CCDI organises webinar to discuss blockchain technology and its application

Dr Lee (top row, most left) during the sharing session

Blockchain is an emerging application based on distributed computing and cryptography. Bitcoin is one of the most well-known applications of blockchain technology which revolutionised the development of crypto-currency. Blockchain 2.0 has impacted various industries including finance (FinTech), manufacturing, insurance and renewable energy (SolarCoin).

Thus, to enlighten the academics of UTAR and the members of the public on blockchain technology as well as its development and applications, the Centre for Curriculum Development and Innovation (CCDI) organised a webinar titled “Introduction to Blockchain Technology and Overview of its Applications” on 30 October 2020 via Microsoft Teams.

The speaker for the sharing session was Gachon University, South Korea researcher Dr Lee Wai Kong. He has vast experience in R&D as a reviewer for various international journals such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (2016 & 2017), IEEE Sensors, IEEE Internet of Things Journal (2018-2020) and IEEE Transactions on Industrials Informatics (2018-2020).

During the session, Dr Lee presented the introduction of blockchain, motivations for blockchain, introduction to secret and public key cryptography, the historical development of blockchains from blockchain 1.0: the infamous bitcoin, blockchain 2.0: smart contracts and blockchain 3.0: interconnected blockchain, case study, Internet of Things (IoT), energy harvesting and future prospects for blockchain. The webinar was moderated by Head of Computer Science Department Ts Dr Ooi Boon Yaik.

Dr Lee explaining how blockchain technology solves the motivations

Dr Lee first explained the reason why blockchain technology appeared, “In the beginning, bitcoin and blockchain technology were used interchangeably. So when people say blockchain technology, it is usually referring to Bitcoin and vice versa. Another reason is because people are finding ways to replace the current currency system. There are four motivations of blockchain technology; it involves high transaction fees by trusted third party, double spending, net frauds and account hacking, and financial crisis and crashes.”

Dr Lee then introduced the audience to secret and public key cryptography, “There are two types of keys which are Secret Key Cryptography and Public Key Cryptography. Secret Key Cryptography involved communicating parties that share the same private key. The person can encrypt and decrypt digital data by the same given message and the same key. Public Key Cryptography involved communicating parties that use different keys. In Public Key Cryptography, many people can potentially obtain the encrypted data, but only the person with the secret key can decrypt the message.”

Dr Lee presenting the difference between Secret Key Cryptography and Public Key Cryptography

Dr Lee showing the example of public key cryptography

Advantages and disadvantages of Bitcoin

Dr Lee later spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of Bitcoin, “Bitcoin is cryptographically secured as authentication is needed to publicly verify the transactions. Everyone that has access to the network can verify the transaction. The system is very secure, if anyone wishes to break into the system, you need more than 51% of malicious nodes to break it.”

“On the other hand, Bitcoin also has its limitations. The finance transaction is rather slow in this high-speed transaction world; it takes tens of minutes to complete a transaction. There is also a huge amount of memory involved to store the public ledger. And the most debatable problem is the difficulty to trace the real user’s identity; this will encourage more illegal activities like money laundering and ransomware,” he added.

Dr Lee introducing the concept of public and private blockchain

Dr Lee then moved on to explain the idea of smart contracts, “The advancement of technology from blockchain 1.0 to 2.0 made people come up with another idea about cryptocurrency. They are thinking of ways to use technology to do other things, for example, exchanging data instead of money. Hence, the idea of smart contracts was introduced. Smart contracts involved data transaction; it is a digital data that can be either partially or fully executed without human interaction. It can be used to execute some agreed job automatically.”

 

Blockchain 2.0 Smart Contracts allow more applications and can trade more things compared to Blockchain 1.0

He then further explained the current blockchain, “The current blockchain is now interconnected and is called Blockchain 3.0. Blockchain 3.0 is like the Internet; it links a group of different blockchain networks through the smart contract. In blockchain 3.0, the different types of blockchain can communicate and exchange data.”

Dr Lee also discussed two case studies, namely, “Enabling Localised Peer-to-Peer Electricity Trading Among Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles Using Consortium Blockchains” and “MeDShare: Trust-Less Medical Data Sharing among Cloud Service Providers via Blockchain” with the participants.

 

Blockchain in our future life – the smart home system

Dr Lee concluded his sharing session by giving advice to the participants, “Blockchain is an emerging and relatively new technology, but it is not meant for every application. Although blockchain is very innovative and creative, the maintenance cost for blockchain could be high especially for the public blockchain. Ask yourself, do you really need it? I will advise you to think carefully before having it.”

The sharing saw an active interaction between the speaker and the participants. The insightful talk ended with an equally interesting Q&A session.  



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