Author: jolestar
A popular saying recently is that the currency circle is cold, and the blockchain without currency represents the future. There have always been several views on blockchain technology:
Only bitcoin, no blockchain. The blockchain is just a last resort technology adopted to realize Bitcoin, which is neither advanced nor universal. Except for Bitcoin, it’s all altcoins, all scammers, not to mention coinless blockchains.
Bitcoin is a special case of blockchain technology. Blockchain technology can be used in a wider range of scenarios. Those who deceive people are those who issue coins, and those who engage in currency-free blockchains are not liars.
The above two kinds of people are liars, and the blockchain is a liar.
In view of the fact that the third view was widely circulated some time ago because of an article, as a blockchain technician, I feel that I should write something. I have always wanted to write a series, but at the beginning of the year, there were many advocates of blockchain, and as a technical person, I couldn't get in my mouth at all. The recent bear market has become much quieter, so I decided to write about it. The last time I wrote about the evolution of blockchain technology from the perspective of the evolution of ledger technology "Blockchain Technology World Viewfirst level title
The division of public chain, alliance chain and private chain
The industry generally divides blockchains from two perspectives. One perspective is divided into public chains (public), alliance chains (consortium), and private chains (private) according to the scope of consensus that needs to be reached. The other perspective is from the perspective of ledger producers. The way of joining is divided into permissionless chain (permissionless), permissioned chain (permissioned), and private chain (private).
The alliance chain to be discussed here corresponds to consortium and permissioned.
But the line between permissionless and permissioned is actually not that clear. For example, the debate about EOS. Some people think that such a chain with a limited number of super nodes is a kind of alliance chain between super nodes. Permissionless means that there must be unlimited block producing nodes, a pure Peer to Peer network. In theory, any node that joins can become a block producing node based on its own will and strength. Opponents believe that EOS has no access restrictions. Anyone can run for a super node. Costs are essentially the same. This leads to a key question, how to understand permissionless and permissioned? Who will give permission?
Therefore, in order to avoid controversy, I proposed a division method, which can be divided according to whether the chain can be "bootstrapped". Bootstrapping includes both economic and governance aspects.
economygovernance
governanceIf the admission mechanism or allocation mechanism needs to be negotiated, is the result of the negotiation executable on the chain?
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Is there an alliance or a chain first?
We assume a startup scenario of a consortium chain, where several market players decide to set up a consortium and start a chain to share data. So negotiate the role of each alliance member in the alliance, voting weight, access mechanism, responsibilities, benefit distribution, etc. These mechanisms are either implemented as a contract, or a joint venture company is established, and implemented as company equity and articles of association. Then find a technology supplier of the alliance chain, purchase the alliance chain system, and start the alliance chain.
Another way to start is to carry out governance mechanisms such as the establishment, organization, access, and distribution of responsibilities and interests of the alliance itself through the chain, and convert the offline contract into the consensus code logic on the chain, which itself becomes It has become a "bootstrappable" chain, and the alliance itself is organized by the chain, which is actually no essential difference from the public chain mentioned above.
This is also the main difference between the current two paths of the current alliance chain. One group believes that there should be an alliance first, and the chain is just a tool. The provider defines itself as a blockchain software system provider and pays attention to the feasibility and compliance of the current reality. . The other school believes that there is a chain first, and the alliance is a product of the chain. It is more like a chain service provider and pays more attention to the possibility of the future.
Of course, if the latter mechanism tries to express it through programs and achieve the final executable effect, the complexity exceeds the governance mechanism of all current public chains, and it also depends on legal changes to a certain extent, so the current alliance chain service providers adopt a simplification strategy.
Remove the economic system inside the public chain. The economic system of the public chain itself is designed to motivate and punish participants. Without the economic system, it is essentially a traditional way of transferring the benefit distribution mechanism to off-chain.
The governance mechanism on the chain is not introduced for the time being, and the complexity is simplified by providing configuration parameters and pluggable assembly capabilities to meet the needs of different alliances.
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Where is the application scenario of the alliance chain?
Blockchain has created coins, financing platforms, and exchanges, and it is time to create applications and apply blockchain to more industries and scenarios. The current new public chains and alliance chains are actually products of this trend, and they are mainly exploring application scenarios.
