What's New - 2017
Blockchain: 2017’s Biggest Tech Trend?
IEEE Innovation at Work - December 2017
"To stay innovative, companies must constantly anticipate the next big disruption to their industry. This year, millions of dollars were invested in developing blockchain. While many business and IT leaders have heard how they need to get in on the blockchain game (Harvard Business Review’s advice to managers: start experimenting ASAP), it’s still not entirely clear how blockchain could benefit their businesses. While the most obvious application for it is to process financial transactions, enterprises and vendors like Amazon and Apple are exploring lots of other uses for the technology. MIT Media Lab is even using blockchain to issue academic certificates."
Read more at IEEE Innovation at Work
Top 10 Technology Trends for 2018: IEEE Computer Society Predicts the Future of Tech
IEEE Computer Society - December 2017
Blockchain ranks among IEEE Computer Society's top 10 technology trends predicted to reach adoption in 2018.
Read more at IEEE Computer Society
Is Blockchain the Solution to IoT Security?
IEEE Innovation at Work - December 2017
"Security of Internet of Things (IoT) devices is an ongoing problem. The largely unregulated IoT market leaves plenty of room for device hacking. When considering applications such as smart homes and smart cars, this lack of security can be a real concern. A hacker, for example, could take over a self-driving car with someone in it, or make purchases based on access levels given to an IoT system. With all of the data that is collected and passed between IoT devices, strong security is a must."
Read more at IEEE Innovation at Work
Modular Power Blocks Snap Together to Scale Up Energy Needs in Remote Areas
IEEE Spectrum - December 2017
"More than 1 billion people in the world live without electricity. The challenge of bringing it to them is somewhat analogous to the desire decades ago to install fixed telephone lines in impoverished communities. The need was there, but the money wasn’t. Then mobile phones came along and now communication is ubiquitous, even among the poorest. Electricity could use a similar fix: a relatively inexpensive and lightweight solution, technically speaking, that can be set up quickly in rural areas and serve millions of people in a short time frame."
Advancing Technology for the Benefit of Humanity – A Closer Look at Blockchain
Beyond Standards - November 2017
"Nearly one-third of humanity – perhaps two billion people in dozens of countries – lacks access to a financial institution for the most basic banking services, leaving them largely out of the global economy, even their own local economy. This consigns billions of people to lives of mere subsistence."
How Blockchains Will Help Connect Billions to Electricity and Financial Services
IEEE Spectrum - November 2017
"People are buying and trading digital coins at a frenetic pace in developing countries. With cryptocurrencies, people can conduct business, send money across borders, avoid regulation and taxation, and legitimize their informal economic activity—all without going through failed central banking systems."
Integrating Internet of Things and Blockchain: Use Cases
IEEE Internet Initiative - November 2017
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an interconnected network of smart devices capable of exchanging information while changing their state dynamically and adaptively. IoT capabilities are considered as “game changing” when combined with the concepts of big data analytics and cloud computing.
IoT has brought a new technological revolution across the globe. IoT networks are distributed by nature. This reality has brought in large scale security threats. IoT devices exchange and process massive amounts of data and are exposed to a variety of cyberattacks. Traditional centralized security models have limited utility for IoT applications due to their limitations. Therefore, lightweight, scalable, and distributed security measures are required.
Read more at IEEE Internet Initiative
Bitcoin’s Biggest Tech Player to Release AI Chips and Computers
IEEE Spectrum - November 2017
"By its own reckoning, Bitmain built 70 percent of all the computers on the Bitcoin network. It makes specialized chips to perform the critical hash functions involved in mining and trading bitcoins, and packages those chips into the top mining rig—the Antminer S9."
IEEE Initiative Contemplating Blockchain Technology
IEEE TEMS Leader - November 2017
"In late October the IEEE Future Directions team organized a technology incubator workshop in Arlington, Virginia. The IEEE Future Directions program identifies emerging technologies of interest to the IEEE membership and pursues them as initiatives if these technologies will affect IEEE membership, society, government, and/or industry."
