Richard R. Brooks – Clemson University

Blockchain:  The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The blockchain data structure achieved notoriety with Satoshi’s Bitcoin proposal. This data structure integrated many existing technologies to create immutable distributed ledgers. This talk consists of three parts: (1) the reliability and security attributes  provided by  distributed ledgers, (2) the attributes not provided by distributed ledgers but often often mistakenly assumed and hyped, and (3) some of  the negative publicity that has been associated with blockchain by respected researchers. The talk ends with a discussion of the existing technology along with the desirable extensions we are likely to see in the near future. This will include trying to estimate exactly where blockchain technologies are at the moment in Gartner’s hype cycle.