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The Evolution of Blockchain Development

Introduction

Blockchain is a distributed peer-to-peer network without any central control points. It uses distributed unified operation to achieve a set of tamper-resistant and trusted database technical solutions. It also features decentralized storage, highly transparent information with superior security against data tampering among its other attributes. To put it casually, Blockchain is a "large open ledger" that records all the transaction information across the network using computer programs.

Blockchain V1.0, we noticed that Blockchain mainly applies Bitcoin and large financial ledger.
Blockchain 2.0 on the other hand enriches the application more extensively. The evolution of Blockchain from 1.0 to Blockchain 2.0 is not as simple one would anticipate it to be. The complexities and challenges of this transformation has been briefly described in the 3-tier phases that it goes through:

I. Registration Phase: We must firstly address the problems related to the registration. Blockchain is trustable and traceable. It adopts the "proof of work algorithm" and some commonly recognized rules to ensure that only legal blocks can be added. Once a block is linked to Blockchain after thorough verification, it will be stored permanently. The native ledger chain databases on the internet can never be destroyed, and the recorded information field is matched to the generation time. All information in the trustable ledger chain is unique and tamper-resistant. As a result, Blockchain can be used to record various information.

II. Verification Phase: The second area of improvement is accurate verification. Being open-source and shareable, Blockchain allows various organizations and individuals into the operation of the entire system. Every node participating in the maintenance receives a full copy of the entire database so that the information ownership can be confirmed. Blockchain is an ideal solution for storing permanent records such as, authenticity verification, land ownership, equity transaction and other applications.

III. Management Phase: This leads Blockchain into the third face. Here, it is imperative to focus on smart management. Fans of Blockchain believe that Blockchain's core contribution is to solve any credibility issue during multi-point information interaction. This issue or challenge has been coined as "The Byzantine Generals' Problem". As the name suggests, this problem originated in the Roman and Byzantine empires. Given the vast territory of the empire, generals of the empire army were separated geographically making it difficult for them to interact. Also, there were traitors in the army who would mislead the generals' decisions, preventing them from winning battles. This made it difficult to achieve consensus resolution due to the lack of accurate information.
In our case of Blockchain, given the geographical disassociation of the sources, we would need to ascertain their reliability to ensure accuracy.

Blockchain Alliance - A Year in Progress

We mentioned previously that Blockchain needs legal support to achieve faster development. A positive development in this area was initiated on August 16; the world's first electronic certificate Blockchain alliance - large-scale commercial electronic certificate Blockchain alliance "Legal Chain" was founded.

"Legal Chain" is an evidence recording and storing system, built and run jointly by Onchain, Microsoft (China) and fadada.com among other organizations. It is an open Blockchain alliance that facilitates the participation of multiple parties. The participating organizations in "Legal Chain" perform their respective duties to create an open ecosystem. In the alliance, Onchain provides the underlying Blockchain technology which achieves "in-depth integration" with the e-contract provided by fadada.com. The signing time, signing parties and the digital and fingerprint information such as file hash values of each e-contract is broadcasted on various storage nodes accessed by all members of the "Legal Chain". The file hash value information is synchronized and stored in national authoritative judicial expertise center of electronic data. This process addresses concerns of several netizens regarding the crisis of confidence during transactions. The restriction imposed by "Legal Chain" limits fabricated information to some extent.

Blockchain technology can fully meet the requirements for e-evidences for judicial needs. This was further validated by the newly-revised Law of Civil Procedure officially implemented from January 1, 2013. The law clearly stipulates the admissibility of electronic data as evidence. However, in actual implementation, it is noticed that electronic evidence usually has low credibility due to its vulnerability to changes posing difficulty in completely recording correct information. Using Blockchain technology, to establish and operate the e-evidence recording and storing system means, that once the e-evidence is stored, it cannot be tampered with by any party. In addition, the e-evidence will be available at every participant's end, aiding in the removal of obstacles, making it an effective judicial evidence.

Blockchain- the Way Forward

Blockchain 3.0 still focuses on the application and norms in its derivative fields. It includes a decentralized domain name system - Namecoin. A brief description of Namecoin and its features along with its challenges and applications have been described below:

Figure 1.

● What is Namecoin?
Namecoin provides functions similar to those provided by traditional DNS providers. The difference is that Namecoin is based on decentralized Blockchain technology and can block internet censorship to ensure free distribution of information.

● Features of Namecoin
Namecoin's unique feature lies in the inability of no authority or agency to make changes to it. This example should help you simplify things - Before proceeding to the Namecoin features, we should firstly consider that the DNS providers of .com/.cn domains are controlled by the US and China respectively; therefore, the ultimate power lies with the government to censor the website content or even close the website. Namecoin corresponds to .bit domain name which provides services similar to .com. However, .bit domain is permanently written into Blockchain which leaves it beyond anybody's control, ensuring free release of information on the website. For example, in extremity, the US government can even shut down google.com which has a worldwide influence, but it cannot shut down google.bit.