The Lure of a Fully Decentralized Internet
IEEE Spectrum - October 2017
There are pros and cons, but let’s be honest—decentralized technologies are just more fun
The Blockchain Mystery: Three Things You Should Know
Computing in Science & Engineering - October 2017
"Blockchain technology promises to revolutionize the world of finance, banking, and contract negotiation. What it is and how it works, however, remain a mystery to many people. Because it promises to significantly change the way contracts and financial transactions are verified, you should know at least three important things."
Read more at IEEE Computer Society
Blockchain Technologies: The Foreseeable Impact on Society and Industry
Computer - October 2017
The authors describe blockchain’s fundamental concepts, provide perspectives on its challenges and opportunities, and trace its origins from the Bitcoin digital cash system to recent applications.
Read more at IEEE Computer Society
Virtual Roundtable: Blockchain Technology in Finance
Computer - October 2017
In this audio virtual roundtable, R3’s Tim Swanson interviews global experts on the trajectory of blockchain technology for finance. Accompanies Computer’s September 2017 Guest Editors’ Introduction.
Read more at IEEE Computer Society
Why the Biggest Bitcoin Mines Are in China
IEEE Spectrum - October 2017
The heart of Bitcoin is now in Inner Mongolia, where dirty coal fuels sophisticated semiconductor engineering
"Jihan Wu, the CEO of Bitmain, claims that 70 percent of the Bitcoin mining rigs in operation today were made by his company. And, according to a study conducted last winter by the University of Cambridge, in England, it’s likely that most of those machines are plugged into an outlet somewhere in China."
Illinois vs. Dubai: Two Experiments Bring Blockchains to Government
IEEE Spectrum - October 2017
Dubai wants one blockchain platform to rule them all, while Illinois will try anything
"Governments everywhere would like to cut red tape, reduce bureaucracy, and speed the delivery of services. But constituents are still often frustrated by mounds of paperwork and the snail-like pace of official business. Could a blockchain help?"
Blockchain Lingo
IEEE Spectrum - October 2017
The terms you need to know to understand the blockchain revolution
"Like any new technology, the development of the blockchain required the invention of new words to describe its parts and their uses. Perhaps because it was invented by an anonymous hacker or because its subsequent application spread so widely, the lingo of blockchain can seem a bit odd. The list below will help you understand the basics of blockchain. Put your suggestions for other unusual blockchain tech terms in the comments, and maybe we’ll add them."
Blockchains Will Allow Rooftop Solar Energy Trading for Fun and Profit
IEEE Spectrum - October 2017
Neighbors in New York City, Denmark, and elsewhere will be able to sell one another their solar power
"Would you pay slightly more for your electricity if you knew it was sourced from photovoltaic panels on your neighbor’s roof? Or, if you are that neighbor, would you use your solar power to charge a battery and dump that energy back onto the grid at peak hours, when the price was highest? The answers to these questions—which depend on how people would behave in an open energy market—are unknown, because that market does not exist. Net metering and feed-in tariff programs, the two dominant schemes for reimbursing residential energy production, pay out at a fixed rate, effectively decoupling producers from the price signals that might otherwise direct their behavior."
Wall Street Firms to Move Trillions to Blockchains in 2018
IEEE Spectrum - September 2017
The finance industry is eagerly adopting the blockchain, a technology that early fans hoped would obliterate the finance industry
"When blockchains first appeared nearly a decade ago as the technical backbone of Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, they seemed to offer the masses a way to cut out the financial middleman. But now the big banks and other industry players are finding ways to spin the new tool to their advantage."
Do You Need a Blockchain?
IEEE Spectrum - September 2017
This interactive will tell you if a blockchain can solve your problem
"According to a study released this July by Juniper Research, more than half the world’s largest companies are now researching blockchain technologies with the goal of integrating them into their products. Projects are already under way that will disrupt the management of health care records, property titles, supply chains, and even our online identities. But before we remount the entire digital ecosystem on blockchain technology, it would be wise to take stock of what makes the approach unique and what costs are associated with it."
