The document discusses the fundamentals of blockchain technology, highlighting its characteristics like decentralization, distributed trust, and immutability. It emphasizes both the advantages and limitations of utilizing blockchain in business contexts, suggesting that traditional databases may sometimes be more suitable. It also outlines potential use cases in finance, public sector, supply chain, and healthcare, while mentioning Red Hat's involvement in blockchain development.

1. 1
Blockchains for
Business 101
Gordon Haff
Emerging Technology Evangelist
@ghaff
https://bitmason.blogspot.com
September 2020

2. 2
WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN?
Shared, permissioned distributed ledger
technology visible to and transactions
validated by members of a business blockchain
network using a consensus protocol
No central repository and usually no central
authority
Smart contracts may be used to take actions
based on pre-defined events
Blockchain applications (smart contracts)

3. 3
BLOCKCHAIN LETS YOU
BUILD A DECENTRALIZED
BUSINESS NETWORK
Business networks connect businesses
Participants with identity
Assets flow over networks
Transactions describe asset exchange
Contracts underpin transactions
The ledger logs transactions

4. 4
A MODULAR ARCHITECTURE

5. 5
WHY IS IT INTERESTING?
Distributed trust
No single entity controls storage and validation of
transactions

6. 6
WHY IS IT INTERESTING?
Immutability
Appended/cryptographically-secured
transactions can’t be removed or changed
without alteration being obvious
On-chain vs. off-chain: Choose wisely

7. 7
WHY IS IT INTERESTING?
Parties securely interact with
universal source of truth
Common message bus for recorded actions
(transactions, identity, trusted records) that
connects entities in a standardized way
Streamlined settlement

8. 8
WHY IS IT INTERESTING?
Consensus mechanism can vary
based on need
Transaction validation depends on threat model
and trust level
Scalability, energy use, time to final resolution all
involve tradeoffs

9. 9
WHY NOT BLOCKCHAIN?
Conventional database
characteristics are sufficient or
even preferred
Mutability
Centralized control
High scalability

10. 10
WHY NOT BLOCKCHAIN?
Participating entities are all part of
the same trust domain
Distributed trust isn’t needed

11. 11
WHY NOT BLOCKCHAIN?
Assets can’t be reliably digitized
There’s no meaningful ground truth
Can’t trust the inputs
(But the perfect is the enemy of the good)

12. 12
WHY NOT BLOCKCHAIN?
Can’t form a business network
Participants won’t adopt standard practices
They won’t give up control
They won’t cooperate

13. 13
WHY NOT BLOCKCHAIN?
There’s low business impact

14. 14
SOME EARLY
USE CASE AREAS
Finance (lending, international transactions…)
Public sector (records, identity…)
Supply chain / provenance
Healthcare records
Other identity
Telco billing / reconciliation
…

15. 15
WHAT’S RED HAT DOING?
Participating in select industry organizations
and engaging with customers/partners
Enabling Red Hat products
Development of an operator for Hyperledger
Fabric is in process
Not selling a blockchain product