At this point, it is probably safe to say that most people have heard of blockchain. However, most of those people would likely say that it has something to do with Bitcoin. Obviously, they aren’t wrong. However, blockchain existed before the granddaddy of cryptocurrency burst into the mainstream consciousness. In fact, it existed before Satoshi first spoke of Bitcoin in his 2008 white paper. Bitcoin just took advantage of its security features – one of the most important of them being timestamping.
Blockchain was invented back in 1991, when the internet was still the domain of scientists, academics, the military, and the unpopular kids at school. In their own paper published that year, W. Scott Stornetta and Stuart Haber made it clear they saw the digital revolution that was coming. The pair recognized that a component of that would be the digitization of all kinds of documents, from papers like theirs to medical records to home titles. They also foresaw a problem we now take for granted – the fact such things are all too easy to fake.
We’ve seen that again and again in the Digital Age. Not a week goes by that we don’t hear of a data breach at a major company that puts people’s identities at risk. Any time that happens, there is a chance for people to lose money, reputation and even their homes. All because our data and our digital documents are rarely as secure as they should be.
That established, how can blockchain and specifically timestamping help? Timestamping is so simple, it just means that when something happens, a time is attached to it. If a lease is created, there is a timestamp for it. Once it’s signed, it’s stamped again. When it ends, it is stamped. There is a clear, chronological record of any change made to a digital record. No one can come along and alter that time, no one can insert a false record with a false stamp into the blockchain. Remember, one of the other features of blockchain is that a copy of every transaction exists on every node in the chain. This is what actually makes the whole concept of digital signatures possible. Without the timestamp as part of the code associated with a legal document, it would be easier to produce a forgery with a different signature. That docusign feature is doing a lot more than destroying the last use for fax machines.
If you think about it, timestamping is a much older concept than 1991. It’s been used in court reporting, medical records, research, and logs of government activity for thousands of years. Date and time have been attached to events to make sure there was solid understanding of how events progressed ever since there has been papyrus to write it on. Whether keeping track of royal negotiations or the progression of a medical treatment, the importance of timestamping has been recognized long before the computer was invented. Haber and Stornetta simply realized the same concept needed to be adapted to our current circumstances.
Properly applied timestamping is essential for virtually every aspect of modern society. It not only allows for the tracking of the ownership of data, because of how simple it is to verify it prevents the theft of everything from documents to intellectual property. We will probably never know just how much time and money hasn’t been wasted on legal disputes thanks to this simple and effective technology.
TARTLE of course makes use of exactly this technology in our data marketplace. It is what allows us to keep track of your data and where it goes after you decide to sell it. If someone down the road needs to verify its source, they’ll always be able to. If someone tries to falsely attribute data to you, you’ll always be able to point out that it doesn’t have your code attached and there is no timestamp that can be traced back to you. That’s how we protect both you and your data.
What’s your data worth?
Blockchain is a common topic here in the land of TARTLE. Why might that be? Because blockchain is a technology that allows people to take control of their own finances and their own information independently of any outside organization. That means if you don’t trust a given country, bank, or company with something, you can secure it with blockchain. It allows people to track anything with the appropriate code anywhere it goes in the world. If you want to know more about it, we’ve done a few posts on the subject in the past. It should at least be enough to point you in the right direction. Today, rather than going over the mechanics of blockchain, we want to talk about the potential it has to help solve some significant issues.
First up is oil. As it turns out, there are billions of dollars of oil stolen every single year. Just one country in Africa $8 billion of oil was reported stolen. Imagine that, $8 billion gone from just one country. What sort of impact does that have on the global economy? A company could include a QR code on the storage units to track that oil through a blockchain system, making it a much harder sell once it’s stolen. At the very least, the thieves would have to transfer it to another container. However, even doing that would be a red flag as there would be no origin reported in the blockchain code. Or, combine elements of biotech and find a way to include an organic equivalent of a QR code embedded in the oil itself. It would be like marking hundred dollar bills with traceable dye. Similar things could also be done with diamond mining. Yes, these obviously are instances of blockchain working for a company. We never said they couldn’t use the technology, just that the thing we really liked about it was that it is just as open to individuals as it is to companies and countries.