The Ridiculous Amount of Energy It Takes to Run Bitcoin
IEEE Spectrum - September 2017
Running Bitcoin uses a small city’s worth of electricity. Intel and others want to make a more sustainable blockchain
Bitcoin “miners” are electromagnetic alchemists, effectively turning megawatt-hours of electricity into the world’s fastest-growing currency. Their intensive computational activity cryptographically secures the virtual currency, approves transactions, and, in the process, creates new bitcoins for the miners, as payment.
Blockchains: How They Work and Why They’ll Change the World
IEEE Spectrum - September 2017
The technology behind Bitcoin could touch every transaction you ever make
"Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies replace those background agreements and transactions with software—specifically, a distributed and secure database called a blockchain. The process with which the ownership of a Bitcoin token will pass from one person to another—wherever they are, no matter what government they live under—is entrusted to a bunch of computers."
How Smart Contracts Work
IEEE Spectrum - September 2017
Blockchain technology could run a flight-insurance business without any employees
"Smart contracts are software programs that live on a blockchain and form the basis of many of the new blockchain applications and schemes. They are essentially automated systems that can provide services in exchange for cryptocurrency. However, because blockchains are not good for storing large amounts of data nor for querying the state of the outside world, they need services that exist off the blockchain to do those things for them. In this example, an automated flight-insurance smart contract uses an “oracle” to look up data about flight delays."
How Blockchains Work
IEEE Spectrum - September 2017
Illustrated from transaction to reward
"Every blockchain needs a way to determine who will add the next block of data. Two strategies prevail: proof of work and proof of stake. Both randomly assign the right to add new blocks. But proof of work gives preference to those with more computing power. And proof of stake—of which there are many versions, some wildly complex—gives preference to those with more coins."
Introduction to Blockchains & What It Means to Big Data
KDnuggets - September 2017
Perhaps most significant development in IT over the past few years, blockchain has the potential to change the way that the world approaches big data, with enhanced security and data quality.
Can Blockchain Fix IoT Security Concerns? “A Promising Future Seems Likely”
IT Professional - September 2017
"Blockchain—a kind of distributed ledger technology—has been described in the popular press as the next big thing. It is a data structure of cryptographically linked “blocks” of transactions that are virtually impossible to change or remove without being detected. Therein lies its strength."
Read more at IEEE Computer Society
A New Horizon within Reach for Personal Health Data Security and Patient Safety with Blockchain
Beyond Standards - September 2017
"We often perceive risks to patient safety as “something out of the patient’s control. In today’s digital world, patient safety is no longer relegated to receiving the incorrect dosage, taking counterfeit medication or surgical malpractice. Instead, the hackability of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices, personal health data breaches, and lack of data sharing amongst providers has become a detriment to patient safety. However, eliminating the vulnerabilities to personal data security may be something that can be placed under the patient’s control thanks to this emerging technology known as blockchain."
What Is the Blockchain?
Computing in Science & Engineering - September 2017
Blockchain is a new technology, based on hashing, which is at the foundation of the platforms for trading cryptocurrencies and executing smart contracts. This article reviews the basic ideas of this technology and provides a sample minimalist implementation in Python.
Read more at IEEE Computer Society
Blockchain: Vision and Challenges
IEEE Internet Initiative - September 2017
"Blockchain is a new and advancing technology. Even though it started with Bitcoin and is used widely in crypto-currencies, it now has non-financial uses in many areas and applications. The true limits of blockchain are still unknown and developers and pioneers are in uncharted territory. Arguably the most important promise of blockchain is the obviation of need for a central authority in multi-party applications, especially where users do not inherently trust each other."
Read more at IEEE Internet Initiative
The Corporate Blockchain
IEEE Spectrum - June 2017
"Hundreds of financiers, Wall Street analysts, and C-suite executives gathered in New York City this week to peer into the future of finance at the CB Insights’ Future of Fintech conference. And on Wednesday afternoon, they took a moment to ponder one of the greatest existential threats to their industry—and how they might turn it to their advantage.
Attendees crammed into a standing-room-only session to hear about the role that blockchains would play in existing businesses. To many in finance, it’s a perplexing topic. After all, the Bitcoin blockchain was long ago predicted to render modern finance—and finacial firms—obsolete."
