Blockchain | Technology Comparisons and Reviews https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal No-nonsense technical analysis from the community! Thu, 26 Dec 2019 15:15:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.3.17 https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/cropped-light_on_dark_PNG-1-32x32.png Blockchain | Technology Comparisons and Reviews https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal 32 32 “Everything” You Need To Know About Blockchain https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/everything-you-need-to-know-about-blockchain/ https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/everything-you-need-to-know-about-blockchain/#respond Mon, 25 Mar 2019 11:49:30 +0000 https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/?p=60462 Looking for a Blockchain Platform? See the ultimate (independent) technical analysis of “Blockchain for business” platforms here. Blockchain has become one of the most talked-about technological innovations on the internet but is often seen as a solution “looking for problems”. Why is that? What are the use cases that drive blockchain’s popularity and what further […]

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Looking for a Blockchain Platform? See the ultimate (independent) technical analysis of “Blockchain for business” platforms here.

Blockchain has become one of the most talked-about technological innovations on the internet but is often seen as a solution “looking for problems”. Why is that? What are the use cases that drive blockchain’s popularity and what further applications will we see?

How does it work

A blockchain is actually a decentralised ledger developed for the digital currency Bitcoin. This ledger consists of linked batches of transactions called as blocks, hence the term “blockchain” was coined. To make up a  bitcoin network an identical copy is stored on a larger number of computers (nodes). Every change made to the ledger is cryptographically signed to get a confirmation that the person transferring these digital coins is the actual owner of the coins. No person can spend the coins twice, because each and every transaction is noted in the ledger and the nodes in the ledger will recognize them.how does blockchain work

The basic idea behind it is to keep an eye on how each unit of the digital currency is being spent and also to prevent unauthorized changes in the ledger. This assures that no bitcoin user requires to trust any other user as the system is inherently secured and cannot be tampered with.
This idea of decentralised, cryptographically secured data has found adoption for use cases far beyond currency, a trend the real crypto fans believe will be an additional boost to replace central banks in the new era of online services. Several companies have started taking advantage of platforms like Ethereum (that were originally designed for virtual currency) for use cases well beyond that. Ethereum for instance started offering file storage services based on the idea that files distribution across a decentralised network is much safer than putting them all in one place. Many world’s largest technology companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook have started exploring blockchain for their businesses.

Use Cases beyond “currency”

By now also classic financial institutions like JP Morgan are aggressively experimenting with blockchain not to be left behind. And there are obvious benefits, traders can buy and sell stocks rapidly but the process to transfer these assets usually takes days while blockchain provide instant transfers. Blockchains also have various potential application in the world of corporate compliance, storing records, catching tax cheats or embezzlers and track supply chains of various products to trace contaminates or fakes.

Check out our articles on “Wealth and Asset Management on Blockchain” and “Blockchain in the Retail Industry – Digital Identity, Supply Chain, Loyalty Programs

Companies have released platforms for building “smart contracts” software applications which can enforce an agreement without the interference of human beings. For example users can create a smart contract by betting on tomorrow’s weather (Yeah, really! 😉 ) and upload the contract on the network and send some digital currency, the software will essentially hold the currency in escrow. The next day software checks the weather and sends the earnings to the winner. As long as the software is written correctly the users can blindly trust these transaction and does not have to rely on the people involved in the transactions.

Hype or bright future?

We arguably see a lot of  hype going on with blockchain technology at the moment. The world economic forum reports that 10% of GDP will be stored on blockchain (or related technology) by 2025. However, a lack of understanding what it “actually is and what it does” still inhibits adoption. Blockchain technology offers the possibility to eliminate the so called middle man by filling three important role, recording transactions, establishing identity and contracts which are traditionally carried out by financial sectors. If the technology can replace only a fraction of these transactions it could be groundbreaking. The future of blockchain remains full of potential but the technology will have to overcome its hype and prove its applicability for use case beyond currency speculation.