Speaking of countries, what about voting? What if blockchain could provide a secure means of electronic voting? The secure and virtually unfalsifiable nature of the records, backed up worldwide should make blockchain an attractive option for electronic voting that is secure and easily accessible. So far, no nation has taken advantage of this option but TARTLE will definitely be watching closely when someone finally pulls the trigger.
Individually, people who live in more oppressive countries can use blockchain and crypto currency to circumvent the corrupt system there. That ability is even helpful in regard to a perfectly honest banking system. Even a completely trustworthy and above board bank can be held hostage by blackhat hackers that infiltrate the bank’s servers. Securing records with a blockchain system helps prevent title and identity theft by attaching a code that tracks these things from their origin to wherever they go, with records that are duplicated all around the world in those convenient little nodes.
Blockchain is one of the most interesting and promising technologies developed in the new millennium. It provides a high degree of accessibility and security while allowing people to break away and decentralize power from corrupt systems. Sadly, it hasn’t caught on nearly as much as it should have. There are massive gaps in the education available to help people understand and how to access the technology.
TARTLE is trying to bridge that gap by providing a system that anyone can sign up for and use. By using our data marketplace users can acquaint themselves with some of the mechanics that govern the worlds of blockchain and cryptocurrency. In time, that knowledge will grow and spread into a movement that increases the mobility and freedom of people around the world.
What’s your data worth?
Airplanes are cool. They look cool, especially the older WWII era planes with their big curves, art work and the way they always look like they just came back from a fight. And of course, they fulfill man’s long-time dream of being able to fly without having to worry so much about falling to the sea like Icarus.
What would make them even cooler? Blockchain. Now, you might be asking how exactly that works. Isn’t blockchain only for cryptocurrency? Nope, blockchain is potentially far more versatile than that with applicability for all sorts of industries. So, what’s the application here?
One of the things blockchain technology is known for is its ability to securely track information, allowing users not only to transfer information but to verify its authenticity. This is already beginning to happen with check-in procedures. Airlines are faced with an incredibly daunting task; they need to keep their customers’ personal data private while also running background checks to ensure they don’t pose a terrorist threat. Blockchain allows the airlines to take that dilemma by the horns and encode fliers’ personal data in such a way that the airline can access it without its being able to be accessed by an outside source or falsified. With blockchain, it should even be possible to tie that information to a code on your passport that lets the TSA person scan it in order to verify you are who you say, while also running a secure check to make sure you have stayed out of trouble since the last time you flew.
Baggage tracking could also be helped. Yes, the airlines already track baggage and generally do an adequate job at it. However, there is still plenty of room for improvement. Tagging your favorite piece of Samsonite with a blockchain code allows it to be kept track of at least as well any current system. However, that data can still be lost or faked unless it’s part of the blockchain. In this system, a number of nodes all around the world actually record all the encoded information and verify themselves against the other nodes. With copies all around the world, this system would be very difficult to break into and alter any of its data.
That same feature, having the data in multiple locations is a big deal for all sorts of aviation data. Even something as simple as location data can benefit from being recorded in multiple nodes. Rather than having it all in one or two servers that can lose data when they crash, they can be in hundreds or thousands of nodes. Even if half of them crash, the other half are still there with a nice clean copy of their data. All of this makes it easier to avoid a situation like the lost Malaysian flight MH370. When that flight went missing, kicking off a massive search and months of news coverage part of the problem was that investigators couldn’t locate the flight data.
This directly relates to all sorts of other data, even data stored in the much-vaunted black boxes. While they might be incredibly tough and can practically survive having a nuke dropped on them it doesn’t matter if the one you need is at the bottom of the ocean. Imagine instead that information is also getting streamed to a secure blockchain network, so if a plane goes down you don’t have to spend resources hunting down that box, you already have all the data.
