It's not easy to come up with a solution architecture for Blockchain. I'm not talking about the tech architecture, but a business architecture.
It starts with a need to understand today's societal challenges in relationships. Then deeper study into how decisions come up within parties involved.
Consensus Theory
We start with a deep study into Consensus Theory. Clearly a Sociology 101, it reflects upon how societies make decisions. Beyond that, it highlights pros and cons in comparison to its brother Conflict Theory.
Consensus Theory is an age-old theory of how societies come together to make decisions. Whilst decisions are meant to be beneficial to overall well-being, the two theories point at different reasonings for how decisions are made. Consensus Theory says that power is at the top for stability. Conflict theory says that power is at the top because for dominance and power.
The below diagram point to how the two theories are reflected in education.
Today, some of these decisions may not be the best based on several factors. Many of which we earlier attributed to game-theory. Above and beyond these, theare are two theories in adverse selection and moral hazard.
In Jagdish Pandya's presentation on day 1 of the event, he highlights how the creation of blocks, distributed across nodes.
After being broadcast across the network, each block is added on top of each other. In this "string" of records, made even deeper through hashing pointers, it creates a new type of "proof". This proof ensures that the quality of content shared within the networks is superior.
The goal is to post "good" content onto the decentralized network and create protocols to reward safer and stronger transactions. These could help solve some problems in age-old adverse selection and moral hazards above. Plus, a superior decentralized network with a meaningful consensus protocol could also solve problems in consensus theory. These are further enforced with cool features put together for Blockchain.
All these mean to show something real. Combining all the terms and theories above shows that Blockchain can solve Distributed Consensus. This by itself deemed impossible by some theorists. If this can be done, then possibly whole new societal models can be now redefined.
Technology Maturity
But Blockchain itself is new. A walk in Samsung's Innovation Museum shows it all.
Several technologies took a massively long time to get to where it is. And yet - they may not be it's end state. Whilst Michael Faraday's invention of the electric motor was in 1821, the internet only came late 19th century.
If Blockchain is the equivalent of electricity, would it take 100 years to reach maturity? Let's hope progress is now faster as resources becomes decentralized. More and more projects come up with cool new interesting solutions.
BIFROST aims to solve problems for DAPPs no one else can
Linfinity aims to help solve counterfeit issues
A wide expansion of use cases for Samsung SDS's Nexledger in 2018/2019
Evaluating Projects
Common questions arise about the quality of a project include:
What is the value of the Blockchain / Token? It is often the size and strength of the eco-system itself. This, however, is not easy to do. It requires a deep-thought into where the business is trying to get to. Especially with regards to a Blockchain with a utility token. A utility token that drives value through network effects.
Can you really trust the data? The quality of the data that goes into the Blockchain is important. Rubbish in rubbish out they say.
Is the project really legit? Blockchain has been the subject of bad press. And it is important to ensure that due diligence is conducted well. All projects sound like they are the best in life when they present it. And more often than not - it is due to the manner of how it is presented and the founder's charisma.
All in all, it's key to ensure that in Blockchain, we solve real problems. One of the most recent thinking methods is first principles thinking. A good link is below. https://medium.com/the-mission/elon-musks-3-step-first-principles-thinking-how-to-think-and-solve-difficult-problems-like-a-ba1e73a9f6c0