Don’t forget to check out our Blockchain for business comparison here

 

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Meet the vendor: Aion Network (What Blockchain) https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/meet-the-vendor-aion-network-what-blockchain/ https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/meet-the-vendor-aion-network-what-blockchain/#respond Thu, 03 Jan 2019 13:52:28 +0000 https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/?p=56777 This is a “Meet the vendor” profile update from MLG Blockchain on Aion NetworkSee the Top Blockchain Platforms compared side-by-side here: Blockchain for Business Comparison Aion Profile Summary: Token Price: USD $2.46 Total Market Cap: USD $236MM Volume (24): USD $1.6MM Circulating Token Supply: 96MM AION Total Token Supply:465MM AION Consensus Method: Ethereum (PoW → PoS) […]

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This is a “Meet the vendor” profile update from MLG Blockchain on Aion Network
See the Top Blockchain Platforms compared side-by-side here: Blockchain for Business Comparison

Aion Profile Summary:

  • Token Price: USD $2.46
  • Total Market Cap: USD $236MM
  • Volume (24): USD $1.6MM
  • Circulating Token Supply: 96MM AION
  • Total Token Supply:465MM AION
  • Consensus Method: Ethereum (PoW → PoS)
  • Blockchain: Ethereum
  • Organizational Structure: Semi-Centralized

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Overview

Aion or the Aion Network is an open source blockchain protocol built by the Aion Foundation that is focused on spearheading the third generation of blockchain companies through connecting divergent blockchain networks. Nuco, a startup led by three deloitte blockchain champions in 2016 created Aion as a projected funded through an ICO in October, 2017 raising $22 Million USD. Below is an explanation of the three generations of blockchain:

1st generation

  • Projects within the first generation were mostly related to alternative currencies. The first and leading project that spear-headed this generation was Bitcoin.

2nd generation

  • Projects within the second generation were related to the creation of dynamic platforms that would make dApps possible. The platform that spearheaded this generation was Ethereum.

3rd Generation

  • The 3rd generation is now starting to rise as there is a need to connect and seamlessly integrate operations across separate and divergent blockchain networks. This is similar to how the internet transformed simple flip phones into smartphones.

Aion’s blockchain network will allow both public and private blockchain networks to:

  • Federate: Send data and value between any Aion-compliant blockchain and Ethereum.
  • Scale: Provide fast transaction processing and increased data capacity to all Aion blockchains.
  • Spoke: Allow the creation of customized public or private blockchains that maintain interoperability with other blockchains, but allow publishers to choose governance, consensus mechanisms, issuance, and participation.

Aion solves the following problems:

  • Isolated blockchain networks that have no method of connecting with each other
  • Different programming languages, protocols and structures make it difficult for blockchain networks to connect.
  • Scalability is possible as currently there is a saturation of dApps on blockchain platforms.

Aion is currently in Phase 1 of its roll out and is currently working on the following properties of development:

  • Aion continue to design and develop neural-netbacked consensus system to advance from traditional PoW networks.
  • Utilize characteristic of Ethereum VM to modify and improve performance.
  • Support a mechanism for AION tokens to flow seamlessly between Ethereum and Aion-1.

Solution

Interoperability

  • Allow the creation of unlimited spokes—custom blockchains that connect with all other Aion network blockchains and allow users to customize governance, issuance, and participants.
  • Provide inter-chain communication of data and value between all connected blockchains in the Aion ecosystem
  • Enable the development of cross-chain dApps that can leverage and execute data and logic across all blockchains.
  • Utilize a hybrid delegated consensus model with wide-spread participation through coin staking “stakers” and participants in the proof-of-intelligence algorithm “solvers”

Scalability and performance

  • Commercial and government applications often require a high transaction rate. In addition, most blockchain systems have not been designed to store large amounts of data. The Aion network addresses these issues by introducing a new, high-performance virtual machine (VM) and a scalable database solution.

 Customization

  • Allowing custom blockchain design—including different consensus algorithms and VMs—without sacrificing interoperability.
  • Pioneering a new representative consensus that uses a proof-of-intelligence staking mechanism.

Network and Platform

Aion currently supports the Solidity scripting language. The protocol’s native currency, AION, serves as the crypto economic incentive and security mechanism to power transactions and computation on the network. AION tokens are the fuel used to create new blockchains, monetize inter-chain bridges, and secure the overall network.

Enterprise Software

  • Enterprises will be able to partition a blockchain to control access using Aion.

Virtual Machine

  • Aion FastVM is a 128 bit virtual machine, which is based on the Ethereum virtual machine, features a wallet address which takes 32 bytes for stronger security
  • the Aion FastVMwhich claims to be an enhanced version of the EthereumVirtual Machine, allowing execution of decentralized applications

Application Programming Interface (API)

  • Aion currently supports Web3 and Java API.
  • The Aion Java API is a Java implementation of the Aion blockchain kernel application programming interface.
  • The Web3 API was included to provide the community with familiar tools and interface for interacting with the Aion network. The Web3 module is structured to work with any Aion node to provide a means of deploying smart contracts.