Naturally, we at TARTLE are big fans of these kinds of moves. Anything that helps make data more secure and more available is right in line with our mission to use data to build a better world.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
Anyone who knows anything about government, in general, knows that it likes to grow. This was true before Alexis de Tocqueville identified that principle in his massive masterpiece Democracy in America and it is no less true now. The only thing that really changes is what direction it’s trying to grow in.
One direction you can always count on government growing is towards anything that is currently outside of its reach. One of those areas right now is blockchain. Blockchain is a decentralized system of currency and information exchange not tied to any one government or its currency. Which of course means that it is not regulated by any government and that in turn means that the government doesn’t much like it.
A while ago, we talked about a lawsuit that the SEC brought against the digital payment processor Ripple. That lawsuit was considered by many to be an attack on the entire cryptocurrency world. Now, there are signs that the SEC will be making further moves to try and regulate, or at least contain cryptocurrency to minimize its effect on the US and other economies.
We see this in the recent appointment of Gary Gensler to the head of the SEC. Gensler comes with an impressive resume. He has served as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and at the moment is a professor at MIT. MIT may or may not be something you would immediately associate with blockchain but his focus is on teaching blockchain and digital assets. As such, he will be the first head of the SEC with extensive knowledge of cryptocurrency. However, is that going to be a net gain or net loss for those like TARTLE who push for decentralization? The signals are mixed.
On one hand, Gensler has openly praised both bitcoin and blockchain technology, remarking on its potential to be a ‘catalyst for change’. However, he’s also talked about crypto and problems with fraud and manipulation. While we would never say there haven’t been at least some scams and manipulation in the crypto world, it’s dwarfed by issues with the stock market.
Just look at all the insanity created by the Gamestop situation. A bunch of hedge fund managers were betting against the company’s stocks and shorted them, which of course drove the price down. Then a small army of independent investors, some of them amateurs getting into the market for the first time, disagreed and started buying up the troubled store’s stocks, driving them not just up, but through the roof. The result has been a small panic on Wall Street as some hedge funds teetered on the edge of collapse and of course an ongoing roller coaster ride as Gamestop stock rises and falls in ways that have nothing to do with the company’s performance.
What this has done has exposed just how easy it is to manipulate the stock market if you have enough money to do so, or enough people getting together with a small amount of money each and acting together. Point being, the SEC might want to look into securing the Dow Jones before it goes adventuring into cryptocurrencies. Sadly, that is not the way things typically work. Despite the fact, blockchain is much more difficult to manipulate and commit fraud with than the traditional market you can count on the SEC to start poking around and trying to figure out how to manipulate the crypto market for its own ends.
How to prevent that? One way is to decentralize yourself from the system. Start educating yourself on cryptocurrencies and getting a little yourself. How to get some crypto, you ask? You can sign up with TARTLE and share your data. Payments are made with Bitcoin so just by sharing your data you are contributing to making the crypto world stronger and helping to decentralize your finances at the same time.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
If you are coming here to TARTLE you probably have at least a basic knowledge of blockchain. On the off chance you are new here, blockchain is most commonly associated with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It is a means of recording information that relies on unique lines of code that are copied on nodes around the world rather than on a centralized server. This makes it secure since the information exists in many copies at once and every transaction is recorded. Every time that your favorite crypto changes hands a record of that translation is made and copied. That means every blockchain node in the world contains a record of every owner going all the way back to its origin. If you think about it that is pretty cool. It’s like being able to take a dollar bill out of your wallet and instantly being able to see everywhere it’s been and everyone who has ever had it in their own wallet. As cool as this is, is it possible to use this same technology elsewhere?
The answer is a resounding ‘yes’. We’ve actually seen an example of what that looks like in pop culture just recently. There is a scene in The Mandalorian in which Boba Fett, after getting his armor back from Mando, shows him a chain code, showing everyone who has owned the armor from Boba back to the first one. That is literally an example of blockchain being applied to a material object in a mainstream science fiction show. Again, that’s pretty cool. It shows knowledge of blockchain is getting out in front of the regular population.
