Understanding How Blockchain Works Alongside Other Disruptive Technologies

In an era defined by disruptive innovations, it's a bold claim to say one specific technology promises to upend the way we live our lives more than any others. How can one technology have more of an impact than machine learning, the internet of things, 3D printing, or one of the dozens of monumental innovations to emerge over the past decade?

When we published Blockchain Revolution, Alex Tapscott and I made the case blockchain - the technology behind crypto-assets like bitcoin and ether - is that technology.

Blockchain provides a platform upon which we can create, store, and transact value digitally, peer-to-peer. The significance of this cannot be understated, because that platform for value provides a foundation upon which other disruptive technologies can operate.

At the Blockchain Research Institute, we wanted to help enterprise and government leaders understand the relationship between blockchain and other disruptive technologies; what opportunities are there to create new business models? What challenges can we identify on the horizon? How can we prepare for these disruptions, or lead the transformation?

Below you can find five BRI research projects, available to the public under a Creative Commons license, dedicated to answering these questions:

1) Distributed Artificial Intelligence

As artificial intelligence diffuses among different industries, it is increasingly clear that new operating platforms may be needed for AI to reach its full potential. We are also increasingly aware that the data from which AI learns may be crucial to ensuring it serves to benefit society, and not harm it.

This project explores the prospect of "distributed AI," using blockchain to provide a transactional foundation for AI to participate in organizations and economies. It explores how smart contracts might be used to improve the way AI learns, and details the challenges ahead for scaling and governing this technology.

2) Blockchain and Big Data

Data is the asset class underpinning the digital age - the oil of the 21st century. But the massive amounts of data created by users - people living their daily lives - is captured by a small group of companies. This exacerbates economic inequality, threatens our privacy, and leaves organizations vulnerable to hacking.

This project explores how blockchain-enabled self-sovereign identities will revolutionize the way we collect, store, and profit from big data.

3) Quantum-proofing the Blockchain

The high-level cryptography underpinning blockchain is what enables us to securely store hundreds of billions of dollars on these distributed ledgers. This cryptography, and the highly decentralized nature of blockchain, makes it almost impossible for a single actor to hack or manipulate these networks.

But that won't last.

Quantum computers will be exponentially more powerful than today's machines, rendering the public key cryptography behind today's blockchain's useless. This project explores how we can build new blockchains to withstand quantum computers, and how we might retrofit our existing networks to prepare for the quantum threat.

4) The Ledger of Every Thing

The Internet of Things will create enormous networks of devices, all transacting and communicating with one another without our involvement. Well, for devices to automatically interact with one another - sometimes sharing valuable data or other assets - we're going to need a "Ledger of Things" as well!

This project explores the relationship between blockchain and IOT technology, and the potential applications the two technologies together might support.

5. Additive Manufacturing and Blockchain

As we enter the fourth industrial age, the intellectual property behind manufactured goods has become as important if not more than the goods themselves. With IOT technology and 3D printing becoming more prominent, it's increasingly important that we track the source not just of manufactured goods, but of the blueprints behind them.

This case study explores how MOOG used blockchain to more efficiently and effectively track the source of their parts, reducing the spread of counterfeit parts.