have only encountered blockchain in my life only in the context of cryptocurrencies, since i am not a back-ender. By the way, I highly support the idea of cryptocurrencies, as the concept of a currency that is not regulated by any country. What about a way of storing massive arrays of information? Well, it is demanded and, therefore, developing. I am certain that in no time we will have one united cloud service with the info of all citizens or even the whole globe population. Although, imagine what would happen if this thing malfunctioned?.. Sounds like a plot to some science fiction.
Unknown said…
Yes, I have heard about blockchain in a different context than cryptocurrencies. I read an article on the use of this technology for digital signature.
I think it is the technology of the future. A big plus is that blockchain is virtually impossible to decrypt. However, as generally known, someone will come up with a workaround.
Already at this point, our private data is vulnerable to hacker attacks and publicly available.
Unknown said…
Yes, I've heard about other possible use case scenarios for blockchain. But I'm quite skeptical that blockchain will ever replace the banking system, but banks could use it to optimize the payment process and make transaction fees less expensive. The only problems I see here is scalability of such solutions, calculation mistakes that could potentially appear during hash evaluation thus resulting in breaking ledger link and a huge amount of processing power required to maintain such system. So I'm not sure that banks would consider this solution efficient, but I'm not an expert in blockchain technology so I might be wrong and there are some blockchains that have this problem solved.
Question is do we really need this? I don't think that storing your personal identity in "public ledger" will make it more secure because every system has its exploits and it's only matter of time when somebody will figure out how to steal your ID from it.
Iman Masjedi said…
Yes, I've heard about it before.If I want to summarize in plain language:
Bitcoin transactions are stored as ‘blocks’. When a Bitcoin is created or changes hands, a new transaction record gets created comprising blocks of data about transaction request, authorization, execution, sender and receiver. All blocks are linked via an encrypted algorithm creating a chain and, hence, the name Blockchain.
We have seen a big shift in the banking industry in beginning of 2018. With the power of decentralization and blockchain technology, we have the opportunity to take banking to a whole new level.
Banks are getting worried because they can’t offer the transparency new technological banks can offer. Why? Because majority of the banks are controlled by centralized entities. Becoming more transparent is opening up a big risk for them.

I have indeed heard of blockchain, not in the context of cryptocurrencies. It’s a promising concept and technology but unfortunately, Bettina Warburg failed to mention any of its disadvantages. Blockchain is not perfect and has a very different set of constraints and limitation than traditional information exchange.

I don’t think blockchain will replace real banks anytime soon for one very simple reason. Banks back their treasure with real estates, physical money, valuables and other investments. Blockchain, on the other hand, is just an idea. It’s an unregulated agreement between people that some virtual mesh holds the truth about everything. I don’t see myself trusting that.