When talking about blockchain, the first question many people have is where can it be used. In fact, this question can be disassembled into two questions, what is its use in the future, and what is its current use. Many people who question the blockchain confuse these two issues. When you talk about the future, they question the status quo, and when you talk about the status quo, they mock the future.
The first question is actually, assuming that the blockchain network has been established, the possibility after the network effect is brought into play. When talking about possibilities, it is easy to let yourself go, and it sounds like fooling around, so here is a deduction from the background and trends.
The background for the blockchain to solve the problem is the further deepening of the Internet of Information in all walks of life, which is often referred to as Internet +, or the Internet enters the B-side, changing from connecting consumers (C-side) to connecting enterprises (B-side) ) or connected organizations (including G end, government).
However, the C-end is directly oriented to people, mainly based on information display, and the business model mainly relies on attracting the attention of end users. To connect to the B-side, it depends on the system interoperability between enterprises, mainly based on information and value exchange. The information display for people does not have high requirements for data formatting and standardization, but if it is an interaction between systems, there are strict requirements for data formats, processes, and protocols. How to make internal systems of different enterprises follow the same data, processes, protocol, and then connected into a network, forming a network effect?
One direction is to continue to use the Internet model, so that the B-side is connected to an Internet platform, and then connected through the platform. But how to attract the B side? One attempt is to attract B-side traffic through C-side traffic, such as e-commerce and food delivery platforms. However, this kind of connection is relatively shallow, and the mode of Internet traffic entrance is still used, and the connection of B to B has not been realized. Another attempt is the SaaS service, which makes the internal applications of enterprises Internet-based. If the service is popularized to a certain extent, it is possible to realize the connection between enterprises. But you can imagine that people all over China use WeChat to chat, but can you imagine an online enterprise service, such as a financial system, that all enterprises in China use?
Another direction is the platform provided by industry standards or industry alliances. For example, FIX (Financial Information eXchange, Financial Information Exchange Protocol) in the financial field, or the settlement platform provided by organizations such as UnionPay. However, standards and protocols can only define the communication format, it is difficult to define business logic, and it is even more difficult to realize unified data processing logic. The construction cost of an industry alliance platform such as UnionPay is too high to be applicable to all industries.
And a blueprint shown by the blockchain is that the verification of data, the processing flow, and even the governance of the organization can be defined through code, and all participants follow the same set of rules. This set of rules is living and running code, not The specification in the dead document is a more advanced industry agreement alliance, which is the continuation of the Software Defined X trend in the industry, such as SDF (Software Defined Finance, Software Defined Finance).
For example, take Bitcoin as an example, understand the Bitcoin network as a clearing network, and each exchange is an enterprise connected to this clearing network. In the past, when enterprises needed data interoperability, they could only negotiate with each other for docking interfaces, and the system interfaces had to remain compatible. With the Bitcoin network, as long as you follow the Bitcoin rules to connect to the network, you can exchange value with any other company in the world, and the user's Bitcoin can flow between different exchanges.
Replace the above exchange with any B-end system. For example, in the enterprise financial system, the reconciliation between enterprises is carried out directly through the network, and the internal bills are stored locally. Together with the government's electronic invoices, a complete system of bookkeeping and reconciliation audit is basically realized. It is too easy for the government to audit and check accounts. Just run a program and you're done. This is also why the government supports blockchain.
In terms of industry alone, the financial sector is the most concerned about the blockchain. If the pressure brought by the Internet to finance is only a battle for entry, the pressure brought by the blockchain is fundamental. Therefore, financial institutions have an ambivalent attitude towards the blockchain. On the one hand, they want to embrace it actively. The alliance chain basically has a financial background, and on the other hand, they are repelled. After all, the definition of currency, bonds, stocks, and digital assets is the survival of financial institutions. of this. But the blockchain brings not only challenges to finance, but also opportunities, such as globalization.
