Information governance: Can Blockchain be the answer?
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The document discusses whether blockchain can help with information governance and records management. It provides an overview of blockchain including how it works with distributed ledgers, digital signatures, and programmable logic. It analyzes how blockchain addresses requirements for reliable, secure, comprehensive, and authentic records. However, challenges remain around infrastructure, scalability, legal issues, and ensuring record keeping principles are followed. Information professionals should engage with blockchain to help address these challenges and advocate for proper governance and management of records.
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Information governance: Can Blockchain be the answer?
- 1. © Metataxis 2017 Designing the information-centric environment since 2002 Slide 1 Metataxis Information Governance … can lockchain be the answer? Noeleen Schenk July 2017
- 2. © Metataxis 2017 Designing the information-centric environment since 2002 Slide 2 Blockchain predictions Source: http://raconteur.net/business/the-future-of-blockchain-in-8-charts Tipping points • World Economic Forum estimates over $1 billion in funding • Wide range of innovations/use cases • All sectors – public, private and not-for- profit • Wide range of industries from financial to FMCG, education and technology
- 3. © Metataxis 2017 Designing the information-centric environment since 2002 Slide 3 Current and potential use https://www.opendatascience.com/blog/what-is-the-blockchain-and-why-is-it-so-important/
- 4. © Metataxis 2017 Designing the information-centric environment since 2002 Slide 4 How Blockchain works https://www.pwc.com/us/en/financial-services/fintech/bitcoin-blockchain-cryptocurrency.html
- 5. © Metataxis 2017 Designing the information-centric environment since 2002 Slide 5 • Distributed ledger - A blockchain is digitally distributed across a number of computers in real time. It is decentralised, and a copy of the entire record is available to all the users and participants of a peer to peer network (this eliminates the need for a central authority). • Decentralised processing network - Blockchain uses many participants in the network to reach consensus – the participants use their computers to authenticate and verify each block. • Digital signatures - A blockchain uses cryptography and digital signatures to prove identity – transactions can be traced back to real-life identities. • Programable logic - A blockchain is programmable. Instructions are embedded within blocks to allow transactions or actions to be carried out if certain conditions are met. This helps ensure transactions meet strict criteria. • Immutable - A blockchain has mechanisms to make it hard (but not impossible) to change historical records. Historical records can be read, and new data written. In theory the data that exists in earlier blocks cannot be altered. • Auditable - All blockchain transactions are time stamped. Blockchain elements
- 6. © Metataxis 2017 Designing the information-centric environment since 2002 Slide 6 ISO 15489-1:2016 states: • Characteristics of authoritative records (regardless of form or structure): • Authenticity • Reliability • Integrity • Usability • Characteristics of record systems • Reliable • Secure • Compliant • Comprehensive • Systematic Information management requirements
- 7. © Metataxis 2017 Designing the information-centric environment since 2002 Slide 7 Requirement Comments Reliable Decentralised processing network. Increases speed of exchange, reduces time delays, reduces the price of exchange, improves availability, reliability and maintaining services, and makes it easier to access and share information Secure Protection of critical data. The encryption processes enable the protection of critical information. Each block is hashed and added to the previous one. The record is fully transparent, reducing the risk of unauthorised access and data manipulation. Comprehensive Distributed ledger. A copy of the entire record is available to all the users giving full visibility of the provenance of the asset/transaction. Providing an increase in transparency, it increases confidence, improves auditability, increases efficiency by standardising data formats across entities. Identity Digital signatures. Transactions can be traced back to real-life identities, helping to reduce fraud and identify participants. Confidential Verification process. Encryption methods secure data against unauthorised access or manipulation. Use of cryptographic hashes which enables transparency without exposing the content Integrity Immutable. Provenance and decentralised consensus make it easier to maintain trusted information . Availability Distributed ledger. A copy of the entire record is available to all users and the participants of a peer-to-peer network. (This eliminates the need for a central authority.) Blockchain’s response
- 8. © Metataxis 2017 Designing the information-centric environment since 2002 Slide 8 There are still a number of challenges to solve: • Establishing common infrastructure between organisations • Relationships between blocks and other related information • Behavioural and process paradigm shifts • Scalability and computational power • Legal and regulatory implications • Establishing shared governance and management • Embedding record keeping theory, principles and practice into Blockchain solutions • Ongoing questions round long term authenticity and availability • Low awareness of record keeping requirements in the blockchain community • Distilling blockchain hype and reality • No software code is infallible Challenges
- 9. © Metataxis 2017 Designing the information-centric environment since 2002 Slide 9 • Engage with IT, the blockchain community and the business • Advocate information and record keeping requirements to blockchain initiatives • Seek to use information architecture in Blockchain innovations • Support process reengineering to support business efficiencies using Blockchain • Establish governance policies in blockchain initiatives • Including blockchain for the critical aspects of the record • Increased componentisation of information and data • Blockchain technology is giving raise to new forms of records which we need to engage with and manage along side other traditional forms of record that must be managed to meet business and societal requirements Professional response
- 10. © Metataxis 2017 Designing the information-centric environment since 2002 Slide 10 Metataxis It’s all about the information
- 11. © Metataxis 2017 Designing the information-centric environment since 2002 Slide 11 Questions? Noeleen.schenk@metataxis.com www.metataxis.com Metataxis
Editor's Notes
- Although we are still in the innovator phase – blockchain is a disruptor and is on the rise. Companies are experimenting with blockchain to respond to many different business challenges Government- Sweden and their land registry, Illinois Finance, Walmart to monitor food supply chain, insurance Want to highlight that Blockchain is a record keeping system – needs demystifying!!
