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AUTHORS Dr. M. Oskar van Deventer, Dr. Christopher Brewster, Dr. Maarten Everts TNO, June 2017 GOVERNANCE AND BUSINESS MODELS OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES AND NETWORKS GOVERNANCE AND BUSINESS MODELS OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES AND NETWORKS MANAGEMENT 1. TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY Management Summary 2 Quorum 12 – General 12 BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY HAS ACQUIRED GREAT VISIBILITY IN THE LAST 2-3 YEARS, Table of contents 3 – Technology governance 12 LARGELY DUE TO THE PROMISE OF SIGNIFICANT EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS (“CUTTING Introduction 4 – Network governance 12 OUT THE MIDDLEMAN”) IN MANY BUSINESS SECTORS, INCLUDING FINANCE, INDUSTRY, Blockchain business ecosystems 5 – Network business model 12 LOGISTICS, ENERGY, HEALTH AND GOVERNMENT. WORLDWIDE, AS WELL AS IN THE Bitcoin 5 Tezos 12 NETHERLANDS, SECTORS ARE IDENTIFYING AND DESCRIBING USE CASES, PROOFS-OF- – General 5 – General 12 CONCEPT AND PILOTS TO STUDY THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES. – Technology and network governance 5 – Technology and network governance 12 THESE ARE POTENTIAL FOUNDATIONS FOR FUTURE BUSINESS ECOSYSTEMS BUILT – Network business model 5 – Network business model 12 AROUND BLOCKCHAIN APPLICATIONS AND BLOCKCHAIN INFRASTRUCTURES. Ethereum 6 MultiChain 13 – General 6 – General 13 When organisations or consortia are planning to deploy some of their applications or – Technology and network governance 6 – Technology governance 13 services on a blockchain, they are typically faced with a make-or-buy decision. – Network business model 6 – Network governance 13 – Make: develop and deploy a new blockchain network. – Network business model 13 – Buy: join an existing blockchain network that is run by others. Ripple 7 Business models and governance are important factors in this decision. An organisation – General 7 Summary tables 14 should only join an existing blockchain network if its governance and business models are – Technology and blockchain governance 7 Conclusions 15 acceptable. And they would only develop and deploy their own blockchain network if proper – Blockchain business model 7 governance and business models are in place. Hyperledger 8 This report provides an analysis of existing blockchain technologies (so called “fabrics”) – General 8 from the perspective of governance and business models. The purpose of the report is to – Technology governance 8 provide knowledge and inspiration for organisations and consortia faced with the above- – Network governance 8 mentioned make-or-buy decision. The intended audience of this report are corporate and – Blockchain business model 9 government organisations that consider offering or coordinating some of their services via blockchain. This report assumes a basic knowledge of blockchain technologies, including BigchainDB 10 terminology like transaction, block, ledger, blockchain, smart contract and consensus. – General 10 – Technology governance 10 – Network governance 10 – Blockchain business model 10 Corda 11 – General 11 – Technology governance 11 – Network governance 11 Disclaimer: This work is based on a desk study by TNO in fall and winter 2016. Blockchain is a fast-moving set of technologies, so the reader is recommended to check the source references for the technology details. 2 3 GOVERNANCE AND BUSINESS MODELS OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES AND NETWORKS GOVERNANCE AND BUSINESS MODELS OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES AND NETWORKS 2. INTRODUCTION 3. BLOCKCHAIN BUSINESS Blockchain technology has acquired great visibility in the Business models and governance are important factors in ECOSYSTEMS last 2-3 years, largely by promising significant efficiency this make-or-buy decision. The economic incentives improvements (“cutting out the middleman”) in many between the different roles within the blockchain network business sectors, including finance, industry, logistics, need to be aligned, which requires proper business THIS CHAPTER STUDIES A NUMBER OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES AND ASSOCIATED BLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS THAT energy, health and government. Numerous reports have models. Maintenance of and changes to the blockchain HAVE OBTAINED SIGNIFICANT PUBLIC VISIBILITY AND FOLLOWING. WE EXPLORE AND DISCUSS THEIR GENERAL GOAL AND been written by the major consulting companies about this network layer must be carefully coordinated, which requires APPROACH, THE GOVERNANCE OF THE BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY (SOURCE-CODE) DEVELOPMENT, THE GOVERNANCE OF technology1,2 and there has been an explosion of venture proper governance. One would only join an existing THE ASSOCIATED BLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS, AS WELL AS THEIR UNDERLYING BUSINESS