Blockchains are well known as the underpinning technology of the Bitcoin digital currency. The possibilities of blockchain go far further. Video of this talk: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe94LUADnXZ7HPop-gjX0sWYnlrWBbSQ0 During Bitcoin Wednesday on July 1st, Aron van Ammers gave a presentation on industry-wide blockchains. These solutions are semi-public, set up for a specific industry where businesses within that industry can execute smart contracts. Aron discussed the possibilities, opportunities and obstacles inherent in these solutions, as well as a number of pros and cons and early examples. A talk given at http://www.bitcoinwednesday.com/event/bitcoin-wednesday-25/

1. Industry-specific blockchains
Aron van Ammers
Blockstars.io

2. A bit about me
● Aron van Ammers
● Active in fintech (more "TECH" than "fin")
● Background: Model Driven Software engineering,
University of Twente

3. A bit about me
● Background: CTO of I&DT, building Curasoft, SaaS
for health care

4. Blockstars.io
● Incepted 2014
● A full-service agency dedicated to designing, developing,
launching and managing blockchain businesses
● Projects
– MoneyCircles.com
– AssetCha.in
– More projects in stealth
● Consultancy

5. Perspectives
● I look at (de-)centralized development from a business
perspective within an ethical social and environmental
context.
● The development and usage of decentralized systems is in
its infancy. Much of what is actually useful and how to
apply it is yet to be discovered.
● Blockchains can range from fully public to fully private,
fully open to permissioned, each have their
(dis)advantages.

6. Smart contracts on a blockchain
● Verifiable, incorruptible shared data
– "The Bitcoin balance of address 1AbCdE.. is 3 BTC"
– "This land deed is owned by Ms. Jane Doe since March 20, 2011"
● Verifiable, incorruptible shared logic
– "The vote has been executed fairly"
– "The land deed has been transferred to the new owner according
to the agreed upon rules"
● Achieved through a consensus mechanism

7. The technology landscape

8. Public? Private? Decentralized?
● Fully public blockchains have great merits but also
great challenges (see Bitcoin block size debate)
● "Permissioned blockchain" does not mean:
– "all open principles of Bitcoin go down the drain" or
– "slamming the 'blockchain' label on a fully centralized
solution"

9. Examples of "traditional" industry-wide
systems
● iDeal payment system: banks working
together to achieve something larger
● XML-EDI systems: structured
information interchange between
companies in a certain industry
● Electronic invoicing of insured health
expenses (VECOZO)

10. Some ideas
● Agriculture: traceability of foods from field to mouth
● Logistics: traceability and interchange of cargo
● Banking: transfers, settlements
● Health care: electronic health records
– Centralized approaches have failed (Dutch national EPD,
Google Health, Microsoft HealthVault, …). Maybe the
blockchain was a missing link?
● Health care: financial flows

11. Some first attempts
● ABN AMRO: internal fork of Ripple (which is not a blockchain
but has similarities)
– http://www.bitcoincongres.nl/, start video at 1:38:00
– Industry-wide or company-wide?
● Blockchain Health (Melanie Swan)
– Electronic health records, medical document verification
– http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/swan20140929
● IBM ADEPT, Internet of Things PoC with Samsung
– http://www.slideshare.net/_hd/ibm-adept

12. What could an industry-specific
blockchain look like?
● Shared rulebooks and data are in the blockchain
● Permissioned commits, public insight
● Inception:
– Top-down: consortium of industry bodies, businesses
– Bottom-up: independent parties create a system that can't be ignored
● Governance: Voting through smart contracts
– Membership (who is allowed to commit)
– Development of the smart contract system itself

13. Opportunities
● Open, verifiable systems
● Smoother interaction between organizations
– Solving the N^2 problem (50 companies talking to each
other require 2500 implementations)
● Lower trust barriers
– Both for new entrants and incumbents

14. Challenges
● Unknowns: Infancy of technology, business models, experience
● Incentive to start: from the perspective of a single business, the system is only
useful once it's been realized
● Privacy of data
– Publicly verifiable logic and private data are opposing forces
– Methods for secret sharing and homomorphic encryption are being developed (see also
http://enigma.media.mit.edu/)
● Adoption
● Borders (where does "this industry" end and the other begin?)
● Smart contracts might turn into a centralizing factor, not a decentralizing one
– See Ian Grigg's http://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001553.html

15. Takeaway
● Industry-wide systems are difficult in any case;
blockchains and smart contracts might help
● Blockchains can contribute to more open, verifiable
systems even if not fully public
● Large-scale implementations are quite far away, but
when they gain traction, impact will be profound

16. Contact
@aronvanammers
@blockstarsio
Slides will be on:
http://www.slideshare.net/Blockstarsio