group to meet business
blockchain challenges.
Blockchain is a new technology based on known technical elements. Indeed, it is the clever assembly of distributed exchange mechanisms, consensus and cryptography, serving new uses, which is at the origin of the craze for this emerging technology. More specifically, a blockchain is:
Thanks to its properties, the blockchain is a new technology that could disrupt a variety of activity sectors such as finance, logistics, energy, mobility, [1][2].
This is the most well-known property, namely the removal of the trusted third party or its relocation. A concrete example is provided by bitcoin, an electronic money that works without going through the traditional intermediaries such as banks.
The exchanges are made directly peer-to-peer between participants, and it is the network as a whole that validates transactions through a consensus mechanism.
The blockchain ledger is shared and replicated among all nodes of the network. Thus, the system proves to be resilient to certain failures: if a node of the network becomes faulty, the other nodes remain available and ensure continuity of service.
The content of the blockchain is validated by members of the network through a consensus mechanism, which imposes a certain transparency in the system. It should be noted that this transparency is however not incompatible with a certain level of data confidentiality that some blockchain technologies allow.
The blockchain is a data structure in which one can add information, without being able to subtract it: once a transaction is registered in the blockchain, it cannot in principle be withdrawn. It is the use of cryptographic tools, associated with the consensus, which guarantees this property of immutability.
Without being a fundamental property of the blockchain, it is particularly highlighted in new generations of implementations. Thus, thanks to smart contracts, transactions can be automatically triggered when predefined conditions are fulfilled, without human intervention and without the possibility of preventing their execution.
“The blockchain is the clever assembly of distributed exchange mechanisms, consensus and cryptography, serving new uses”.
[1] Dib Omar, Kei-Leo Brousmiche, Antoine Durand, Eric Thea, and E. Ben Hamida. “Consortium blockchains: Overview applications and challenges.” International Journal On Advances in Telecommunications 11, no. 1&2 (2018).
[2] Rapport du groupe de travail Blockchain des Assises Nationales de la mobilité, https://www.assisesdelamobilite.gouv.fr/syntheses.html