January at Integritee: Slot Swap, Davos Touchdown & Much More
We started 2023 with a bang! Besides hard work on the tech side, the team has also been busy with meetings, and events. Check out what happened this January at Integritee.
We are releasing a series of articles explaining the nature and mechanics behind blockchain technology. In this article, you’ll learn about the basics surrounding the underlying concept, including its main features.
A blockchain is a digital set of sequentially connected blocks that work as a ledger, recording information. There are some major differences between a blockchain and a traditional paperback ledger or Excel sheet. One of the first and most well-known use cases of blockchain technology is cryptocurrency. But what made it so popular and why are so many institutions and companies adopting it? Let’s dive into the main features of blockchain.
All these features are linked and powerful when combined. Blockchain will become an integral part of many future solutions as a protocol layer or technology. From transaction of goods to confidential computing, there is an on-chain world to explore — the off-chain being the real world, so to speak.
The concept of blockchain was first introduced by scientists Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta in the early 1990s, described as a chain of blocks secured by cryptography. However, its practical implementation only happened in 2009, with Bitcoin. The world has made great progress since then, though. This is an ever-evolving universe, for it’s essential to keep growing in order to fit different narratives and use-cases. In theory, it’s possible to do almost everything with blockchain and some of those ideas are already being put into practice. From decentralized exchanges to medical aid, blockchain has countless applications.
It’s important to grasp the concept of “auditability” to understand the ramifications of blockchain. To do an audit is to verify that something is running how it should. Audits are a common practice when money is involved, and they’re usually performed by an external party. Now, what if all members of a network were able to verify the data transactions of the said network?
This is basically what happens with blockchains. Depending on the underlying protocol and security logic, a blockchain is auditable and verifiable by nature, eliminating the need for trust — in a higher power such as an institution or enterprise.
It’s great that users are able to verify if their data is being managed and stored as promised. But what about confidentiality, a feature so much in demand nowadays too? Companies need access to their customers’ and clients’ data, but privacy is still something that should be respected. Integritee does exactly that: enables access and insight into important data without compromising the sensitive bits.
Our solutions put together the trust of blockchain technology — trustworthy and public by default — the confidentiality of Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) — which ensures the proper storage and management of sensitive data — and the scalability offered by sidechains. Get the best of both worlds with Integritee: the ability to still explore important data without a wide range of use-cases, without compromising the integrity of sensitive information and maintaining it safe.
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