Consensus

  • The current release utilizes a custom equihash consensus algorithm dubbed “Equihash 2109”, a modified equihash algorithm, which claims to double the memory requirement but achieves identical block times. The AION proof-of-work (PoW) protocol is based on the Equihash algorithm.

Bridging Mechanism

  • Aion aims to build a generic bridge used to connect blockchains and external services through a contiguous network and provide an accountable communication maintained through the network. The first bridge iteration being built will be between the Aion network and Ethereum.
  • The nodes that form the bridge will also have a process for reaching agreement amongst themselves and deciding whether to respond to a certain transaction on one of the chains by executing a corresponding one on the others.
  • Bridges will be bidirectional, and will sign and broadcast an interchain transaction only if they have been sealed in the source blockchain and an interchain transaction forwarding fee has been paid, and will inform the connecting network of the merklehash updates of the participating network. Bridge validators will use a lightweight BFT-based algorithm to reach consensus. Transactions get approved only after receiving over two thirds of the total votes.
  • The first iteration of the token bridge will feature a proposed trusted distributed network responsible for forwarding transfer requests from the AION ERC20 Token into Aion Coins.

 Competitors

  • Polkadot
  • Cosmos
  • Icon
  • Wanchain
  • Ark
  • Cardano

 Partnerships

Aion have announced the follow partnerships:

  • SingularityNET →Utilising Aion to scale the SingularityNET platform
  • Enigma →Off-chain Decentralized Computation
  • SONM →Provide mining and computational power for hashing/proof-of-intelligence
  • Metaverse → Cross-chain digital assets and oracles
  • Moog Inc →Nuco developing a private blockchain to be compatible with Aion-1
  • Bancor →Inter-chain Liquidity via Smart Tokens
  • Bitt → Looking to utilise Aion as part of their Settlement Network
  • Blockchain Interoperability Alliance → Aion/Wanchain/Icon are founding members of the alliance with the goal of ensuring best/common practices/standards and interoperability between interoperability platforms. They encourage other interoperability protocols to join.

 

Team & Experience

Aion, started by Matthew Spoke, CEO of Nuco and board member of the EEA, is a leader in the enterprise blockchain domain for nearly four years and is backed by an incredibly talented team at Nuco. Jin Tu, Nuco’s CTO has over 15 years of experience in enterprise engineering and has been involved with the blockchain industry for over four years. Matthew Spoke leads the Aion team; he is the founder of Aion and the CEO of Nuco which is a blockchain developmental focused on developing Nuco. He is also a Fintech advisor to the Ontario Securities Commission, serves on the board of directors to the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. Matthew’s past work experiences include working at large multinational corporations such as Deloitte Canada as a blockchain specialist. The Aion network team are multi-talented and have over 23+ team members plus nine advisors working on the Aion project below I have listed some of the team members, advisors: Kesem Frank: Is the Chief Operations Officer to the project; he is also the co-founder of Nuco. His past work experiences include working at large multinationals such as Deloitte Canada where he worked as a blockchain specialist. Richa Vajpeyi: Active role as the Head of Marketing and Richa currently serves as the Director for Accente which is a curated online store. Past work experiences include working as the Program and Marketing Manager at BrandSpark international. Jinius T: Serves as the Chief Technology Officer  his previous work experiences include working at Morgan Stanley as a Senior Risk Engineer, Jinus also worked for Deloitte as a Blockchain Architect& Lead Developer. Kimberly Luu: acts as the lead developer for the platform she is an honors graduate of the University of Waterloo where she specialized in Mathematics/Business Administration. Previous work experiences include working for RBC Capital Markets as a Global Loans Officer.

[block]5[/block]MLG BlockChain Consulting Visit the full blockchain platform comparison here

Looking for other blockchain use cases explained:

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Wealth and Asset Management on Blockchain https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/wealth-and-asset-management-on-blockchain/ https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/wealth-and-asset-management-on-blockchain/#respond Thu, 13 Sep 2018 06:01:02 +0000 https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/?p=51525 [This is another part in our “Blockchain Practitioner” series – see more on blockchain use cases and emerging vendors here.] The market size of the global asset management industry has been growing significantly over the past few years, with projections constantly underestimating the actual growth. Current projections from PwC’s Global Market Research Centre forecast that […]

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[This is another part in our “Blockchain Practitioner” series – see more on blockchain use cases and emerging vendors here.] The market size of the global asset management industry has been growing significantly over the past few years, with projections constantly underestimating the actual growth. Current projections from PwC’s Global Market Research Centre forecast that assets under management (AuM) will exceed US$111 trillion by 2020. With a rise in high net worth investors and investable assets over the last couple of years in emerging markets like South America and Africa, there is an increased demand for pension funds, insurance companies and other asset management services. While the industry is growing, pressure for greater transparency by regulators such as the UK’s Retail Distribution Review, as well as an industry shift towards outcome-based solutions has resulted in smaller profit margins. In order to meet the demands of the changing landscape, these firms must invest in transformational information systems both internally and within their immediate stakeholder network. These technologies are applied to increase efficiency through automation while also providing the transparency and security demanded by regulatory bodies.

