Last Thursday we organized our first knowledge session in the Lisk Center Utrecht. This session was attended by 13 people who were all familiar with the subject of the evening: when is blockchain the right choice?

New to the blockchain? Check out the Lisk Academy to find all the basics about the blockchain: https://lisk.io/academy/blockchain-basics

To give some background information about why we organize these sessions; we all hear that the blockchain can change a lot of processes. The question we tend to forget to ask is; do we really need the blockchain, or can we also use another solution?

The session started with an introduction of the Bitcoin. We then showed a short clip of Andreas Antonopolous. After this, the first question was asked to the participants; what problem has Satoshi Nakamoto solved? They came up with the following:

The way of thinking

Double spending problem

Decentralized cooperation

Trust can now be programmed

The origin of the information can now be traced

So far, so good. They all agreed that these are some of the most important points that Satoshi Nakamoto solved.

Solving the double spending problem

Now we came to the following question; what does a blockchain need to be a success? They came up with the following points:

Open

Borderless

Neutral

Decentralized

Censorship resistant

Not all the participants agreed on this. They discussed these points and argumented that these came too much from the Cypherpunks/cryptocurrency movement, and that, depending on the context and background, a private blockchain could be better than an open blockchain. After discussing about this they came up with the following:

The blockchain community is currently divided into two camps; on one hand we have a large community of open blockchain supporters that would like to go for a decentralized system. On the other hand, we have a community, mainly consisting of companies and their clients, who support private blockchains. The group came up with a solution; a hybrid blockchain: a combination of a public and private blockchain with the benefits of both approaches.

The private part of the hybrid blockchain can be used as a means of transaction between two partners of a firm (such as a large insurance company). It will have a traditional permissioned setup that allows both parties to view, interact or change the blockchain. Other parties that want to do this, need permission first. One of the advantages that they came up with is that the network can be scaled up quickly and that it is protected by the internal organization(s).

The public part of the blockchain will for a large part consist of smaller parties, such as subcontractors and individuals. They will have the possibility to make changes in the public network. These small parties or individuals are often more dynamic and can switch faster.

The conclusion of the group: by implementing a hybrid solution, these large companies can get the benefits of both the public blockchain and the private blockchain.

More info about the blockchain in business can be found in the Lisk Academy: https://lisk.io/academy/blockchain-business

Next question: what is the (technical) added value of the blockchain? The participants came up with the following points:

The blockchain is a solution if there is a need of shared truth (when there is a lack of trust)

Ownership (as an organization, individual or community)

Zero Knowledge Proof (sharing the truth without sharing the exact data)

Automatic transactions

Tokenization

Cryptocurrencies

But how do you ensure that the blockchain becomes a success? That was a tricky question that not everyone could answer immediately. After a couple of minutes the group came up with the following: you start building a coalition. It is a good step if a party within a sector has implemented the blockchain, but it is even better if several parties within a sector do this. In this way, these competitors can work together without having to trust each other (or share the exact data). The blockchain is therefore at it’s best when several parties within a sector form a coalition and use the blockchain together. The business model must be right for all parties, so that everyone sees the bigger picture.

This is also when we discussed the main question: “when is blockchain the right choice?”. In cases where multiple parties work together so that each party can benefit from it, without having to trust each other or share the exact data with each other.

One of the use cases that came up was: making an individual the owner of its own data. In this case, companies can ask an individual to share its data with them (for a certain amount of time), in return for a token or cryptocurrency. We used Madana as an example. Madana wants to do exactly this and be the layer between the Lisk blockchain and a dApp. In theory, every blockchain will be able to use Madana.

The blockchain could be a real game changer, however when discussing this innovative subject (with thirds) you realize that there’s still a long way to go.

The session lasted three hours and it was too short to come up with some good usecases. That is why we have decided to schedule a follow-up session to keep the discussion going.

These sessions are important and valuable because it’s better to discuss these kind of topics right now when everyone is still building and searching for the right solutions. We are doing this on a daily basis in the Lisk Center Utrecht and we try to involve as many people as possible from different sectors.

The next knowledge session will be about: ‘How do you choose the right blockchain platform?’. You can check out our Meetup page if you’re interested in visiting this knowledge session or one of the others: https://www.meetup.com/LiskCenterUtrecht/

More information about the blockchain and many more topics can be found in the Lisk Academy: https://lisk.io/academy

We are all in this together. Access the power of blockchain

- Lisk Center Utrecht