However, that’s still fiction. How might that work in the real world? Think about those guys who are selling knock off versions of high end things like Rolex watches or Gucci bags or maybe the real thing but heavily discounted. So discounted that maybe you go home and wonder if you just bought something that was stolen. How would you prove it? And even if you could, how could you make sure that it got back to whomever the rightful owner is?
If the manufacturer was making use of blockchain technology, it would be simple. There would be a code on the device, or even a chip within it that could transmit the code so anyone with a receiver could check it out. That code would then be checked against a blockchain registry demonstrating authorized chains of custody. If the person you bought that killer watch from isn’t on the registry, then yeah, you bought something stolen.
This can also be used for detecting inefficiencies in a supply chain. If a given shipment has been out of scanning range for longer than expected, it would send up a warning flag that either the system isn’t working the way that it is supposed to or that someone is trying to do something nefarious.
We’ve also made mention of how blockchain could be used to keep secure track of things like property titles, without the need for middle men like banks and title companies.
With blockchain already firmly established as the means through which cryptocurrencies are traded, it is only a matter of time before it starts breaking more into the mainstream. Given that many companies now accept various cryptos as valid means of payment, that crypto is regularly discussed on national news programs, and it has even begun to penetrate pop culture, this time is not far away. In just a few years, it is highly likely that you’ll be purchasing a new car, home, wedding ring, and a host of other things with a blockchain based chain of ownership.
This is the way.
Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated a lawsuit against Ripple, one of the major cryptocurrency companies. Why? Apparently for the crime of raising money without registering with the government. The suit doesn’t even allege that Ripple committed any kind of fraud or misled its clients in any way. It seems that the SEC is mad that Ripple (and other crypto currency companies) are using the blockchain system to handle transfer of money and goods outside of the normal system. Why would that make them mad? Because they don’t get to control it, and if they can’t control it, they can’t get any money from it.
It could be argued that in suing Ripple, the SEC is betraying a lack of understanding of what blockchain really is. After all, in a system in which people all around the world are part of the network that maintains the blockchain system, how can you hope to change that system by suing just one company? Blockchain and various crypto currencies will continue to exist without Ripple. Or any other single company.
However, an alternative reading is that the SEC does understand blockchain and is threatened by it. If so, they are making an example of Ripple, sending a message that they are determined to get control over digital currency one way or another. That begs the question – why would they find it threatening?
Unfortunately, that is all too easy to understand. The very nature of the blockchain system makes it unfriendly to the legacy banking and government bureaucracies. How so? There are three main pillars of the blockchain system that make it the threat that it is. Let’s take a look at them.
Pillar 1: Decentralization – One of the main features of blockchain is the fact that it is decentralized. What does that mean? It means that all of the information stored in the system, whether it’s currency, transaction records or shared information, it isn’t just on a bunch of guarded servers in a single location, as with a bank. Instead, every node in the chain has a complete record of the system within it. A transaction occurs and within seconds, a record of that transaction is stored on nodes around the world. This means that people don’t need to rely on those legacy institutions whenever they make a transaction. The decentralization grants freedom.
Pillar 2: Transparency – Now, someone might well be thinking this doesn’t make any sense. Isn’t a major feature of blockchain that it is anonymous? How can it possibly be anonymous if it’s transparent? Yes, this seems a little contradictory. However, the transparency comes from the fact that the information is in all of those different nodes. Since so many have access to the information, it is very transparent. Which has the added bonus of making it virtually impossible to commit any fraud. You can’t really cook the books behind closed doors when anyone can come in at any time and check the books. The anonymity comes from the fact that your identity itself is encoded and anonymous. Can the system still be hacked? Yes. However, it’s much harder to do and thus much less frequent than it is when it comes to legacy systems.
Pillar 3: Immutability – This one also relies on the nature of the blockchain. The records of your transactions within the system are always there, in many nodes around the world. That means if someone tries to hack a node or two to engage in some blackhat activity it will be detected and flagged by the other nodes that will see the disparity between their records and that of the hacked nodes. In short, the records can’t be fraudulently changed.
All of this makes the blockchain system of Ripple and other crypto companies more secure and freer than that of our legacy systems. No wonder they find it a threat and want to find a way to control it.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