Governments May Be Big Backers of the Blockchain
The Economist - June 2017
"In the hills overlooking Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, sits a nondescript building housing rows of humming computer servers. The data centre, operated by the BitFury Group, a technology company, was built to “mine” (cryptographically generate) bitcoin, the digital currency. But now it also uses the technology underlying bitcoin, called the “blockchain”, to help secure Georgian government records. Experts are eyeing the experiment for proof of whether blockchain technology could alter the infrastructure of government everywhere."
Verifying Intellectual Property on the Blockchain
Nasdaq - May 2017
"Innovators like Binded, Pixsy, TinEye and Ascribe promise to use decentralized ledger technology to register and protect against copyright infringement. They understand that a public, decentralized ledger like the blockchain is ideal for cataloging and storing original works of art, digital intellectual property, documents, manuscripts, photographs and images, away from any central authority.
Even if the copyright service ceases to exist, there will still be a verifiable copy of the original work on the blockchain."
Toyota Joins Coalition to Bring Blockchain Networks to Smart Cars
IEEE Spectrum - May 2017
"Today if your car wants to talk to another car, a service provider or just an infotainment source, it needs to go through a third-party network. That can cost you money in two ways: you pay the third party and you forgo the chance of being paid for the use of your data.
Toyota means to solve both problems using blockchain technology, the networking method behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Blockchain allows connected computers to share data and even software, and to do so securely. This matters for all sorts of computer-assisted driving, above all for self-driving technology."
Will Energy Offer the Next Market for Blockchain?
IEEE Spectrum - May 2017
"Electric devices that operate at what is sometimes known as the edge of the power grid—devices that range from electric vehicles to rooftop solar arrays—could help upend the utility business model and further decentralize energy production. Helping in that process is a tool more familiar to accounting wonks than to power producers: blockchain ledgers.
The digital tool first gained attention as a driver behind the global rise of bitcoin applications, and it’s gaining notice across the energy sector."
Can a Bitcoin Blockchain–Inspired Ledger Give Individuals Control Over Their Online Identities?
IEEE Spectrum - May 2017
"The Sovrin Foundation, a non-profit organization building online identity management tools with blockchain-inspired technologies, announced today that it will be taken on for incubation by Hyperledger Indy, a project run by the the Linux Foundation.
The problem of identity has attracted a whole flock of developers in the blockchain and distributed ledger space who see these technologies as a way to scoop up all the scraps of an individual’s online identity, consolidate them and put them under the individual’s control."
Blockchain in Healthcare
IEEE Transmitter - April 2017
"As technology gets smarter, our lives are made a little easier. With IoT devices becoming commonplace in our homes and helping to automate our lives, the next big technology to help us may be blockchain."
IEEE-SA Corporate Advisory Group Holds Two Workshops
Beyond Standards - April 2017
"Two diverse workshops highlighted the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Corporate Advisory Group’s recent outreach program in Silicon Valley, USA. One workshop focused on a landscape view of blockchain across industries, exploring how blockchain technologies could be used in business, the global supply chain, and other aspects of industry. This workshop also focused on potential humanitarian uses of blockchain, such as health delivery and aid assistance. Through these topics, the near and longer term future of blockchain was discussed."
Assessing the Reality of Loss from Interoperable Data on the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain
Beyond Standards - April 2017
Can the right "ledger" bring some balance to the pharmaceutical Supply Chain?
"The reality is, that the loss of interoperable data on the pharmaceutical supply chain costs more than dollars and cents. Lately, we hear the phrase “data interoperability” thrown around like an epidemic outbreak from the digital age. For one second, have we considered the true cost of “data interoperability on the pharmaceutical supply chain?” It’s not the economics, but rather the deficit on patient care"
Blockchain: A World of Possibilities
Beyond Standards - April 2017
A blockchain is an open, distributed database that preserves a continuously growing list of ordered records that by design is difficult to hack or destroy. The technology was originally created for the digital currency, Bitcoin. Now the tech community is finding numerous potential uses for blockchain technology. In a recent contribution to The Institute, How Blockchain Could Give Everyone a Legal ID, Monique Morrow, IEEE Senior Member and Technology Strategist, presents a use case of blockchain technology to create a legal-ID system to address the nearly 1.5 billion people lacking official identification documentation. By proving identity it is easier to protect people’s human rights.