- Walmart is using blockchain to track food through the supply chain, IBM are offering blockchain as a service for their clients, enabling blockchain to be deployed on the IBM cloud Finance using it to make and send faster payments, letters of credit, securities deals, insurance certificates, insurance claims Music – to manage IP, and peer to artist payments Solving identity – banks and credit unions spend a lot of time validating individuals – if we can move to using Blockchain to control identify and individuals own that, then banks don’t need to. Canadian banks are looking to manage customers identity for them and through an app they can choose how much of their identity they share with different providers Microsoft is working with the UN to use blockchain to create a worldwide identify system – currently they estimate there are more than 1.5 bn people that lack legal identity (and this is increasing as the UN estimate it is increasing by about 50 million children a year) Utilities – predicting that by 2020 largest energy company will not own any network – but act as an “uber” for energy – leveraging peer to peer provision of energy Sweden and land registry Using blockchain to glue all the data collected via the IoT – making device to device communication secure – allowing devices sharing information and intelligence in a controlled and self-governed manner And don’t forget archives ….. And academia – Dsensor – building a living knowledge by a science blockchain. Delaware is creating incorporation services based on blockchain records and smart contracts Health - Google’s AI-powered health tech subsidiary, DeepMind Health, is planning to use a new technology loosely based on bitcoin to let hospitals, the NHS and eventually even patients track what happens to personal data in real-time. Dubbed “Verifiable Data Audit”, the plan is to create a special digital ledger that automatically records every interaction with patient data in a cryptographically verifiable manner. This means any changes to, or access of, the data would be visible. And allow patients to control and have direct oversight of how and where their data has been used.
- According to the bank of England -= blockchain is “a technology that allows people who don’t know each other to trust a shared record of events”. This shared record, or ledger is distributed to all participants in a network who use their computers to validate transactions and remove the need for a third party to intermediate. In his original paper -Shatoshi Nakamoto coined Bitcoin as a “chain of digital signatures” Despite its complexity a blockchain is just another type of database for recording transactions – one that is copied to all of the computers in a participating network. With the latest block, it is possible to access all previous blocks linked together – this maintaining a complete history of all assets and instructions executed since the first one. This makes the data verifiable and independently auditable. Because the verification is undertaken by the majority of the ledgers, the larger the distributed ledger, the harder it becomes for malicious actors to overcome the validation process. Therefore the network becomes increasingly robust and secure.
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- RELIABLE – because decentralised and don’t rely on a single server, if one server goes down you don’t loose the data. Blockchain can help agencies digitize existing records and manage them within a secure infrastructure, allowing agencies to make some of these records “smart.” IT departments in government agencies may be able to create rules and algorithms, for instance, that allow data in a blockchain to be automatically shared with third parties once predefined conditions are met. In the longer term, the technology may even allow individuals and organizations to gain direct control over all the information the government keeps about them. This level of transparency could, in turn, make it easier for agencies to achieve buy-in for the creation of networked public services.2 No central authority or third party required to verify or authorise transactions – distributed, so controlled equally by all who wish to participate. New paradigm of trust. – Every entry is validated and reconciles by all participants in the network to ensure consistent integrity – eg. Birth, death marriage licences, property deeds, titles of ownership, educational certificates, insurance certificates and claims, votes, medical procedures – will this mean that it could replace Governments as the keeper of the truth TRUST - When data leaves your premises, you have no control over the privacy, security, validity and correctness – Blockchain can help automate trust - Blockchain enables the full visibility of the provenance of the asset/transaction - contents time and date stamped – useful for ownership of eg. Digital art, IP, property, . This is so much more than versioning control – versioning on speed!! Removal of the challenges with versioning we all face. Reduction of administrative burden. Being able to view all the previous versioning would be interesting for legal and other colleagues – viewing how ideas and thinking have developed over time. CONFIDENTIAL - This verification process, along with modern encryption methods, can effectively secure the data on blockchain ledgers against unauthorized access or manipulation. Because the existing “blocks” in the chain can never be overwritten, users always have access to a comprehensive audit trail of activity. Additionally, decentralized storage of information reduces the risk that users will not be able to get the data they need when they need it—there is no single point of failure. INTEGRITY - An immutable, unhackable distributed database of digital assets. This is a platform for truth and it’s a platform for trust. The core innovation of blockchain is that it allows for decentralized verification of any information added to an encoded digital ledger. The ledger extends across a network of computers and servers. There is no central agent that decides if a change to the blockchain is legitimate. Instead, all the computers in the network follow a protocol to independently verify transactions and generate automated consensus on the acceptance or rejection of a change Tamperproof records. Users of a blockchain database could easily reconstruct when a change to the ledger occurred, what information was modified, and where in the network the change originated. It has the potential to redefine transactions and back office activities – potential to make transactions quicker, less-expensive and safer. By removing the middle-man lower the potential security concerns from hacking to corruption. Allows real time feedback -
