Submitted via IRC for ErnestTBass
When railroad tracks were first laid across the western U.S., there were eight different gauges all competing to dominate the industry – making a nationwide, unified rail system impossible; it took an act of Congress in 1863 to force the adoption of an industry standard gauge of 4-ft., 8-1⁄2 inches.
FedEx CIO Rob Carter believes the same kind of thing needs to happen for blockchain to achieve widespread enterprise adoption.
While the promise of blockchain to create a more efficient, secure and open platform for ecommerce can be realized using a proprietary platform, it won't be a global solution for whole industries now hampered by a myriad of technical and regulatory hurdles. Instead, a platform based on open-source software and industry standards will be needed to ensure process transparency and no one entity profits from the technology over others.
"I think we're in the state where we're duking it out for the dominant design," Carter said during a CIO panel discussion at the Blockchain Global Revolution Conference here. "We're not an organization that pushes for more regulatory control, but there are times regulatory mandates and pushes can be incredibly helpful."
(Score: 2) by dwilson on Tuesday April 30 2019, @09:40PM (1 child)
Well explained, but one nitpick:
If I'm taking the time to verify it? It's something I worry about. If I didn't worry, I wouldn't bother to verify.
You did. I learned more than I knew previously. Thank you.
- D
(Score: 1) by sshelton76 on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:02PM
True but my point was validty of the data vs custody of the data.
When you log into your bank or paypal, you see your transaction history and you hope and pray they got it correct. You trust them though because they are your bank. If you were getting your transaction history from a third party you would have reason to be suspect.
In blockchain systems, the custody of data is irrelevant. You can literally ask all your neighbors for your transaction history and you needn't worry about them making something up because you can in fact verify it.
This ability to verify the data without needing to trust the source is what makes blockchain such as powerful tool.