The Other Side of Blockchain: We Choose What We Want to See
Beyond Standards - February 2017
"Show me the blockchain! No doubt about it, blockchain has become a mega technological trend tasked to save us from the data tsunami of the digital age. First, the financial industry and now, the life sciences/healthcare, consumer goods, energy and others are turning to blockchain. Just recently, Deloitte released the results from Blockchain Survey 2017, a study conducted in November/December 2016 to more than 300 senior executives. The study exposed how blockchain in 2017 is becoming both a “Top 5” priority (according to 25% of respondents) and extending beyond the finance sector (ie. 35% increase in intended deployment in healthcare)."
IEEE Standards Association: Blockchain for Pharma Series – Part 4
Beyond Standards - January 2017
In this series, participants from the 16 November 2016, Pharma Blockchain Bootcamp, lend their insights into the future of distributed ledger technology. In this interview, IEEE-SA interviews Bryant Joseph Gilot, MD CM DPHil MSc, Chief Medical Officer, Blockchain Health Co.
IEEE Standards Association: Blockchain for Pharma Series – Part 3
Beyond Standards - January 2017
In this series, participants from the 16 November 2016, Pharma Blockchain Bootcamp, lend their insights into the future of distributed ledger technology. In this article, IEEE-SA interviews Daryl Glover, Chief Clinical Officer, iSolve.io.
IEEE Standards Association: Blockchain for Pharma Series – Part 2
Beyond Standards - January 2017
In this series, participants from the 16 November 2016, Pharma Blockchain Bootcamp, lend their insights into the future of distributed ledger technology. In this article, IEEE-SA interviews Jan Hermans, Business Unit Manager, Cmast.
IEEE Standards Association: Blockchain for Pharma Series – Part 1
Beyond Standards - January 2017
In this series, participants from the 16 November 2016, Pharma Blockchain Bootcamp, lend their insights into the future of distributed ledger technology. In this article, IEEE-SA interviews Reid H. Graves, Sr. Consultant, Enterprise System Partners (ESP).
IoT and Blockchain Convergence: Benefits and Challenges
IEEE Internet of Things - January 2017
The Internet of Things (IoT) as a concept is fascinating and exciting, but one of the major challenging aspects of IoT is having a secure ecosystem encompassing all building blocks of IoT-architecture. Understanding the different building blocks of IoT, identifying the areas of vulnerability in each block and exploring technologies needed to counter each of the weaknesses are essential in dealing with the security issue of IoT.
Read more at IEEE Internet of Things
Ten Communications Technology Trends for 2017
IEEE ComSoc Technology News - January 2017
Distributed ledgers make IEEE ComSoc's list of top technology trends for 2017.
Read more at IEEE ComSoc Technology News
Pharma Blockchain Bootcamp – Speakers Perspectives on Blockchain
Beyond Standards - November 2016
"IEEE-SA is pleased to support the Pharma Blockchain Bootcamp presented by DisruptiveRX. The event provides an introduction to blockchain technology and the key areas where applications could have a significant impact in securing, managing and leveraging of data throughout the enterprise from R&D to clinical to commercialization. Key issues to be addressed: what exactly is blockchain and why is it considered a disruptive innovation, wherein the pharma enterprise and what can blockchain enhance; the business, legal, and regulatory considerations with implementation and more."
Advancing HealthTech for Humanity during National Healthcare IT Week (and beyond)
Beyond Standards - September 2016
"Blockchain is everywhere. No matter where you look, and who you speak to these days, the expected implications of the technology are considered to be game changing – and rightfully so. With the ability to impact the way we trust, anonymize, identify and engage through the distributed ledger technology, the applications can span far and wide with potentially positive results across various sectors. Examples include – greater patient autonomy and ownership in their information; addressing counterfeiting in the supply chain; transactive energy; counterfeit management; considerations towards a potentially trust-worthy IoT; and hundreds of other applications."