Another example is traceability and anti-counterfeiting, supply chain scenarios. I have seen many articles criticizing traceability, and the core is entangled in one point: how to prevent cheating in the process of mapping from the real world to the information world. If you are entangled in this point, basically the blockchain can only be used in the pure information world scene like Bitcoin, and digital assets have been in the digital world from birth to circulation. But in fact, most of human assets and information are not directly generated in the information world, nor can they be directly verified in the information world. As I said in an article "Where are the key competition points of the public chain?" "As stated in the article, the true value of traceability is not just for anti-counterfeiting, but anti-counterfeiting at this stage is only a point that is easy to reflect value. In the end, traceability is actually defining digital assets. For each commodity, if it is tracked from all links in production, transportation and sales, it actually defines the digital sign of this commodity and turns it into a Token. This process will involve every link of the entire industrial chain, as well as the financial mechanism in it. Restructuring the business system is definitely not just a matter of information collection and sharing.
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The dilemma of alliance chain
The current dilemma encountered by the blockchain is actually similar to the difficulties encountered in the early days of Internet applications. Both blockchain and Internet applications have network effects, and the blueprint it draws can only be reflected after the network is built. Individual adoption in the early stage cannot enjoy the benefits brought by the network, so what motivation do early users have to adopt the blockchain? What about the chain? If the public chain can still rely on its own economic system for early incentives, and Internet applications can use various marketing methods, this problem is especially difficult for to B's currency-free alliance chain. B-end users have a long decision-making cycle and high adoption costs, especially the blockchain application architecture is very different from traditional applications.
Therefore, the current alliance chain entrepreneurs definitely need to explore and seek breakthroughs in the early stage. For example, I can list a few possible ways here:
Take the convenience of development as a breakthrough. The smart contract model of the blockchain provides a more elegant application development model. The platform completely takes over the input and output of the application and the operating environment, and developers can concentrate more on business logic. This is a system with the evolution of Docker, Kubernetes, ServiceMesh, and Serverless. I also talked with my friends about the idea of replacing Docker with a lighter sandbox VM, and I will write about this idea carefully when I have time.
Take security and disaster recovery as a breakthrough. The architecture of the blockchain fully complies with the architectural requirements of multi-active in different places, and can be made more reliable and elegant (see "Blockchain Technology World ViewAnalysis of the relevant paragraphs in ").
Take internal regulation as a breakthrough. It can be applied to enterprises with many complex systems, such as the head office and branch offices using different systems.
To build credibility as a breakthrough. Utilize several characteristics of the blockchain: 1. Users' ability to control their own data. 2. Alliance members restrict each other. 3. Publicity and supervision of data. It can help entrepreneurs to build credibility at a faster speed, and before, basically credibility can only be built by time (for example, in the insurance industry, when users choose insurance, one of the most concerned points is the duration of the insurance company).
A breakthrough is made in cross-system information exchange and settlement. Before the blockchain, cross-system information exchange and settlement basically relied on remote calls, and it was difficult to ensure consistency. Therefore, an independent reconciliation and clearing mechanism must be established. Through the consensus algorithm of the blockchain, transactions can be liquidated, improving efficiency. This method is equivalent to implementing a remote method call based on a blockchain-based asynchronous message mechanism without intruding on existing businesses.
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Look at the current alliance chain
In order to take care of non-technical readers here, this article does not detail the differences in technical details of these alliance chains. Just analyze them from the perspective of their problem-solving ideas.
Hyperledger Fabric
In the consortium chain scenario, it simplifies the requirements for proof of calculation, allowing users to develop applications in any language and deploy them to run in Docker. It is called chaincode, which is equivalent to applications hosted on the chain. Developers don't need to know too much blockchain knowledge, they only need to know that it takes over the input of the application, and takes over the output of the application by providing SDK. It can even be understood as a microservice framework, but with the consensus capability of blockchain, it is easy to realize multi-node data synchronization.
In the consortium chain scenario, it simplifies the requirements for proof of calculation, allowing users to develop applications in any language and deploy them to run in Docker. It is called chaincode, which is equivalent to applications hosted on the chain. Developers don't need to know too much blockchain knowledge, they only need to know that it takes over the input of the application, and takes over the output of the application by providing SDK. It can even be understood as a microservice framework, but with the consensus capability of blockchain, it is easy to realize multi-node data synchronization.
