Babbitt column | "Privacy-transparency" binary paradox is broken, blockchain positioning faces crossroads

In the past two days, the topic of blockchain and digital security circulation has suddenly set off a wave of discussion climax in the long-settled industry. There are discussions on data supervision and discussion of technical feasibility… Bustling is very lively, overall It is said that more and more people are beginning to distrust the blockchain to ensure the safe circulation and interaction of data.

Since everyone has their own way of looking at things, the emergence of this situation is understandable. In my opinion, this situation will have a subtle influence: that is, people's positioning of the blockchain becomes more clear and objective, and the position of this technology in the entire digital economy has reached one. Re-examine the intersection.

First, the binary paradox of blockchain technology: Is it to protect privacy or openness and transparency?

I have to say that in the blockchain industry, there has always been a "consensus" that seems to be relatively contradictory. Why do contradictions? On the one hand, everyone knows that the information recorded on the blockchain is open and transparent, and can be easily found using the blockchain browser. On the other hand, according to some project parties, the blockchain is a new technology product composed of encryption technology, so the information recorded on it is encrypted and private. That leads to a paradox: Is the information on the blockchain publicly visible or invisible?

• EOS daily support appears, but it also needs to pay attention to the market dynamics
• HKEx's merger and acquisition of the Stock Exchange clearly entered the digital asset trading, impacting the existing pattern
• China Telecom SIM card to kill cold, hot wallet, blockchain mobile phone still has no fire to cool?

All along, people have basically reached a consensus on the "blockchain can guarantee information disclosure", after all, blockchain browsers have basically been used. And the "blockchain can guarantee information privacy" is a very subtle attitude. Since no one has used similar products, it is always doubtful that the blockchain can protect privacy. No one dares to stand up and question – many people in this industry are not technically born, even if they are technically savvy, they don’t dare after hearing the explanations of the relevant project parties and being stunned by a bunch of tall terms. Ask further in the depths, because this is likely to appear to be particularly white. So the conclusion that "blockchain can guarantee data privacy" has been passed down to today.

However, as long as you have a little brainstorming, it is not difficult to understand, how can technical means ensure that the entire circulation chain of data is safe? Maybe you can get the user's permission in the transaction of the data, but in the subsequent two, three, or even N transactions, the user's supervision can still keep up (to avoid this article becoming a martyrdom) Do you understand the small papers here?)

In this regard, in fact, the author mentioned to private friends a few days ago: Big data transactions have never been more than a technical issue, but a two-pronged approach to technology and systems – assuming your current technology It can guarantee that a transaction of data is safe and authorized by the user. The subsequent circulation of your data must also be carried out under the legal framework. Therefore, in the past two years, the digital legal community has concentrated on one thing. That is the formulation of the Law on the Law of Numbers. What's more, how much can your current technology protect user data privacy? These are the black holes that people recognize in the digital economy. Everyone is interested, but in order to be afraid of Lucy, they can't ask, and they don't dare to ask.

The change in the trend of public opinion caused by this discussion actually illustrates one thing: the use of blockchain technology to encrypt big data may not be true in itself.

Perhaps the complex encryption technology system behind the blockchain can ensure the safe flow of data to a certain extent after being split and reorganized, but the blockchain itself cannot. For the blockchain, this conclusion has three effects: First, the blockchain "protection of privacy" function is greatly falsified, and the "privacy-transparent" binary paradox is broken, even in the future. The project team with data privacy stories will not buy the market. Second, the blockchain technology has once again passively declined in the digital economy industry, and the appearance of “all-powerful” has further faded; Blockchain practitioners must consider one thing, that is, the true role of this technology, and what is the positioning in the future digital economy? Because this directly determines the next focus of people, and the direction in which the relevant resources will be placed.

Second, is the blockchain overrated? The real pain point of the digital economy

I have to say that the whole society is really in a very interesting state for the word "digital economy". On the one hand, everyone has heard about this concept, but on the other hand, it is probably the aesthetic fatigue that has been tossed by various "new words" in the wave of venture capital in previous years. People have always been difficult to "digital economy". The word is of interest, although sometimes it will be given attention for work reasons, but overall it is not at ease.

However, in my opinion, the term "digital economy" is really a concept that the ordinary class needs to pay close attention to. It can be said that, to a certain extent, the concept is as important as the reform of the previous 30 years. open".

In fact, whether it is reform or opening up, or the digital economy. The principles behind them are all similar—that is, by decentralizing various commercial powers to create a new economic ecology—distributed commerce. In the author's view, whether it is the business of going to sea, the country's retreat, the dual-creation movement, or the later sharing economy, self-media, small video, etc., all belong to the sub-branch of distributed commerce, but the former batch of products is from the economy. The reforms are promoted, and the latter products are driven by technological development, especially the development of information technology. And who can seize the opportunity of these power sinks, focus on the commercial rights of the centralized institutions in the hands, who can get the big cake of this industry, and then achieve the social class crossing. The "mystery of cryptocurrency" that we have seen in the past few years is actually the intersection of the young people at that time and the commercial rights of "standardized financial vouchers". In essence, in the past few decades. The principle of ordinary people achieving class crossing is not much different.

