Blockchain application and use cases

So last night at Bibo Cafe here in downtown Reno Nevada the BlockChains LLC group had a public social gathering asking the question about value + social + blockchain. the organizers and key speakers were shall I say, rather interesting.

 

my epiphany just as I started to listen was: product traceability like in ISO 9002

 

Trust me, I know about product traceability more than most -- since my starting points in both 1985 and 1993, I have been an ISO 9002 and product traceability guru ever since working as a systems administrator and technical manager in software replication at Microsoft Redmond Washington (Canyon Park); serializing every Microsoft product with the tools I wrote and those I maintained and the serial algorithms to maintain the anti-piracy goals. getting Microsoft Worldwide Operations / Manufacturing / Software Replication to ISO 9002 registration was no easy task, yet our Quality group sure did do some shall I say crazy and lazy things to make it difficult for everyone. I believe it was a learning curve mostly for them, and for a few of the others. I totally got it with my previous years of Quartermaster supply in the US Army for nearly 10 years -- ah... good times and good memories.

 

So - what's the million dollar question and answer? how does blockchain apply at all levels in that vein of thinking.

 

easy answer: look at the formula and see how it applies to existing problems and transparently apply it to those policies, frameworks, processes, methodologies, applications and utilities.

 

what does that mean? simple. for example: my background is a farm boy where we have rules and those rules just work, and then you add military supply chain management (quartermaster) decades of experience, and add hi-tech Microsoft systems and software and operations engineering to that, then data centers, inventions, standards and methods by the dozens, writing books, publishing, editing, auditing, ALL things as A TECHNOLOGIST, what I don't share anymore is the hundreds of projects completed successfully saving millions and now hundreds of millions and earning hundreds of millions...

 

so what is the gist of the epiphany? you come down to one thing:  product traceability to some if not any and all or a few levels of granularity.

 

Its an ISO thing where I often think of IEEE and ANSI, and then ICANN and so many others, but blockchain is about ensuring trust in the transaction from the word go.

 

For the regulatory compliance side SOX, GLBA, SOC 1 and 2, Safe Harbor, PII, HIPAA... blockchain can apply transparently on top of all this added that we have some meta data along the way to key the related content that is innocuous  in theory.

 

so where does that leave us. i believe blockchain is a great tool that a lot don't know where to begin and where to apply it.

 

Like I said last night, the beginning is to allow the idea to flourish. There will be lots of hype and showcasing but the cream and diamond solutions will be well thought out prototypes based on a cataclysm of critical mass occurring from those behind the scenes with lots of resources.

 

For example:

 

The supply chain want product traceability to ensure lots of things, enters RFID a decade or two ago, and then to what degree of accuracy and insurance of non-tampering at any level; theft, shrinkage, auditing, inventory control.

 

For Nevada, I believe it was gaming based desire to open up the dialogue of a state that provided a haven for innovation without taxation (for now), just like the moratorium on Internet taxes that lasted about 25 years, until this last year whereas, everything Internet is now really being taxed at the state by state level. 

 

I sensed the Nevada Gaming Commission wanted to allow the concept of bitcoin in gaming to get a chance to bud and grow a bit so they could clamp down on it at some time.

 

Yet, the social impacts are minor if you really look at what blockchain can do if not threatened by government and bureaucracy and greed and controlling bodies.

 

if what they said was true, cryptocurrency and blockchain came out of the 2007 mortgage financial crisis as a way to thwart government and banking manipulation; yet right now the banking and government is doing the same again yet with this new toy called blockchain as applied to their existing systems.

 

my forte, legacy systems migrations, systems architecture, and integration mappings between disparate systems, and that is where I see the evolution of blockchain applications and utility rise and then at some point integrate and cross communicate, much like data mapping for systems, or more like the monetary exchange systems between various currencies; the same goes with health record systems (EHR, EHS), and the debacle the Obama healthcare exchange attempted to solve and create and really did not have great leadership in charge to implement from the top down across states, agencies, systems and corporations. no real standard and policy other than penalty for failure to comply existed.

 

Whether a block chain is private or public, or some hybrid (I came up with the word hybrid as applied to technology in 1998 (when I developed mixed Internet based and local server based applications) running smoothly, securely, efficiently with safety controls and safeguards at all levels and layers of the ISO / TCPIP stack.

 

If the banks hide their work until its too late for public input (other than congressional oversight and input) by the deities that be in the same muck as before, we just migrate to another control system whereas government will always control our lives; which is fine. The goal of consumer safety is why government exists, and some degree of sovereignty of our nation as a whole.

 

So where does that leave us today? Well, lots of startups and funding has gone into alpha and beta development, prototyping and testing.

 

Vital statistics and records; let's just say Nevada, Washoe County's usage of Titan Seal for Marriage / Divorce records is going, and NV DMV (department of motor vehicles) has something going on, and hopefully they don't waste taxpayer dollars "again" by a lack of project and stakeholder control and leadership and management, and cost controls and cost overruns (see Project Genesis circa 2002 and as recently as a Technology Refresh program gone wrong in 2017/2018).

 

Take for instance, my client named QuantumMark whose role is to lead and facilitate projects for agencies and governments regarding vital records. I am sure they are hot on the trail of where blockchain can be applied or not. It might be outside their scope since it is a technology versus a process.

 

 

One needs strong and smart leadership and management of great ideas and great application of utilities like blockchain in our lives and society. I believe we will get there and the good will of men and women together will get there without the greed and Orwellian fear and plunder already associated with things that put fear into society until government says, yes, we created the storm so we could solve the problem at great cost (see Y2K plundering).

 

Like I shared at the blockchain meet up, a think tank of great minds and developers, creators, architects, and those of us who have a lifetime of psychology experience and impacts of what technology can do and not do.

 

3rd world countries can benefit to a degree, and some of the believers in a non-capitalistic greed world will evolve to be pragmatic and realistic to the notion that if you don't create it, someone else will for either good or bad, or somewhere in between.

 

Let's just get one thing straight. know your passion and cause, and along that thinking work on great projects and work with great people who make you feel great and help others, and watch out for door to door sales people who will steal your wallet and those who will embezzle and steal and lie, all in the name of greed and power.

 

have a great day, and continue to work on the cool and good stuff that people really need help with...and get rewarded fairly and graciously, a big tip is always nice and a bonus, and getting out of debt, and using your resources wisely, sparingly, and appropriately.

 

blockchain in some form or another will come into our lives somewhere between now and when we live on the Moon and Mars... I want to have that trip and enjoy the Mars duty free lounge on the Moon Station 1. and more...

 

 

more to come...