Best on the Block - Welcome to the IEEE Blockchain Technical Briefs

Chonggang Wang, Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Blockchain Technical Briefs

IEEE Blockchain Technical Briefs, July 2018

 

Blockchain. The market for this fast-growing technology is expected to hit $20 billion by 2024. It has the potential to transform industries far beyond its roots in banking –supply chain, IoT, and power and energy, for example. With an eye to shaping the future of this disruptive technology, we’d like to welcome you to the inaugural issue of the quarterly IEEE Blockchain Technical Briefs.

Proudly sponsored by the IEEE Blockchain Initiative, this first edition of our Technical Briefs brings you a carefully curated selection of timely, relevant insights, including real-world blockchain use cases for medical record and data sharing, expert commentary on the need for a stronger and more reliable blockchain, and new IoT access controls based on smart contracts. But before we dive into the blockchain pool, we want to introduce and thank the following editors for their diverse contributions and efforts in making the IEEE Blockchain Technical Briefs the best it can be:

• Mohammed Atiquzzaman, Edith Kinney Gaylord Presidential Professor, School of Computer Science, University of Oklahoma, USA
• Claire-Isabelle Carlier, Enterprise Architecture Business Analyst, Brookfield Renewable Partners, Canada
• Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Cloud Technology Endowed Professorship, University of Texas at San Antonio, Senior IEEE Member, USA
• Francisco Curbera, Director, Blockchain and Consumer Health Development, IBM Watson Health, USA
• Mahmoud Daneshmand, Industry Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology, IEEE Life Member, USA
• Andy Lippman, Senior Research Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
• Chengnian Long, Professor, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China
• Qinghua Lu, Senior Research Scientist, Data 61, CSIRO, Australia
• Ammar Rayes, Distinguished Engineer, Technology Director, Cisco Systems, USA
• Weisong Shi, Professor, Wayne State University; IEEE Fellow, USA
• Hong Wan, Associate Professor, School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, USA
• Honggang Wang, Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts (UMass) Dartmouth, USA
• Jiang Xiao, Associate Professor, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
• Zheng Yan, Professor, Xidian University; IEEE Senior Member, China
• Shucheng Yu, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, USA
• Yan Zhang, Professor, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo; IEEE Senior Member, Norway

Though Satoshi Nakamoto's brilliant Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System white paper was published some 10 years ago, only recently has blockchain technology – also known as distributed ledger technology – begun attracting tangible research and application attention in academia and industry. Why? First-generation blockchain systems focused primarily on digital currencies.

With blockchain’s second generation and the rise of smart contracts, the realistic applicability of the technology across a broader landscape of domains and scenarios like supply chain management, connected health, and IoT, has captured people’s imagination. The challenge now is in demonstrating and identifying potential pitfalls, and exploring how this disruptive, decentralized technology can improve or even revolutionize existing industries, most of which, if not all, are centralized systems requiring meaningful levels of trust between participants. Today, all aspects of blockchain technologies, including interactions and implications for other emerging technologies like AI, big data, edge computing, and industrial internet, are being thoroughly revisited and evaluated. And, this is just the beginning.

IEEE has a rich library of special issues focusing on blockchain, as do many other external publications. However, the IEEE Blockchain Technical Briefs is the first to be solely dedicated to this innovative technology, with the goal of informing and advancing blockchain and related technologies. What can you expect to find in each issue? Reports and articles covering new blockchain designs, challenges, applications, standards development, and more. By publishing timely, concise technical articles, these Technical Briefs deliver the practical knowledge and forward-looking vision researchers, industry practitioners, and casual observers need to fully tap into blockchain’s profound potential. These Technical Briefs are also a springboard for fostering cross-industry research, education, and innovation.

If you’re working in the blockchain arena, why not consider contributing to the effort? We’re always on the lookout for succinct articles written at the architectural rather than the design level. While articles can detail company or organizational efforts, we ask authors to refrain from incorporating commercial agendas or direct marketing in their submissions. Submissions will be reviewed and given feedback by our editorial team. The submission deadline for our September 2018 issue is August 6, so you still have some time to get us your draft.

Thanks for checking out the first issue of the IEEE Blockchain Technical Briefs, and welcome to the block(chain) party. Feel free to share these Technical Briefs with collegues and friends. Please contact the Managing Editor at blk-editor@ieee.org to submit articles. We think it’s going to be a great experience, and we hope you do too.

 

Chonggang Wang
Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Blockchain Technical Briefs

 

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Chonggang Wang received his Ph.D. degree from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) in 2002. He is currently a Member Technical Staff with InterDigital Communications. His current research interests include decentralized IoT, semantic computing and services for IoT, fog computing for IoT, IoT data analytics, and advanced IoT services. He also has abundant IoT standardization experience including oneM2M, IETF, IEEE, and ETSI TC M2M. He was the co-founder (2011-2013) and the founding Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of IEEE Internet of Things Journal (2014-2016). He is currently the Associate EiC of IEEE Transactions on Big Data and the EiC of IEEE Blockchain Technical Briefs. He is an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to IoT enabling technologies (2017).