After understanding this point, why should ordinary people pay attention to the "digital economy" and how to use the "digital economy" to achieve class crossing, the idea is actually very obvious: First, you need to understand what kind of opportunity will be at what time Sink down to the level you are in. Then, you will continue to exchange social resources with others and appear on time at the point where there may be a sinking of commercial interests. The second point is still good to say, after all, after having the goal, even if you climb, you can climb. The key is to predict the situation at the first point: When will the emerging opportunities for commercial interests led by the digital economy appear in which industries? If this problem is judged, the road to cross-leveling through digital economy and distributed commerce will basically succeed in more than half.

However, in the past few years, many members of the community, including blockchain practitioners, are likely to have a misjudgment – that is, they believe that blockchain technology will be the next round of information revolution. Point, therefore not only smashed a lot of resources in this industry, but also took the timetable of blockchain development as a timetable for the entire digital economy breakthrough. An important reason for this situation is that as I mentioned earlier, many people have given blockchain technology too many unrealistic functions. They require this technology to be kept secret and require this technology to Transparency, and the current major pain in the digital economy is that there is no way to ensure the flow of data security. According to this logic, blockchain technology can play a very important role in the process of solving the digital economy.

However, from a follow-up situation, this may not be the case. A series of recent events have shown that blockchain technology itself cannot reliably ensure the secure trading of data, at least the relevant departments do not recognize this. In this way, the effect of the blockchain technology is actually only the "open and credible record", so we can easily judge it, although the blockchain will be an important infrastructure for the digital economy. It will be an important condition for many ordinary classes to achieve class crossing, but it will not ignite the great development of the information technology revolution, because it serves as a distributed ledger that guarantees open and transparent information, and the services it provides are in line with the current digital economy. Pain points (not enough digitization, data information islands, network performance limitations, etc.) do not match.

In fact, can the blockchain be combined with many real economy industries? Yes, but one common problem facing these blockchain solutions is that most industries are not sufficiently informative and cannot achieve reliable information. In other words, the current blockchain is difficult to be a digital economy and a new one. The round of distributed business waves, and even the ordinary people in the community to achieve the level of the cross, because you are still a long distance from the ball.

So, is there any way to get you to the ball? Or, is there any way to let the information in physics be chained in a credible digital form, and then play the role of the blockchain?

Third, the key you are looking for will never be inserted in the keyhole: 5g network is an important foundation for digital economy and blockchain technology

The answer is the Internet of Things, and the technology that is driving the rapid development of bio-networking is the 5G network.

Nowadays, when many people mention the constraints faced by the Internet of Things, many people think that hard hardware is not enough. But in fact, this is not a key bottleneck for the development of the Internet of Things. Although the growth in the number of intelligent hardware seems to be a daunting task, with the global manufacturing capacity, the world of sensors and smart hardware is spread all over the world. It won't take a few years at all. The problem is that even if the current intelligent hardware is produced, you can't allocate enough bandwidth to them. As a result, due to poor data circulation, these hardware can easily become a display, not to mention any trusted data. . Where is the reason? It is because the network resources are not enough. Existing 4G networks are difficult to support massive device access. In this way, natural play is not an Internet of Things, and without the Internet of Things to open up the physical world and the digital world, the role of the blockchain will be greatly reduced. In the end, it will become what people often say, "The only application is the currency. ".

Logically speaking, it is not unreasonable to position the largest application of the blockchain as a cryptocurrency, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. After all, which economy needs financial credentials, the problem is that you see which economy is only relying on issuing financial documents. Can you start? The currency of Venezuela and Zimbabwe is the most fierce, and what are the consequences? There is no real production activity, it is a pile of waste paper. It is unceremonious to say that the national currency without the support of the real economy and production activities is unreliable, and the cryptocurrency without the distributed commercial ecological support has no future. This conclusion, the author does not have to give any theoretical analysis here, you can see the weak look of the cryptocurrency industry now. Without the support of real economic activities, what is the "pass-through economy" is nothing more than the concept of idling in situ.

From this point of view, many people are now wrongly judging the development time of the digital economy, and also misjudged the key time points of the distributed business system driven by it. The mistake is that people are judging the development stage of the digital economy according to the development of blockchain technology. However, it is difficult to alleviate the biggest pain point of the digital economy, and the development of the digital economy Not decisive. But 5g network can solve this problem to some extent.

This technology can not only make the Internet of things come true, but also stimulate the development of a series of technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality. In turn, more commercial interests are scattered and scattered into individuals, thus promoting the development of a new round of distributed commerce, and finally allowing more ordinary people to achieve class traversal. All in all, in the process of judging the development of the digital economy and the flow of various commercial interests to the common class, we should not refer to the development schedule of the blockchain, but should be the development schedule of the 5G network.

However, for the practitioners of the blockchain. There is no need to resist the technology because the 5G network grabs its own limelight, because the 5G network is actually the savior of the cryptocurrency industry – whether it is blockchain or cryptocurrency, their value is only possible in distributed The business system, that is, the frequent interaction and communication between various stakeholders, can be reflected.

But in the current ecology dominated by 4G, the cryptocurrency can not be cut into the existing distributed business system, what should we do? Only aim at the new track that has not yet appeared. The 5g network is the fuse of the next wave of distributed business. From this point of view, it is no exaggeration to say that 5g network is an important factor for the future development of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Author: Sun vice president

We will continue to update Blocking; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!