What Blockchain Platform for business? See the online comparison here

Secure but transparent

How do we implement a secure and efficient system while maintaining ultimate transparency for taxing, client on-boarding and management purposes? The tech industry’s recent hype around distributed ledgers (DLT) and emerging blockchain protocols has presented the opportunity to streamline the management of model portfolios, increase operational efficiency by removing friction during the client on-boarding process, speed up the clearing and settlement of trades, and ease compliance burdens associated with anti-money laundering (AML) & know your customer (KYC). Asset Management with Blockchain All aspects involved with client interaction must be considered to successfully manage client assets. This information can be difficult to attain, requiring data to be blended from a number of disparate data sources. Within the information management systems of this industry, the goal has been to gather asset information such as financial configuration, client priorities, industry trends, etc. This information is gathered from a number of independently operated sources which must be combined and manipulated effectively to draw relevant insights. The proper massaging of this information will lead to more manageable production and investment targets, cost control, and meeting high-level organizational goals. Blockchain data structures will be used to reconcile information across silos in the current systems, and enable new infrastructure for emerging markets and products.

Impact of trust on efficiency

For client on-boarding, profile information can be stored on a DLT where only trusted parties will be granted all or part access based on cryptography-enabled data governance models. Relationships would be initiated by the profile owner (customer), granting access to the relevant parties. This system is inherently built to enable a simplified audit trail to track changes in the process, which will lead to a higher level of trust from customers, increased operational capacity for management, and reduce the cost of audits by regulatory bodies. Additionally, the technology enables near-instantaneous transfers of assets between financial institutions who have authenticated the provenance of tracked changes. Providing documentation such as proof of ID, residency, sources of wealth, business interests and political ties during the onboarding process can take weeks. Using a private, permissioned blockchain reduces the timing by improving the efficiency and security of critical information. As a result, fact-checking processes (AML, KYC) will become extremely simple and can be automated to further reduce the variable costs associated with the on-boarding process. Storing verified client information with a blockchain protocol would allow critical data points to be shared as needed, improving communication between participants and reduce the need for some intermediaries responsible for settling and executing trades.

Challenges

Although blockchains provide clear use-cases which will eventually deliver immense value, there are still some challenges facing industry-wide adoption. Besides the system integration and change management which will have to be carefully sorted out, many wealth and asset management practitioners are not familiar with how blockchains actually work or what the benefits might be. This requires executive training seminars to hone in on specific use cases which can be seen as quick wins in the road to adoption. In the current technological landscape, scalability is a major issue with any industry-wide adoption where large volumes of data and network resilience are key requirements. To this point, blockchain development communities around the world have been working on solutions which should be ready to deploy within the next year (read more here). In terms of regulatory and legal authorities, there are still a great number of unknowns, for example when it comes to custodial requirements when assets are held on a blockchain network. Besides the organizational, technical and legal barriers to widespread adoption, there are also hurdles that need to be cleared in data privacy, immense costs associated with replacing legacy systems, and the critical requirement for a standardized protocol that can be used across the industry.

Conclusion

Firms looking to gain an edge against competitors or who are leaders in the market should be looking at blockchain and distributed ledger technologies to lead the charge into the future of asset management operations. The first step to adoption should always be a deep dive into the available technologies and potential use cases, which can be learned through executive training seminars and strategic workshops. This will then lead to establishing an effective framework to identify real business value, choosing the use cases which can be developed quickly and immediately deliver value to drive results. The chosen use cases should be quick wins delivering tangible value, but pose the least amount of risk, and using the established framework to properly allocate time and resources. Examples of immediate use cases will likely exist where operational overhead and data management issues exist, or where potential revenue-generating opportunities can be driven by transparency, inter-connectivity, and simplified user-interactions. Cyrus Montazemi, Consulting Manager at MLG Global Visit MLG’s Blockchain for Business Comparison here …

