What is blockchain and how can it change our society? | Ali Raza Dar | TEDxFHNW

hey Siri what's on the calendar for today here's your appointment all day today TEDx how many of you have ever casted a boat good so if you are casting a boat how do you make sure that the person or the purpose you voted for gets the boat do you have any proof of that ever you hear the same story from the u.s. to India to world's largest democracies people always have insecurities after casting a vote then there is reelection or even recounting but isn't it funny like after that reelection and recounting most of them don't feel insecure I would say it's just a waste of time and money again because that re-election and recounting is happening under the same governance why would you believe second time the same system if you already had allegations against it at first place this is one of the perfect example where blockchain technology could be the solution but what is blockchain technology the incredibly popular but at the same time boring topic again right yeah I can see some faces in audience saying that's me well it was same for me until I actually come to know what exactly this weird technology is like why weird if you see the popularity of this topic and you go on google and search blockchain you'll get almost two hundred and forty four million results and by summing up those results it's a technology which is trustworthy you don't need any central authority and it's transparent sounds pretty good right but then comes the statements like it's an incorruptible immutable and distributed system what does that mean well I have also heard people saying blockchain is Bitcoin the only application of blockchain is cryptocurrencies and blockchain can only be used in financial sector which is not true it's like saying Switzerland is the whole world and whole world is Switzerland which just does not make sense I mean until we go to war with every country and take control of them then we can say that but I don't think our government is planning to do that at least not in near future but I don't blame people who have this concept because that's what they have been presented with so many myths interpretations of a technology which can actually solve a lot of problems we have in this society well to keep it simple it's just an online distributed system which can store information that's all you need to know for now my goal with this talk is that when all of you go out of this room you will know the basics of blockchain and how it can change and it can make this world a better place to live for everyone this technology was first described in 1991 by a group of researchers but it was never been so important until 2009 when a crypto currency called Bitcoin used it as a first blockchain based cryptocurrency wait what was our previous knowledge about blockchain it's an online distributed system which can store information now we're gonna add some detail again same it's an online distributed system which can store information and it's based on interconnected blocks which are open to everyone like it's clear from its name blockchain is the chain of connected blocks which can store information there are three things on every block first data which is the information we store on block and that depends upon the type of blockchain for example crypto currencies they store information about the sender the receiver and transaction the second thing every block contains is the hash of that block and that hash is the fingerprint of block it's always unique and we use that hash to identify that block third and the last thing every block contains is the hash of previous block which connects the current block with remaining blockchain and that's the property which makes this technology so scure there's also another property which makes this technology more secure is it's peer-to-peer nature of work like instead of having a central authority which normal banks have a central authority which contains all the information about every other block and they manage blocks blockchain allows everybody to join and whoever joins gets the information about every other block and by using that mechanism we can actually identify and prove that everything in the blockchain is in order and nothing got cheated as most of you are about to get lost let's take a real-life example which will clarify these finds there are three friends Anna common and Colo anna has hundred dollars carmen has sixty dollars and cola has forty dollars Anna and Carmen they are already in blockchain so they both know about each other Carmen knows Anna has 100 dollars and Anna knows Carmen has $60 if Cola wants to join the blockchain he has to provide the proof that he owns $40 and on the basis of that proof Anna and Carmen can accept or reject him to the blockchain if Kolo have accepted into the blockchain so now he will get a copy of information about Anna and Carmen as well so all three of them now knows about everybody how much a single person owns let's say there is somebody who wants to cheat the system for example Carmen she wants to send $200 to Kolo but this transaction cannot happen because Kolo and Ana they already know carmen only have $60 so she cannot do transaction which is more than $60 so that's how whatever I said before was summarized but why do we need this technology there are several reasons behind every technological change first why do we have to pay a third party huge amount of extra fee just to do a transaction between two already agreed parties if we can do that transaction more efficiently and in a secure manner just by depending on technology and the transactions which normally take days to process we can do that in almost real-time by using this technology and without even paying that huge amount of extra fees or for example if I'm buying a medicine how I am sure that it is coming from the same manufacturer which is written on the box or the date which is written on the box is correct by just looking at stamp or the label I can see on the box in the end I must trust the seller it doesn't end here how many of you have ever bought something online good for example eBay we don't know the seller the only thing we can see is ratings reviews or sometimes feedback and we are also not sure that that's the original one or it's just faked and I am supposed to send the money even before receiving the product what if I will never receive the product will I get my money back well there are many other needs but I would like to highlight the one which I always feel insecure about my taxes how I am sure that the money I am giving to government they are actually using that thing on me or they even be using it or am I supposed to pay that much money in real or not we need this technology because it can save time it can save money it can reduce risk it can increase trust and we don't need any central authority for that what can be future of this world if we use this technology in several of these cases like starting from splice chain management in which we manage the whole process of a product or service from its manufacturing to the delivery so during this process a product goes from multiple channels and every channel is owned by different company or at least different Department and if we need information about the product sometimes they need some more time to give us information and in the end we will get the information but we delay or sometimes we don't even get it and also if we implement blockchain or if we put this supply chain management process into blockchain we can see where exactly our product is how long it will take to reach us and the thing is we are sure because of the blockchain the information we are getting it's not changed or it's not cheated with or take example of real estate business it can make our lives easy in that we buy and sell property normally we go through several processes several verifications like government offices landlords or authentication of ownership and we are also not sure that the information we are getting is actually original or it's just changed if we use blockchain in this scenario we will be sure that the information we are getting is authentic secondly we can see who were the previous owners how long they stayed when the last renovation was and who is currently owning the property and on top of that without any paperwork or let's put yourself into a situation where you need a specific blood group you have to call hospitals blood banks or some foundations why don't we put this information into a public ledger where everybody can see that from where they can get that specific blood group without even contacting any third party now the use of blockchain I am most passionate about helping people in under developing countries and eliminating poverty think of a person who is living in South Sudan Somalia or Kenya regardless of the fact that he is having great intelligence and a wonderful idea if he wants to start his own business probably he has to pay some bribes or he has to convince some officials or in a perfect scenario he doesn't have to pay any bribe or he doesn't have to convince any officials what if he wants to take a loan first of all he will never get a loan even though he will get it he has to pay huge amount of interest on that and few of the reasons behind these problems first either the government is poor because of corruption all the bank doesn't have security from the person because they cannot see any previous record of that person or they cannot see any authentic documents of that person if we use blockchain in this scenario first that person don't need any third party to rely on he can start his own business without even including any second person then every public document related to that person will be available worldwide and because of blockchain the banks will be sure that these documents are not cheated with or they are not changed so these are original also the government will have a public check because of the transparency factor of clock chain just ask this question to yourself why doesn't every human being on this planet have equal opportunities why do some people have to struggle more for their goals just because they were born in a poor country or in a country where the government is corrupt I'm not saying blockchain is a solution to every problem but the future of this world can be great if we let this technology grow in these areas and we do need huge amount of research for that I will end my talk with a statement that is based on my research and knowledge which is I believe blockchain technology has potential to change the way this world has been working for centuries and make it a better place to live for everyone thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 182,735

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Technology, Bitcoin, Data, Data Science, Digital

Id: kvyKyRZJYh0

Length: 15min 3sec (903 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 29 2019