MODELS. capital investment. Currently over 1200 start-ups can be blockchain network if its governance processes and identified in this space apart from over 200 major business models are sufficiently trustworthy and realistic. corporations undertaking everything from proof-of- And one would only develop and deploy an own blockchain 3.1. BITCOIN rules become more restrictive, which means that upgraded concepts to patent applications3,4. Worldwide, as well as in network if proper governance and business models can be nodes do not validate all blocks that non-upgraded nodes the Netherlands, sectors are identifying use cases, proofs- developed. GENERAL would. An upgrade of this type is called “soft fork”. As long of-concept and pilots to study the potential impact of Bitcoin is the well-known archetypal blockchain system, as the upgraded nodes are in the majority the blockchain blockchain technologies. These are potential seeds for This report provides an analysis of existing blockchain invented and started by the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto7. converges. The other flavour is where validation rules future business ecosystems around blockchain initiatives from the perspective of governance and Bitcoin is the combination of a technology, a network and become wider, which means that there are non-upgraded applications and blockchain infrastructures. business models. The purpose of the report is to provide an application for the creation and trading of the bitcoin nodes do not validate some blocks that would be validated knowledge and inspiration for organisations and consortia cryptocurrency. by upgraded nodes. An upgrade of this type is called a On a technical level, a blockchain can be seen as a network that are faced with the above-mentioned make-or-buy The system will not be described here in further detail. “hard fork”. Hard forks (i.e. non-backward-compatible of computer nodes (owned by parties that do not decision. patches) are persistent until all nodes are upgraded, and necessarily trust one another), each of which The following functional roles can be (at least) can cause a lot of confusion in e.g. wallet software. – keeps a copy of a so-called ‘ledger’ (block-chain), which is The report assumes a basic knowledge of blockchain distinguished in bitcoin. So far, there have only been soft-fork upgrades to bitcoin, basically a database; technology, including terminology like transaction, block, – Users: the people that send and receive bitcoin but hard forks are being anticipated in the future12. – may enable external parties to query and/or append data ledger, blockchain, smart contract and consensus. payments, e.g. buyers, sellers and marketplaces (transaction records) to the ledger; Recommended reading on this topic5,6. – Full nodes: nodes that validate transactions, and only NETWORK BUSINESS MODEL – may allow code to be executed on the node, that queries relay valid transactions to other full nodes The business model for bitcoin miners and mining pools is and/or appends data to the ledger; and The report is structured as follows. Section 3 provides brief – Miners: nodes that confirm transactions via proof-of-work straightforward. They provide a validation and confirmation – collaborates/communicates with the other nodes to descriptions of a selection of blockchain technologies and – Mining pools: groups of miners that work together to even service to bitcoin users, and they get rewarded in newly- ensure that the contents of their ledger corresponds with networks, and the governance and business models are – Exchanges: places where people can buy or sell bitcoin minted bitcoins and transaction fees. The balance shifts the contents of the ledgers of all other nodes. analysed for each technology and network. Section 4 for other currency gradually away from newly-minted bitcoins towards more Thus, the nodes must collaborate with one another and provides a summary table of the essential aspects of – Wallet software providers: developers that provide the transactions fees, according to the rules originally set by continuously agree on changes to be made and distributed governance and business models for the different software through which users can access and control Satoshi Nakamoto. The business model is less clear for the across the nodes. blockchain technologies and networks. Section 5 provides their bitcoin funds bitcoin core project that maintains the core software. the main conclusions. – Wallet service providers: service providers that keep There has been a Bitcoin Foundation that went bankrupt, When organisations or consortia are planning to deploy bitcoin balances on behalf of their users and there is MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative, some of their applications or services on a blockchain, which funnels “unrestricted gifts” from sponsors13. they are faced with a make-or-buy decision. TECHNOLOGY AND NETWORK GOVERNANCE – Make: develop and deploy a new blockchain network, The governance