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Blockchain for the Enterprise – meet VeChain! https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/blockchain-for-the-enterprise-meet-vechain/ https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/blockchain-for-the-enterprise-meet-vechain/#respond Wed, 18 Jul 2018 06:02:32 +0000 https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/?p=51096 Featured image credits go out to Oksano, check out their work here Another part of our popular “What Blockchain for business” series provided by WhatMatrix category consultants MLG Blockchain – visit the comparison here. Genesis – the first major step towards the long term vision for VeChain. This month, the very first block on this […]

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Featured image credits go out to Oksano, check out their work here Another part of our popular “What Blockchain for business” series provided by WhatMatrix category consultants MLG Blockchain – visit the comparison here. Genesis – the first major step towards the long term vision for VeChain. This month, the very first block on this chain was created; celebrating the start of Enterprise adoption. This major milestone marks the launch of mainnet, the act of moving off of Ethereum and onto VeChain’s very own blockchain. Once genesis occurs, nodes will be activated; producing and validating the transactions submitted within the network. To commemorate the launch of mainnet, VeChain will be added to the “Blockchain for Business” comparison platform. The next few months will dictate if VeChain secures Enterprise and Developer support by delivering on their goals and ambitions.

Brief Description

VeChain is an Enterprise focused blockchain platform leveraging Internet of Things hardware and a stable economic and governance model. The vision is to build a trust-free and distributed business ecosystem that enables transparent information flow, efficient collaboration and high-speed value transfers. That statement may be a mouthful, let’s break it down:

Governance and Consensus

The VeChain Foundation is a non-profit governing body for the platform. At the helm lies the Board of Steering Committee, a group of cross industry experts and large public investors. Their responsibilities include acting as validator nodes within the network, setting out the critical strategies and appointing the various committee groups. In regards to consensus, Centralization and Complete Decentralization lie on a spectrum. Finding the right balance between the two ends provide the ideal, sustainable mechanism. VeChain believes that Proof of Authority is this common ground. Proof of Authority provides the necessary level of independent actors (101) in order to secure the network from vulnerabilities. By selecting authorized block producers, PoA prevents anonymous parties from producing misinformation that could be spread through the network. Compared to Proof of Stake and Proof of Work, PoA provides a more scalable and efficient mechanism for Enterprise adoption. This is achieved by removing the artificial challenges created such as the bidding process, or computational race that is layered onto the existing validation scheme of incumbents. PoA provides:

  • Low computational efforts
  • No minimum number of nodes achieving consensus
  • A cross section of reliable validators

  Economic Model  VeChain’s team has challenged the long term sustainability of current blockchains, due to the association between demand and transaction cost. As a blockchain is used more frequently, so too does the demand for the token. If said token is used to pay transaction fees, then inherently as the token rises in value – the transaction cost rises with it. This market force directly contradicts Enterprise motivation in reducing costs and long term strategic thinking. Businesses want stable, cheap and fast transaction. The solution is twofold; VeChain will run on a two token system. (VET – VeChain Token) will be used to act as “smart money” in the ecosystem, providing market connection to the other coins, and fueling the smart contract creation process. (VTHO – VeThor) will be for paying the transaction costs consumed by using the platform. By having one token subject to many market inputs, it decreases the volatility of the secondary coin used to pay the utility cost. As an added stability measure, the VeChain Token will generate VeThor while users hold the tokens. This will further incentivize users to hold their tokens, rather than trading them on the market. For Enterprises acting as Authority Nodes, or using the platform – their utility costs can be mitigated or removed entirely from holding a large sum of VeChain token.

 Partners and Applications

  Since initial release, VeChain has been focused on partnering with world-class companies. Their motive is to create partnerships that will provide net benefit through research and development efforts; creating proof of concept blockchain applications.  Enterprises want more out of a new technology than simply niche application. To drive tangible business value, applications must be use-case driven, results oriented and involve minimal barriers to implement. Creating a flexible platform that will support both legacy systems like SAP, Oracle and future technologies such as IoT, AI, and Big Data paves an easy route to adoption that provides returns in the long run. VeChain provides the network to create the use case driven systems. The layers on top of this network is where the focused applications will be built and managed. VeChain has created template frameworks for adoption including VeVID for KYC identification, VeVOT for voting, and VeSCC for smart contract certification. By doing the heavy lifting in creating the technical protocol, Enterprises will have a much easier time learning and implementing blockchains using a plug and play mentality. Some of the influential partners and use cases are as follows:

  • DNV GL – Cold Chain Lostistics
    • Using IoT sensors to monitor and track key metrics while goods are in transit
  • BMW – Automotive
    • Digital Passports for vehicles are they interact with different service providers and even track patterns of use.
  • Fashion – BabyGhost
    • Tracking the production and sale of luxury goods to eliminate counterfeiting.
  • Liquor – DIG
    • Tracking the production, logistics and sale of luxury wines. Embedded RFID verifies the authenticity of the liquid in the bottle.

