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- Report writing
- Search for independent and dependent variables among the "tensions", as inspired by Kathleen and John W for the report
- Review use case analysis inputs from John W for the report, if available
Attending: Eve, Matisse, Thomas, Colin, Andrew, Marco
News: News has hit of an "editable" blockchain technology that Accenture has prototyped. This seems...kind of scammy. They seem to have created a private blockchain. Does it require proof of work? Is it really a blockchain? Why would you want to "accelerate...adoption" of blockchain by removing a key defining feature of actual blockchains? Maybe this makes enterprises feel cool, but tamper-evident ledgers can be done right now without having to involve the "b-word". We pronounce this another b-word: bogus. 
Tension/theme analysis: Can a blockchain be considered "a distributed system" in the formal sense? There are a number of resources we could draw on to analyze its characteristics if so: scalability, transparency, etc. See this article. Matisse supports this analysis, as it's the premise of her PhD. thesis!
A neutral way of stating the columns Kathleen has added on the right that our participants are more invested in, for use-case reasons, would be (all, please offer feedback on this):
- "Balance of control" in transactions (which can include contracts and data sharing) – enabling individuals to rise to the level of a "peer" to traditionally more empowered entities
- "Transactions" is the broadest possible term in common usage
- This item is the broad descriptor
- "Granularity of control" ?? in transactions – enabling not a totality of trust and liability but an apportioning that is appropriate
- Supposedly Bitcoin, a special-purpose blockchain, has protected individuals on this dimension, but each smart contract could still leave individuals open to abuse
- "Dynamism of control" ?? in transactions – enabling individual choice both over time and just-in-time
When is a public blockchain appropriate, vs. a consortium-model blockchain, vs. a private blockchain?
AI: Matisse: Share pointers to papers to let us analyze specific blockchain types for next time.
Next time: Get into both specific blockchain mentions and use case-specific analysis, and try to flesh out the report intro for good and all.
Tuesday, September 20
Agenda:
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