● Operating Principle of Namecoin
Namecoin shares DNS query table through point-to-point network. The domain name can be accessed as long as someone is running the Namecoin server application and is not subject to anyone's control.

● Main Pitfalls of Namecoin
Browsers do not support parsing the .bit URL by default. Therefore, you would need to install a plug-in. This problem will prevent a majority of users from visiting the .bit websites. As a result, .bit websites would be hard to popularize.
In addition, websites in China have to be filed for record. Since .bit websites cannot be recorded in China, they are not permitted to be hosted by server rooms located out of here which make them unusable in the country.
The anonymity, low cost, and unavailability of censorship features of Namecoin also facilitate certain illegal elements in some cases. Unfortunately, this results in .bit being only a small DNS.

● Application Fields of Namecoin
In countries with strict control over the freedom of speech, the .bit domain name can be used to bypass the supervision and censorship to disseminate information freely and legally.
Apps based on the decentralized domain name idea Namecoin, are one of the first batch of apps that apply Blockchain technology into the non-currency field. These apps boast of a high research value. However, several restrictions deter them from getting popular for now, although its ideology can be applied to various fields.

Blockchain Open-source in Action - Examples

To fully understand the entire context of Blockchain discussed so far, it may be easier to look at a few examples.

1. Bletchley - An Open-Source Blockchain Platform Project of Microsoft:

Microsoft was aiming to integrate Blockchain into its enterprise-level projects. As a result, Microsoft launched the Bletchley project which fully embodies the open vision of Microsoft. The Bletchley modularized Blockchain aims to infuse new vigor to Azure.
This project mainly focuses on the following objectives:
● To establish a new open platform
● To integrate the identity management, key management, privacy management, security management, operation management, and collaboration management
● To provide a highly available and stable platform

Schematic Diagram:

Figure 2.

2. Hyperledger Fabric:
Hyperledger Fabric is an open-source Blockchain implementation and its development environment is built on the VirtualBox VM. You can also build a network of your own as its deployment environment, or even deploy it directly on BlueMix. The deployment method can be Docker-oriented with plug-ins used for the consensus building algorithm. It supports Go and JavaScript languages to develop smart contracts and has enterprise-level security mechanism and membership mechanism as its top features. For an easy reference, you can remember that what Fabric is to Blockchain is probably similar to what Hadoop is to big data.

Here is a quick list of HyperLedger-based projects:
Smart contract series
● Ethereum
● Rootstock
● Eris
● List
Extensions of Bitcoin
● Blockstream
● ColoredCoins
● CounterParty
● Liginting.Network
Consensus
● Bitcoin
● PPCoin
● Bitshares
Private Chain
● Multichain
Domestic Projects
● Viewfin -Metaverse
● Bubi alliance chain
● Antshares
● BitSE-vechain

3. Openchain - Distributed Ledger Blockchain Tool:
Openchain is an open-source distributed ledger Blockchain tool developed by Blockchain technology company, Coinprism. It mainly provides services to large enterprises and financial organizations. Compared to the traditional Blockchain tools, Openchain has proven to significantly increase computing speed, bring down costs, and lower the chances of transaction-party risks while handling data for large enterprises and financial organizations.

Figure 3.

4. BitShares - Decentralized Asset Exchange:
BitShares aims to build a set of decentralized multi-state digital asset transaction system that helps trace the value of gold, silver, US dollars or other currencies. This is done to secure the bonus of the beneficiaries by eliminating all counter-party risks. BitShares takes the idea of Bitcoin technology further by providing many traditional currency functions in a brand new point-to-point multi-function network, as well as check accounts, saving accounts and share broking tools that can be used by Bitcoin and other common financial assets.

Apart from the aforementioned solutions, some other open-source projects of Blockchain alliance include:

1. IBM-Blockchain-Marbles: A recommended solution of IBM bound to its Bluemix cloud platform.
Implementation language: JS on Node.js

2. Openchain: An open-source open chain by Coinprism
Implementation language: C#

3. HydraChain: Ethereum-based private chain technology, HydraChain is an extension of the Ethereum platform. It adds support for creating Permissioned Distributed Ledgers. The primary domain of application is private chain or consortium chain setups.

4. myBlockchain: A quasi-SQL Blockchain, an interesting venture currently in vogue.
Implementation language: C++
Forked by: MySQL-server

Conclusion

The evolution of Blockchain itself is as complex as its nature and utility. Yet, the future looks more secure and transparent with Blockchain being utilized more and more. Will it give it the boost to surge our digital innovations and habits? For that, we might have to wait a bit longer to find out.

最后更新：2017-04-18 10:00:33

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