Future and Scaling

In order to facilitate widespread adoption, the VeChain Foundation created the VeResearch arm. It’s goal is to build a global grant program for academic communities to progress blockchain technology. There is an open application process for those interested in championing this new platform. One of the first members to join this initiative was Michigan State – with an area of focus in Mobile Edge computing. As the platform reaches maturity, integration will become the primary focus. On the roadmap lists several dApps, middleware solutions, and SDK’s that provide existing companies a much easier time of adopting this new technology.

Closing Remarks

VeChain has a vision for the future, that builds off elements of technological disruption. They have completed the first step in their roadmap by creating a blockchain that addresses the technical barriers this technology has faced so far (Governance, Economic Model, Scalability). The second phase of their roadmap coincides with my team’s current activities within the space. MLG Blockchain’s Enterprise arm is actively working alongside Academia, Government and Corporations to create a joint effort of shared talent; in order to identify and implement impactful use cases that will drive tangible business value. We have created a simple framework that Enterprises can follow which will lead to dominence within the space. MLG will work alongside your firm as you embark on this journey. Please reach out to collaborate or subscribe to updates to keep informed and remain ahead of the curve. Jeff Holek – Manager, Enterprise Product, MLG Blockchain WhatMatrix Category Consultant [Blockchain for business]    MLG Services & Contact   contact: enterprise@mlgblockchain.com

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Blockchain in the Retail Industry – Digital Identity, Supply Chain, Loyalty Programs https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/blockchain-in-the-retail-industry-digital-identity-supply-chain-loyalty-programs/ https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/blockchain-in-the-retail-industry-digital-identity-supply-chain-loyalty-programs/#respond Mon, 02 Jul 2018 21:33:12 +0000 https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/?p=51078 Another article in our “Blockchain series” provided by Category Consultants MLG Blockchain – check out their “What Blockchain for business” comparison & leader-board. Intro Enterprises want more out of a new technology than simply a niche application. To drive tangible business value, blockchain adoption must be use-case driven, results oriented and involve minimal barriers to […]

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Another article in our “Blockchain series” provided by Category Consultants MLG Blockchain – check out their “What Blockchain for business” comparison & leader-board.

Intro

Enterprises want more out of a new technology than simply a niche application. To drive tangible business value, blockchain adoption must be use-case driven, results oriented and involve minimal barriers to implement. Creating a flexible platform that will support both legacy systems like SAP, Oracle and future technologies such as IoT, AI, Big Data paves an easy route to adoption that provides returns in the long run. The retail industry’s total sales are expected to reach $27 trillion by 2020, making it one of the largest industries in the world. With fierce competition and thin profit margins, retailers must take advantage of both back-end cost savings as well as more accurate customer targeting and product/service alignment. Current methods of tracking customer data can be expensive to implement and require specialized software to draw meaningful insights. In order to successfully adopt an emerging technology like blockchain, businesses need to uncover their most applicable use case. This is one that’s simple enough to implement at a low cost, but can also provide meaningful insights on the organization overall which will prove the technology’s value and spur further adoption.

Digital Identity

In the world of retail, the customer is king. Amazon’s monumental success didn’t come from an unrelenting desire for consumers to order books online, but from the organization’s meticulous approach to understanding their customers’ behaviours and purchasing habits. To this end, Amazon structured their platform to allow for clean and structured data collection. As a result, their team of data scientists can spend their time analyzing statistical models rather than tediously cleaning rows of data.Maintaining a network to consolidate every point of contact by a consumer is difficult, as it requires a unique identifier to draw all information back to the user. Enter Blockchain.Images from DIID – Distributed ID: https://www.diid.io/ By allowing customers to interact with the business using their blockchain wallet or account, every point of contact can be pointed back to the unique key. Due to the network’s anonymity of individuals, this key can be shared across borders at the consumer’s request to take advantage of synergies that can exist between stores. Imagine returning a pair of shoes at a store, and immediately receiving a discount code for a pair of shoes at the store’s parent company. This type of freely moving information can have powerful impacts on smaller retailers who can’t afford to implement expensive data management platforms. In addition to the efficiencies created by this new network, each customer’s data will be secured through cryptography on the blockchain. As a result, massive data breaches like Equifax and Target that left hundreds of millions of customer information floating around the web will not repeat themselves. Blockchain presents an extremely cost-effective and secure way to organize data to remain competitive in the industry.
You can also see this Guide on Cryptocurrency for more details MR CRYPTO PNG

