Blockchain: Ownership and Contracts

While blockchain is based on distributed ledgers, much of the interest in the technology depends not just on using ledgers for reference, but for executing actions dynamically in the form of ‘smart contracts’. Just like traditional contracts, these prescribe a set of rules and consequences -in other words, they prescribe the ‘if this’ actions in contracts. Through this contract structure, we are able to securitise and enable a new framework of thinking about property and ownership by recording contracts and assets onto the blockchain.

Today’s Challenges:

Today, over 90% of the data in the world has been created, with an estimated 1.2 million data points produced by social media users daily. This number will continue to exponentially grow. However, as Jordan Wolf explains, blockchain offers us an opportunity to look at data ownership differently and to “look at the whole business model in reverse, and wonder why there is a middle man like google that is profiting off of data that is effectively producing and collected by individuals”. In the wake of Facebook's data mining scandal, Blockchain offers us a potential to own and sell our data directly.

Tomorrow’s Opportunities

Evolution to Legal system: With blockchain, we can imagine a world in which contracts are embedded into digital code - secured from deletion and tampering. Every agreement, every process, every task would have a digital record and signature that could be identified secured, validated and shared. We would be able to innovate with efficiency, and lay down an algorithmic regulatory framework that enforces compliance based on actual results over forecasts. However, Smart contracts are not here to replace the legal system, but they are the next evolutionary step in the current landscape. While a computer code can enforce rules, they also come with a series of limitations as it is difficult to convert the level of ambiguity of legal rules into a formalised language that can be interpreted by a machine. They are best suited to for contingencies that are binary in nature.

Digitising Assets: As previously mentioned, the addition of turing-complete smart contracts allows you to turn digital assets that are recorded on the blockchain into ‘smart property’ whose digitised ownership can be controlled through automated contracts. Through this process, individuals are able to secure digital property (such as their identity and their data) and control who uses, distributes and views it. You thereby gain Ownership of your digital fingerprint.

Case Studies

Managing Medical Records

One of the most clear use cases for blockchain is the management of medical records. Today patients don’t have control over their personal information - it is often fragmented and requires physicians to organize data themselves as well as well as seek permission from various portals to gain access. However, blockchain allows for a decentralised shared system of information for doctors to access, as well as for patients to gain control over who accesses this information. Ex. DotChain and MedicalChain.

Selling your Data

We are certainly in an era where data is the new oil. Several cryptocurrency coin’s are now enabling you to control, sell and securitise your data. For example, Basic Attention Token (BAT) coin is a digital advertising coin that pays users for their attention for ads (as well as paying publishers - and the brave browser). Datum also provides a secure means for users to store their data and incentivises sharing through DAT coin.