Blockchain is a relatively new technology; The first concept paper was published in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto for use in developing crypto-currencies (a crypto currency exits only on the net and has no government backing) and the proposal for smart contracts based on Blockchain was made in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin. Today, there are many different Blockchains and variations of Blockchain technology. In addition, there is a large amount of ongoing research on how to further, develop and improve the ability of this technology to be used for various purposes. As a result, it is reasonable to expect that even more Blockchain variations will come into existence during the coming years. Some Blockchain and blockchain-based technologies are called “Distributed Ledgers" (DL). There are also forms of Blockchain that are public/open networks and others that are private/permissioned networks. For the purposes of this project, unless otherwise indicated, references to "Blockchains" are considered to cover "Distributed Ledgers" as well as both public and private network versions.
Blockchains are based on an innovative use of cryptography and have attracted a lot of attention due to their characteristics which reduce the need for trusted third parties and intermediaries. These characteristics include the:
- Creation of data records that are permanent, i.e. cannot be changed or deleted
- Ability to identify the time and origin of every entry in the Blockchain
- Access by all participants to all data in the Blockchain
- Guaranteed implementation of smart contracts (programmes) that automatically execute once a set of agreed conditions are met
As one result of Blockchain having been originally used for crypto-currencies, the majority of the original research into the use of Blockchain came from the finance industry. This has changed during the last two years and an increasing amount of research and an increasing number of trial implementations have been for supply-chain, trade and business processes. In addition, during the first quarter of 2017 large companies, such as IBM, have begun to announce commercial business process and trade-related products based on Blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology has an immense potential for facilitating supply-chain and trade processes. The purpose of this project is to look at this technology in the context of UN/CEFACT's mandates in order to provide input to the Bureau, Programme Development Areas and Domains on:
1) Possible future work and a possible common approach to Blockchain-related projects
2) Blockchain developers as a potential new user group for UN/CEFACT standards
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