Blockchain technology and internet governance – Edu 3 2017

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6 June 2017 | 17:00 - 18:30 | Room Tartu, Swissotel, Tallinn, Estonia | video record
Programme overview wiki | Programme overview EuroDIG web site

Session teaser

Come and learn what blockchain technology is and what it could mean to the future of the Internet and its governance! This educational session is meant to give a fun, interactive and informative introduction to blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Some of the exciting yet largely misunderstood aspects of blockchain technology is smart contracts and decentralised apps (DApps). This interactive learning experience will get you enlightened and have you start thinking of how this rapidly growing technology may impact day-to-day online activities from social media networking to e-health and from online payments to e-banking.

Keywords

BlockchainEurodig17, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Smart Contracts, Cryptocurrencies

Session description

This will be a general educational session to introduce the basics of blockchain technology, its evolution, current and potential uses as well as challenges. The aim is to equip attendees with enough knowledge about the subject matter to investigate and explore further in their own pace. The link between internet governance will then be concluded by giving examples of scenarios where Internet services are impacted by blockchain technology whether in terms of online services provided or the very way data is stored or verified online. Additionally, the session will open the door for discussion and critical assessment of the notion that blockchain technology is the next natural evolution of the Internet. The moderator will not have a normative view and will encourage participants to provide their own thoughts and positions on this suggestion. The spirit of the session will be educational in the sense that people will get to learn how the blockchain technology is being advocated for and suggested by some to be a new stage in Internet evolution and requires embrace by the internet governance community as well as present arguments against this assumption.

Format

The session will be mostly interactive with the first part laying out the foundations of discussion and the second part would be an interactive and engaging role playing session where participants would take turn in groups to act as nodes in the blockchain network. Instead of a pure presentation style, the segment would include props and role playing so that to illustrate in a fun and engaging way what blockchain is and how it could contribute to the Internet's future. Throughout the interactive segments, there will be an opportunity to ask questions and engage in discussions openly and freely.

Further reading

People

Focal Point:

Subject Matter Expert (SME):

Moderator:

Remote Moderator:

Organising Team (Org Team):

Reporter:

Video record

https://livestream.com/accounts/12493954/events/7461538/videos/157655427

Messages

  1. Despite the growing momentum and popularity of blockchain technology, there is need to clear some misunderstanding as some equate blockchains with Bitcoin. Bitcoin is just one application of blockchains and there are other innovative applications such as “Open Bazaar” an e–commerce site, “FlightDelay” a disrupt air travel insurance service, and “Ripple”, a global money transfer system.
  2. The engaging interactive game used in the session helped participants understand the basics of blockchains by simulating blockchain operations (transaction, mining, block hashing, transaction fees and rewards).
  3. Blockchains operate on top of the Internet as decentralized and distributed systems that can bring new innovative startups to live. Permissionless blockchains are self-governed using the simple 51% majority. There were concerns that governments may impose restrictions on these technologies, which could have drawbacks and discourage innovation in this area.
  4. There is a heated debate on the direction to take when it comes to blockchain regulation. Since blockchain applications use transparent algorithms, they become self-regulatory and limit the need to trust intermediaries. However, finding regulatory frameworks for blockchains will take time and depends on the applications more than the technologies.
  5. It is recommended to develop blockchain standards for various applications since that will promote many positive use cases that could have a positive impact on society. However, blockchains so far do not have interoperability and while each blockchain does not require intermediaries to function, collectively, they lack standard methods to communicate with each other.
  6. Due to the complexity of the blockchains, a proposal was to build something like a DNS root server to sustain them. Another environmental concern was expressed by highlighting the need to limit that the enormous electricity consumption caused by the proof-of-work mining algorithms.

Transcript

Will be provided here after the event.