Customer Loyalty Programs

One of the immediately applicable use cases in retail is the transformation of customer loyalty programs to a blockchain-supported token economy. For example, Canadian Tire’s loyalty program includes 11 million members and Canada’s second most used currency: Canadian Tire Dollars. This network of information is currently managed by an extremely expensive software package at headquarters, and requires the flow of information between all participating members in the loyalty network. The next biggest issue with current loyalty programs is that while a large number of consumers register for the program, only 10-30% of consumers actually redeem the points they collect. This extremely low utilization rate limits the insights that can be drawn from customer activity in the network. Implementing a blockchain solution for loyalty programs could be the perfect entry point for retailers looking at adopting this emerging technology. Due to the vast number of people already using the loyalty network, and the store of value that already exists with the loyalty currency/points, migrating this system to a blockchain network would require minimal effort. The benefits could be far-reaching. Immediately, this system would remove redundant data and secure customer information from widespread hacks. All data would be structured from genesis in a clear, chronological interaction log. This reduces the need for intermediaries to validate spend and point redemption, and as a result customers no longer have to wait until reaching an unreasonable number of points before redeeming their points. Finally, structuring this information on a blockchain network allows interoperability between any potential partner in the network by exchanging tokens, or rewards points.

Current Blockchain Loyalty Programs

  

        

 

 

Supply Chain / Inventory Management

The most involved and expensive application for blockchain in retail would be implementing the filtering and structuring of data for the retailer’s supply chain and inventory management systems. There are a number of blockchain protocols that are working specifically on solving the data management issues that exist with massive supply chains, such as VeChain and WaltonChain. Major problems with today’s systems includes a lack of total transparency within the supply chain which results in the inability to track items, fraud loss, lowered operating efficiencies, and increased waste which damages our environment. Below is a diagram that demonstrates the complexity of a supply chain network. At each step of the way there is a transfer of information between parties, and at each step the relevant stakeholders record their own version of that information. In order to maintain high-level alignment, all of this information must then be consolidated and analyzed by the parent organization. Each of these steps are prone to introducing data errors to the system, as well as process inefficiencies, which compound as the network moves from the lowest level to the parent organization. To reduce the number of errors and significantly increase overall efficiency, several supply chain solutions have been implemented in large organizations around the world. The results have been drastic. In the example below, the VeChain protocol (described in depth here ) was used to track the movement of expensive wine throughout the supply chain in an effort to reduce the number of counterfeit products in the market. Another example is Walmart’s use of IBM’s Hyperledger fabric to trace the origin of mangos in the USA, and pork in China. The idea here was to be able to identify which pieces of meat or produce should be disposed of when there is a bacterial or viral outbreak at a specific farm. With their traditional supply chain system, which has been known as one of the most sophisticated systems in the world, it took approximately 6 days to identify the produce’s origin. Using the blockchain-enabled system, this time was reduced to about 2 seconds. As blockchain evolves, business use cases will continue to be the primary focus. In order for a new technology to be accepted in the market, it must provide value. These are just a few of the many proof of concepts currently being developed by a number of international teams. MLG will continue to provide quality thought leadership and support by keeping the community informed about the latest trends, updates and use cases with this trans-formative technology. References:

Cyrus Montazemi – Manager, Enterprise StrategyMLG Blockchain Consulting WhatMatrix Category Consultants [Blockchain for Business]

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New “What Blockchain for Business?” Comparison & Technology Introduction https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/what-blockchain-for-business-part-1-technology-introduction/ https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/what-blockchain-for-business-part-1-technology-introduction/#respond Fri, 08 Jun 2018 05:07:47 +0000 https://www.whatmatrix.com/portal/?p=50655 Want to be notified of important blockchain updates? Use this Link! We are currently witnessing a historical and exponential convergence of  groundbreaking technologies. “We won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century – it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate)” – Ray Kurzweil, Author and Futurist WhatMatrix in […]

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Want to be notified of important blockchain updates? Use this Link!