I don’t think about the fact that my personal identity will be publicly available in blockchain because I am never going to enter it there in the first place. I value my privacy too much to have it compromised on every computer that is part of blockchain.
I have never heard about blockchain, not even in context of cryptocurrencies. However I think that this technology sounds promising, it would allow people to trade goods even easier then today.
Maybe in a future this technology will replace banks and other similar institutions, but in my opinion it is very hard to tell. Predicting future, especially in terms of technology, is very often completely inaccurate. Sometimes things which people thought that will revolutionize world proved to be useless and sometimes technology came up inventions which no one was expected 10 years ago.
I don’t my storing my identity information in blockchain as long as it will be well secured and I will have control over it.
Did you hear before about blockchain, not in the context of cryptocurrencies?
It was hard not to hear about it when you are working in IT, so yes I've heard about it not only in the context of cryptocurrencies. One of the interesting areas where blockchain can be used that I've heard about was the healthcare (storing health data).
Do you think that blockchain technology could replace such institutions as banks?
It could, but it won't happen soon because people do not trust this technology, they got used to banks and other institutions.
What do you think about the fact that your personal identity information will be stored in the blockchain and as result publicly available?
I think today almost all our data is publicly available, we (and companies storing our data) do not secure it properly and there are a huge amount of data leaks.
Filip Sawicki said…
Obviously blockchain is most famous from bitcoin cryptocurrency, but I have heard and been interested in this topic especially in smart contracts. After watching this TED talk I got to know that it is used also in other industries like logistics which is very interesting to me. I’m pleased that this technology is getting more positive attention, because there has been lots of unfair criticism towards blockchain only due to cryptocurrency bubble burst.
I don’t think that blockchain will replace institutions as they are very important third-party entities that assure various trades and agreements that blockchain can’t do in most cases. However there are many use cases for that technology, even within financial institutions.
It depends, even now we have lots of information publicly available. Take for example KRS, which stores information about your loans and other financial records, nobody sane argues with this approach as it validates your financial situation.
Blockchain can be used as a mean to replace most of the "trust based" institutions, because the system cannot be fooled, and can be trusted as long as it is designed in a reliable way. But at the same time people should be able to research and understand such complex system in order to fully trust it, although not all the banking/election systems are clear and understandable to the populus and yet they are used nonetheless. I think that not being afraid of your personal information leaks and public availability is the next step of society's evolution and we have not reached it yet.
Unknown said…
See your point. However, for me, fact that data stored in them is often impossible to update, delete, change or correct is the biggest asset of a blockchain. As result, we could be confident that this data is truthful.
Unknown said…
This is a risk of any new technology coming into the market. Do you think the centralized storage of info of all citizens will be beneficial for you?
Unknown said…
As you said, already exists solutions which will allow better performance and scalability. Also, I agree with you that storing personal identity data in public ledger could be dangerous. But what about information which will benefit you by being publicly available? For example, you will be able to track every part of your phone from where it come from or check what components in food which you buying in a supermarket... by simply scanning some code on it.
Unknown said…
Thank you for summery. Fully agree with you. I believe every person will benefit from having his banking on insurance transparent. And that one which wouldn't be able to offer it will not able to stay in a market.
Unknown said…
Interesting point, could you mention about drawbacks of blockchain versus traditional information exchange. Not sure that knew about it.

Personally I not really believe that now banks have assets which cover the value of their virtual assets. And in addition, does physical/paper money is something different than virtual? It just paper which has it's value just due to the agreement between people which in addition influenced by the economics of different countries.
Unknown said…
I understand, no one from us would guarantee that something will be a technology of the future or not, however, we can try to imagine how our future will look like. And maybe someone will be able to implement it.
Unknown said…
Thank you, for a comment. I'm not sure that people should understand how blockchain works to trust it. Same way as today, I'm not sure that everyone knows how banks or insurance companies are working in details to trust it.
Unknown said…
KRS is a good example, I believe we can find also other places which this technology could be used.
Unknown said…
I also believe that it will take a lot of time to not only implement and test such solutions but also to build customers trust for these solutions.

Would you like to share your personal data publicly, even though it protected?
Unknown said…
Storing health data is an interesting area where it could be used. As it's always a problem for doctors to know about all your health data history. And patients don't remember it also.
1. I’ve heard it in the context of probably everything. From healthcare to charities, there was some article also presenting that 92% of blockchain startup fail in lifespan less than a year. For me most of these ideas have no reasonable arguments to use blockchain, just trying to break through because of popular topic in media.
2. I think that for certain it won’t. One of the features that blockchain does not have is just support. And if some organization would implement it on its own so why not the banks? We have cryptocurrencies already for quite a long time and they are still just speculation bubbles. Currency can’t be so unstable if we want to use it on daily basis
To be honest I've never had any experience with blockchain, moreover about blockchain in aspects other that cryptocurrency.

In my opinion it would be grate to have some changes. Banks are owned by reach people. Reach people want to have more money. So could imagine those people can do some tricky thinks to have became reacher which is quite equal to have more power. So yes, I think it would we grate to have something which is not depended on those people.

Personally I don't really care about my personal info on the internet. I guess it is simple. If there are some things which you don't want to share, just don't put it in the internet.
Unknown said…
I've heard about blockchain a lot despite never really having any experience with it, and I'm honestly a bit sick of hearing about it. People think that blockchain is the future and should be used as much as possible, even in situations where it doesn't make sense. Changing all the existing systems such as banks to use blockchain is not a simple matter, and right now blockchain is hardly a perfect solution to all problems - it has it's own issues as well. I highly doubt that blockchain will have a lasting impact on the world.

