Blockchain is a complex and emerging technology, and its potential for creating positive social change has led to innovation, optimism, hype, and confusion in equal order. In Part 1, we seek to provide a brief primer on blockchain and the potential for using the technology to create Blockchange. This primer comprises a curation of illustrative quotes from experts regarding blockchain’s capacity to create social change, a glossary of key terms relevant for this Blockchange study (with a focus on identity), and a curation of blockchain guides to provide the type of technical and operational understanding needed to engage with the field.
The following quotes seek to provide an illustrative sample of expert viewpoints regarding the potential of blockchain to succeed (or fail) in creating positive social change.
“While blockchain's best-known, most used and highest-impact application is Bitcoin, the potential impact of the technology is much greater and wider than virtual currencies. Indeed, since other applications can 'piggyback' the Bitcoin blockchain, the biggest impacts of Bitcoin may be found outside the currency domain.”27
Philip Boucher, Susana Nascimento, and Mihalis Kritikos
European Parliamentary Research Service
“Blockchain technology could simplify the management of trusted information, making it easier for government agencies to access and use critical public-sector data while maintaining the security of this information.”28
Steve Cheng, Matthias Daub, Axel Domeyer, and Martin Lundqvist
McKinsey & Company
“The blockchain could offer people access to alternative currencies, global markets, automated and trustless transactions systems, self-enforcing smart contracts, smart property and cryptographically activated assets, and innovative models of governance based on transparency and corruption-free voting. Combined, these elements could be used to promote individual freedoms and user autonomy. Regardless of nationality, people could be granted equal access to basic digital institutions and infrastructure such as decentralized laws, markets,judiciaries, and payment systems, which can be customized to each country’s, group’s, and individual’s needs.”29
Aaron Wright and Primavera De Filippi
Authors, Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code
“…[W]hat if there were not only an Internet of information, but an Internet of value. Some kind of vast, global, distributed ledger running on millions of computers and available to everybody, and where every kind of asset from money to music could be stored, moved, transacted, exchanged, and managed, all without powerful intermediaries."30
Don Tapscott
*Author, Blockchain Revolution
“Blockchain technology will not solve all government problems, but it can help curb corruption and instill trust in government.”31
Carlos Santiso
Head of Innovation for Citizen Services Division at Inter-AmericanDevelopment Bank
“The blockchain is a disruptive technology with a tremendous transformative potential for our societies. Risks and benefits related to its possible applications, however, must be carefully weighted, avoiding utopian expectations, as well as the pitfalls of technocratic reasoning and determinism.”32
Marcella Atzori, Ph.D.
UCL Center for Blockchain Technologies
“...blockchain is one of the most overhyped technologies ever….Ultimately, blockchain’s uses will be limited to specific, well-defined, and complex applications that require transparency and tamper-resistance more than they require speed – for example, communication with self-driving cars or drones. As for most of the coins, they are little different from railway stocks in the 1840s, which went bust when that bubble – like most bubbles – burst.”33”
Nouriel Roubini
New York University Stern School of Business
“Blockchain is not going to solve all your problems for you,.…You're a hammer-thrower just looking for nails.” [When you have technology in search of a use] "you end up with crap that we see out there in the enterprise today."34
Jimmy Song
Blockchain Capital
This glossary of terms is provided to set the stage for the following sections – particularly our examination of blockchain’s potential for creating social change in the identity space – and to clarify a number of important concepts with multiple or contested definitions.
Blockchain technologies are rapidly evolving and subject to constant innovation but also facing deep constraints that impede widespread adoption and broad application.
International Development Research Centre35
A distributed ledger is essentially an asset database that can be shared across a network of multiple sites, geographies or institutions. All participants within a network can have their own identical copy of the ledger. Any changes to the ledger are reflected in all copies in minutes, or in some cases, seconds.
United Kingdom Government Chief Scientific Advisor36
Social change is the significant alteration of social structure and cultural patterns through time.
Oxford Bibliographies37
Identity is “an attribute or set of attributes that uniquely describe a subject within a given context.”
Digital identity is the unique representation of a subject engaged in an online transaction. A digital identity is always unique in the context of a digital service, but does not necessarily need to uniquely identify the subject in all contexts.
National Institute of Standards and Technology38
Identity and access management (IAM) is the security discipline that enables the right individuals to access the right resources at the right times for the right reasons.
Gartner39
Identities that “evolve out of a single use case, such as voter ID, health records, or bank cards, and have potential for use across sectors.”