- Infrastructure – which will impact on how companies store, access, share and analyse data – will need complete restructuring of technology stacks Paradigm shifts – business still conduct via email, pdf, hard copy – all of this will need to shift to successfully adopt blockchain - But the promise of blockchain is miles away from its current reality for companies. Most companies simply aren't ready to implement the technology necessary to make blockchain viable. First, both sides of a transaction would need blockchain technology to execute a transaction: access to data, the technology to create, receive and sign documents like contracts. That means data and document workflows would have to change: the technology used for data storage, document generation and sharing would need complete overhauls. Scalability and computational power- blockchain might actually slow business for some companies: because of the computational power needed to verify and confirm transactions, it could take at least 10 minutes to execute each block. Adding the burden of time to an investment in new technology makes blockchain cost-prohibitive for many organizations Legal and regulatory implications - need to understand the legal and regulatory implications of blockchain, among them: To what degree will smart contracts be binding? Can blockchain audit trails be used as evidence in court? Absence of critical reflection especially in regard to establishing long term authenticity – this is a challenge especially as the value of the records they are creating – that have long term preservation and access requirements – eg. Identities, land registry, births and deaths, - need to be retained long after the lifespan of a single database. And their loss or irretrievability will have significant / catastrophic impact Hype – Factom only anchors hashes – and stores the links to the content – with the content stored separately – this does not meet IM requirements for archiving and long term preservation and authenticity requirements We have seen hacks, so no security is completely bullet proof – there are still security and operational risks No software code is infallible
- Blockchain development will benefit from engagement with the information profession We are seeing blockchain technologies in operating in socially significant areas like identity management, property titles, voting, certification of educational qualifications etc – so engaging and making sure they answer the significant questions we have round long term authenticity and availability is essential. We are not necessarily talking about using blockchain technology for the entire record – but for elements that enable the identification and verification of identity or actions- this means increased need for information architecture to “join/link” information and data elements to form the “complete record” – perhaps use Blockchain to register and orchestrate the transactions – so used to denote ownership and mange access Blockchain required modular computational approaches to recording and storing data – this has significant impact on information architecture – it can translate to the componentisation of information. One of the established methods for joined up the components is understanding the information domain model and establishing an ontological design, including taxonomies and other IA elements. Discrete elements are encoded and stored with unique identifiers Information governance and control of sensitive information Crossword has partnered with the University of Warwick to create a smart document infrastructure to enforce automatic security classifications embedded within, and leveraging the properties of, blockchain infrastructures. Crossword and the University of Warwick have also won a related contract through the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory’s (DSTL) Centre for Defence Enterprise to explore novel uses of blockchain enabled documents in military environments. Read more. Using blockchain technology the solution will secure and control sensitive information that is disconnected from a central authorisation source, widely distributed across uncontrolled environments and used by multiple parties with differing security requirements. The software infrastructure will offer fine grain control of sensitive information. Additionally, and most critically, it will include the ability to revoke access rapidly in a disconnected environment if the need arises. The rise of these technologies has coincided with a new wave of thinking and experimentation with individual-centric models for recordkeeping to address concerns about personal privacy, to make interactions with authorities and corporations more efficient, or to support people with limited capacity for personal recordkeeping but a pressing need, such as children in care, or persons displaced by conflict. As a profession, we are interested in the possibility of true peer-to-peer and community-owned recordkeeping models, and of personal recordkeeping that fulfils requirements for persistent, trustworthy records of our own experience, transactions and interactions, to be retained for our purposes and shared at our instruction. Blockchain offers a new form of generation, use, storage, control of records. Recordkeeping professionals should be contributing to the development of these new forms of recordkeeping.