R3 Corda
It provides a set of Flow mechanisms to facilitate the definition of flow transactions that require the participation of multiple parties. Its contracts are Java or Kotlin codes, but they are all stateless. They are only responsible for verification and do not save the state. At the same time, many financial contract implementations are built in. After the application is packaged, it is a farJar package called CorDapp, which can be directly hosted on Platform, which is equivalent to a platform plug-in.
It provides a set of Flow mechanisms to facilitate the definition of flow transactions that require the participation of multiple parties. Its contracts are Java or Kotlin codes, but they are all stateless. They are only responsible for verification and do not save the state. At the same time, many financial contract implementations are built in. After the application is packaged, it is a farJar package called CorDapp, which can be directly hosted on Platform, which is equivalent to a platform plug-in.
Golden Chain Alliance FISCO BCOS
FISCO BCOS (hereinafter referred to as "BCOS") is an alliance chain based on the transformation of Ethereum. Transform the consensus mechanism of Ethereum into PBFT or RAFT, and provide system contracts to realize node management, system configuration and other capabilities. Its contracts and transactions are mainly inherited from Ethereum, but the Ether of Ethereum is abandoned, and all assets are realized through contracts.
BCOS provides the ability to exchange messages on the off-chain network. Nodes can communicate through messages first to implement some protocols, and only go to the chain when necessary. Its improvements to Ethereum mainly focus on performance and security. At the performance level, such as the transformation of Global Trie, solving hot account problems through multi-chain parallelism, etc. The improvement in the security level is mainly to enhance the support of passwords and desensitization isolation, because Ethereum is a global ledger and does not support the local consensus mechanism, so other means must be used to protect data.
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some application cases
I have been thinking about the case of blockchain. Just a while ago, the Golden Chain Alliance held a competition and saw some cases of participation. I haven't seen the specific code and implementation, so I just analyze it from the perspective of my brain and the feasibility of the current implementation.
Government affairsIt is equivalent to the scene of to G. In fact, there are many things that can be done in this field, such as the simplest information disclosure. At present, most government information disclosure is still the original web page or office document, and there is no formatted information, so it is difficult for third parties to process and use it again. It will be more valuable if the formatted standard information is opened through the blockchain. For example, cases of application scenarios such as real estate registration, smart city services, and credit sharing that appeared in the competition. The difficulty of implementation in this field lies not in technology, but in how to drive it. For example, in the simplest way, the industrial and commercial registration department provides a set of certificate mechanisms. When a company registers, a digital certificate is generated. The effect of the certificate is the same as that of the official seal, so that all digital contract scenarios can be used. This does not even require the use of blockchain will be able to achieve.
JudiciaryFor example, if a platform for depositing and consolidating evidence is done well, it can completely simplify the evidence submission and transfer process from the public security, to the procuratorate, and then to the court. In fact, it is the standardization and softwareization of the process of collaboration between government departments.
EducationFor example, on-chain registration of academic qualifications, etc. In essence, it is to digitize academic qualifications. Of course, this can be achieved without a blockchain, but how can all schools join this system to form a network? Or back to the previous question. Another interesting project is the book rafting system. It is equivalent to tokenizing books and making the library mobile. In the past, books had to be returned to the library before others could borrow them, but now readers can transfer to each other, and the transfer of Token represents the transfer of books. If combined with the deposit and punishment mechanism, this can be completely made into an open public welfare book platform.
open question
open question
There are still some open questions in the alliance chain, and there are no answers for the time being, waiting to be explored.
How should the relationship between applications and chains on the consortium chain be divided? Is the chain directly hosting the application, or is the application outside the chain? So which part should be outside the chain? Is there an overall solution available?
Should alliances connect horizontally or vertically? The horizontal is the alliance in the industry, and the vertical is the industrial chain alliance. The focus is different and the solutions are different. XOR has a unified solution?
Summarize
Summarize
Related Links
Related Links
Ma Zhitao, vice president of WeBank, first mentioned the idea of "public alliance chain"
The top 30 of Golden Chain Alliance China Blockchain Application Contest are announced, and they are about to compete for a prize of 2 millionList of items mentioned in the question text
Title image source https://unsplash.com/photos/-lp8sTmF9HA