World Bank40
Foundational systems…are intended primarily to provide identity as a public good, not to supply a specific service. Foundational systems are typically owned and operated by government institutions, aim for national coverage of their population, and provide credentials that function as an official ID. Foundational ID systems can also underlie multiple functional purposes.
United States Agency for International Development41
A blockchain is a distributed database that seeks to solve problems of trust, transparency, and accountability during a transaction or interaction between two parties. Using advanced cryptography, each block of data is sequentially added to the chain across a network of computers, or nodes. Thus, the information is not only decentralized but also distributed, which means no single person or entity controls the system, yet everyone (at least in a permissionless, public blockchain) can use and help run it. Distributed ledger technology frameworks intend to eliminate the need for and reliance on central authorities such as banks, large enterprises and governments as intermediaries in a wide array of transactions.
Blockchain 101 from the International Development Research Centre42
Although the preceding short introduction provides essentially all of the technical and operational information needed to understand this field report, the following curated list of blockchain guides includes a number of deeper explorations of blockchain; blockchain protocols; current applications, especially in the business world; technical guidance; and other DLTs.
Philip Boucher, Susana Nascimento, and Mihalis Kritikos. “How blockchain technology could change our lives.” European Parliamentary Research Service, February 2017. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2017/581948/EPRS_IDA(2017)581948_EN.pdf ↩
Steve Cheng, Matthias Daub, Axel Domeyer, and Martin Lundqvist. “Using blockchain to improve data management in the public sector.” McKinsey & Company, February 2017. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/using-blockchain-to-improve-data-management-in-the-public-sector?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1703 ↩
Aaron Wright and Primavera De Filippi. “Decentralized Blockchain Technology and the Rise of Lex Cryptographia.” March 10, 2015. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2580664 ↩
Don Tapscott. “How the blockchain is changing money and business.” TEDSummit, June 2016. https://www.ted.com/talks/don_tapscott_how_the_blockchain_is_changing_money_and_business ↩
Carlos Santiso. “Will Blockchain Disrupt Government Corruption?” Stanford Social Innovation Review, March 5, 2018. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/will_blockchain_disrupt_government_corruption ↩
Marcella Atzori. “Blockchain Technology and Decentralized Governance: Is the State Still Necessary?” Journal of Governance and Regulation, March 2017. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315919685_Blockchain_technology_and_decentralized_governance_Is_the_state_still_necessary ↩
Nouriel Roubini and Preston Byrne. “The Blockchain Pipe Dream.” Project Syndicate, March 5, 2018. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/blockchain-technology-limited-applications-by-nouriel-roubini-and-preston-byrne-2018-03?utm_source=Project%20Syndicate%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=822caff082-sunday_newsletter_11_3_2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_73bad5b7d8-822caff082-105575645&barrier=accesspaylog ↩
Erin Griffith. “When the blockchain skeptic walked into the lions' den”. Wired, April 15, 2018
https://www.wired.com/story/when-the-blockchain-skeptic-walked-into-the-lions-den/ ↩
Raúl Zambrano. “Blockchain.” International Development Research Centre, August 2017. https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/bitstream/handle/10625/56662/IDL-56662.pdf ↩
UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser. “Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond block chain.” Government Office for Science, 2016. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/492972/gs-16-1-distributed-ledger-technology.pdf ↩
Kevin T. Leicht. “Social Change.” Oxford Bibliographies. http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756384/obo-9780199756384-0047.xml ↩
Paul A. Grassi, Michael E. Garcia, and James L. Fenton. “Digital Identity Guidelines.” National Institute of Standards and Technology, June 2017. https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63-3.html#def-and-acr ↩
“Identity and Access Management (IAM).” Gartner IT Glossary. https://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/identity-and-access-management-iam/ ↩
Joseph J. Atick and Zaid Safdar. “Digital Identity Toolkit: A Guide for Stakeholders in Africa.” World Bank Group, June 2014. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/147961468203357928/pdf/912490WP0Digit00Box385330B00PUBLIC0.pdf ↩
“Identity in a Digital age: Infrastructure for Inclusive Development.” United States Agency for International Development. https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/15396/IDENTITY_IN_A_DIGITAL_AGE.pdf ↩
Raúl Zambrano. “Blockchain.” International Development Research Centre, August 2017. https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/bitstream/handle/10625/56662/IDL-56662.pdf ↩
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