As for privacy, I am not a fan of publicly sharing all my info. Even if you have nothing to hide, your personal information could be used to harass you or take action against you.
Unknown said…
Yep, in context of government records of documents and public registry.
I don't belive that blockchain can possibly substitute banks in near future starting from the fact of distrust and quite hard way to use it continue with old people ruling banks and finishing with chicken egg problem.
Storing all info in open quite dangerous. Reminds me of one episode of black mirror series where everybody had public rating and that didn't really good for mental health of people.
Unknown said…
Yes, I have heard a lot about blockchain in a context other than cryptocurrencies, because I wanted to work in a company that dealt with it.

My knowledge of the blockchain is not very big, but it seems to me can replace institutions such as blacks, because it is growing rapidly.

Our data is available to the public, for example via facebook and many other possibilities, so it will not change much.
1. I have heard about it in context of medicines and tracking patient treatment history
2. I think that banks will find out how to use it their way and how to provide services using blockchain
3. Maybe I should be, but I'm not afraid - currently a lot of personal information about people are already exposed to the public
Yes, I have heard about blockchain before - in context of government services. Blockchain can be used in retail, transportation, medical, legal, marketing.
I think, there is quite big possibility that blockchain technology will replace such institutions as backs. There is an opinion that it will happen in the near future, but this is just an extra speculation of individuals. Undoubtedly, the technology is new and promising, but it is at the very beginning of its path and it will take time until the technology becomes understandable and applicable for the average user of financial services.
Honestly , I don't want my personal data to be in the public domain.
Artem Lipovatyi said…
1. Yes, I heard. At one time I was even fascinated by this technology, but it seemed boring to me.

2. Replace - no. Accelerate, secure, improve - yes. As stated in the video, we need people who will enter this information into the blockchain. Yes, you can reduce the work of people to a minimum, but without them, the system will not be able to function at the beginning.

3. It's no secret that we already provide a lot of personal information in social networks. Accordingly, many people can see it. I think it is better to know the truth about a person, so I don’t think it’s bad.
Unfortunately, no. Maybe with some time it could replace. Like Bettina said that this technology is in its infancy and they are going to need to see a lot of experiments take place and probably fail before they truly understand all of the use cases for their economy. I can assume that it will take a long time for them. But it something new and maybe it's our future. I don't know to much about this technology, but I think that hackers can exploit vulnerabilities of blockchain. So for me it's a bad idea to stored personal identity information in blockchain. Maybe with time when security will be in high level.
Marcin Górski said…
No, whenever I heard about blockchain it was always about cryptocurrencies. I'm not similar with this topic and I have always thought that are strongly related topics. Anyway, I know that is too hard for me.
Yes, of course blockchain technology can replace such institutions. Everything is developing very fast so why not? Of course, it's new technology so it will supporters but I'm sure that people as my parents don't want to change anything because everything is okay for them. As I said, blockchain can have a lot of supporters but only in younger generation.
My personal identity information will be stored in blockchain? It's not something new. Currently, we are living in times of surveillance. There were a lot of rumors about Facebook future when it turns out that they are storing informations about us but nothing has changed. Everybody still wants to use it.
Illia Lukisha said…
Did you hear before about blockchain, not in context of cryptocurrencies?
I think that nowadays there is no person on Earth whom never heard about "amazing future technologies" like blockchain. But in reality blockchain isn't golden bullet for everything in our world.

Do you think that blockchain technology could replace such institutions as backs?
Absolutely no. Maybe blockchain will be integrated as a part of security, but transaction processing is more complex then storing a record in database, and speed is crucial, but nobody talks about how slow slow blockchain is. And blockchain is really slow. So as for me, cryptocurrencies is just time-wasting.

What do you think about the fact that your personal identity information will be stored in blockchain and as result publicly available?
The fact that something is stored in global network, doesn't mean that anybody just can access your data, now everything is stored encrypted, so no, I don't care.

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