The document provides an overview of blockchain technology, highlighting its capabilities for ensuring record authenticity and security through a decentralized ledger system. It discusses various applications, including electronic health records and supply chain management, as well as the disruptive potential of reducing reliance on third-party authorities. Key challenges include interoperability, scalability, and the environmental impact of energy consumption, alongside the need for greater understanding and compelling use cases within libraries and information organizations.

1. Blockchain Overview:
Possibilities and Issues
Bohyun Kim
CTO, University of Rhode Island Libraries &
President, LITA (Library and InformationTechnology Association)
Blockchain National Forum, San Jose, CA., August 6, 2018

2. What Blockchain Accomplishes
• Authenticity and security of records
• Blockchain is a type of distributed digital ledger on a peer-to-peer
(P2P) network, in which records are confirmed and encrypted.
• Blockchain records and keeps data in their original state in a secure
and tamper-proof manner by its technical implementation alone.
• For those familiar with a version control system such as Git, a
blockchain ledger can be thought of as something similar to a P2P
hosted git repository that allows sequential commits only.
Bohyun Kim, " Blockchain Overview: Possibilities and Issues,"
National Blockchain Forum, 08/06/2018.

3. Areas of Application
• Electronic health records
• Educational records
• Certification / License records
• Supply chain management
• Digital provenance
• Historic materials that may be contested or challenged due to the vested
interests of certain groups, and
• Digital rights management,
• Digital identity (authentication/authorization)
• Smart contracts (=self-executing programs on the blockchain platform)
Bohyun Kim, " Blockchain Overview: Possibilities and Issues,"
National Blockchain Forum, 08/06/2018.

4. Disruptive Potential of Blockchain
• A third-party authority no longer necessary to guarantee the
authenticity of the data
• Time and cost savings gained from eliminating a third-party
authority and related processes and fees
• Efficiency, convenience, and cost savings
Bohyun Kim, " Blockchain Overview: Possibilities and Issues,"
National Blockchain Forum, 08/06/2018.

5. Issues
a) Interoperability between different blockchain systems,
b) Scalability of blockchain at a global scale with large amount of
data,
c) Potential security issues such as the 51% attack,
d) Huge energy consumption that a blockchain requires to add a
block to a ledger, which has both environmental and economic
ramifications.
Bohyun Kim, " Blockchain Overview: Possibilities and Issues,"
National Blockchain Forum, 08/06/2018.

6. Challenges forWiderTesting/Adoption
• Lack of general understanding about blockchain in a larger audience
of information professionals.
• Technical obstacle for those not tech-savvy to set up a node in the
blockchain network to test it out.
• Lack of compelling use cases for libraries, archives, and museums.
Bohyun Kim, " Blockchain Overview: Possibilities and Issues,"
National Blockchain Forum, 08/06/2018.

7. Questionss to Ask for Compelling Use Cases
a) What kind of data/records (or the series thereof) must be stored
and preserved exactly the way they were created?
b) What kind of information is at great risk to be altered and
compromised by changing circumstances?
c) What type of interactions may need to take place between such
data/records and their users?
d) How much would be a reasonable cost for implementation?
Bohyun Kim, " Blockchain Overview: Possibilities and Issues,"
National Blockchain Forum, 08/06/2018.

8. More Information & Examples
• Bohyun Kim, “Blockchain: Merits, Issues, and Suggestions for
Compelling Use Cases,” ACRLTechConnect Blog,
https://acrl.ala.org/techconnect/post/blockchain-merits-issues-and-
suggestions-for-compelling-use-cases/, July 24, 2018.
• Bohyun Kim, “FromVirtual Reality to Blockchain: Current and
EmergingTechTrends,” LibraryLinkNJWebinar,
https://www.slideshare.net/bohyunkim/from-virtual-reality-to-
blockchain-current-and-emerging-tech-trends (Slides), May 8, 2018.
Bohyun Kim, " Blockchain Overview: Possibilities and Issues,"
National Blockchain Forum, 08/06/2018.

9. Thank you!
Bohyun Kim, " Blockchain Overview: Possibilities and Issues,"
National Blockchain Forum, 08/06/2018.