We are currently witnessing a historical and exponential convergence of  groundbreaking technologies. “We won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century – it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate)” – Ray Kurzweil, Author and Futurist WhatMatrix in collaboration with MLG Blockchain, aims to build the most comprehensive technical comparison platform publicly available. The new category analyzes and ranks major available blockchain platforms, enabling visitors to identify the most appropriate solution for their use case; starting with Ethereum, Hyperledger Sawtooth, IBM Blockchain, R3 Corda, Ripple and Tron. The comparison can be found here. This category will be continually updated to reflect version updates, industry changes, and new incumbents into the space. WhatMatrix and MLG Blockchain encourage the community to provide feedback as this comparison grows. Blockchain and cryptocurrency have been hyped to be game-changers. As a result, many versions have appeared over the last few years – all trying to become the industry standard. With any potential disruptor exists media misinformation, speculation, and fraudulent activity, making it difficult to determine what is true and false. The best way to cut to the truth is to prove that the technology can provide tangible value to existing stakeholders in Enterprise, Academia and Government. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies can leverage new revenue streams, increase efficiency, and apply new communication methods to achieve a competitive advantage. All of this hype started when the anonymous collective known as “Satoshi Nakamoto” released the Bitcoin whitepaper in October 2008. This represented the first tangible application of blockchain technology that we see today. Although technical concepts such as cryptography and digital ledgers were present for decades – the catalyst and pioneer cryptocurrency was Bitcoin; proving a way to prevent any double-spending and recording of transactions between different stakeholders. This is how the “digital gold” of a new public ledger was born. Bitcoin was just the tip of the iceberg. As more interest and support was built around this technology, more tangible use cases arose. Some of the rising stars of this new space include: Ethereum, the “Smart Contract” provider. This blockchain has grown significantly in the last few years as a platform to build and launch nodes on the decentralized web. Most of the spinoff “altcoins” have been launched on this platform in the form of dApps – distributed applications, similar to how an App would launch on the Google Play Store. Ripple, the financially focused protocol. Ripple’s goal is to facilitate money transfer globally. They have developed relationships with over 80 banks that use their products, powered by distributed ledgers. Ripple takes a spin on the distributed model by centralizing authority to approved, or known, validators to ensure transaction authenticity. Hyperledger Fabric, an open source Enterprise collaboration with over 150 contributors. Backed by IBM, and created by the Linux Foundation, this blockchain was built from the ground up to cater towards Enterprise and large scale adoption. By making the cryptocurrency aspect optional, and advocating for private permissioned networks, Hyperledger aims to incorporate the strengths of blockchain, without the “open data” concerns a public network brings.

Let’s take a look at the underlying system

Information Technology and the Internet have created huge advancements in global communication. However, due to threats like cyber-attacks, regulatory compliance, privacy, and business confidentiality, organizations have become siloed; protecting proprietary information from external parties and giving out limited or incomplete information. This lack of trust has created numerous inefficiencies as multiple organizations must interact collectively when conducting business. Take vehicle ownership for example. Different participants in the value chain all own a unique in-house ledger for the vehicle, which may never interact until being sent to a regulating body where the different datasets contain duplicate or incorrect information. Multiple points of security vulnerability and slow data verification are products of this environment.

Blockchain technology is built on trust; or lack thereof

Blockchain introduces the opportunity to change this lifecycle with a new economic data structure. By introducing a trust-free sharing environment, all parties communicating can ensure a smooth and secure transfer of information. As the digital ledger is shared with all parties in the network, either public or private, permissioned or permissionless, every node has an up to date record of the dataset. In this way, organizations can increase their cash utilization rate and significantly improve transfer efficiencies. Blockchain fundamentally changes the way that data is structured and communicated. When new data is recorded to the shared ledger, the publishing node needs to broadcast the changes to all other nodes in the system. Depending on how the network reaches consensus, the remaining nodes may perform a computational race (Proof of Work), a vote (Proof of Authority) or even a wager of ownership (Proof of Stake). Once the network ensures validity of the new record, it is then added onto the previous record of data. This new ledger is then pushed out to all nodes in the network, adding a block to the blockchain. Over the next few posts, which will be accompanied by a comparison update, specific use cases and industry effects will be explored. As the community gains more awareness and understanding of the space, it is encouraged to start discussions regarding tangible applications and proof of concepts that have had success and gained traction in the market. To be notified whenever this comparison category is updated, please sign up for the e-newsletter: link Have further questions on how these technologies can directly impact your business? MLG Blockchain provides Enterprise-focused advisory and analysis, in order to help decide if Blockchain is right for your Organization. We offer:

  • Corporate Blockchain Education Sessions
  • Strategic Workshops to Target Business Impact
  • Implementation Assistance
  • Customized Blockchain Development
  • Blockchain Talent Recruitment

Jeff Holek / MLG Blockchain Consulting – WhatMatrix Category Consultant [Blockchain for Business]

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