Is there a standard for Blockchain today? Not really. What we are attempting to do is to build one.
Since 2008, when Satoshi Nakamoto’s White Paper was published and Bitcoin emerged, we have been learning about a new solution using a decentralized ledger and one of its applications: Blockchain.
Wikipedia defines Blockchain as follows: “A blockchain, originally block chain, is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree).”
There are certain drawbacks which are significant in today’s applications for Blockchain solutions:
Reliability: There is a consistent issue in solutions today. In most cases, they are not scalable and cannot be adopted by the industry in their current format. Teams developing solutions need financial backing and support, and when the backing stops, the chain disappears even if technically it was a great solution. We aren’t even touching on certain solutions that, upon analyzing the underlying technical approach, are not viable for the industry overall. But their intentions are good, and there is such a thing as trial and error, so we are still learning what would be a good approach to blockchain solutions.
Interoperability is one of the major obstacles since the vast majority are chains with no interface to work across different chains, and that basically makes it an internal company product or a solution. You cannot use these in real-world applications if you want to create an exchange of data and information. Granted that there are some nascent solutions which try to address this problem, and I know that our group will analyze and work with these companies and teams to see if we can create an exchange of best practices.
Data Accuracy: When it comes to data in the blockchain the true or false relies on the immutability property of blockchain as a data storage. Having an improved storage medium which prevents careless or malicious actions to make them visible and proven the authenticity of the data will allow to remove false data and flag attempts for chain to be corrupted.
Latency is another aspect which is hindering adoption today. Regular transactions using databases and code are currently faster than utilization of the blockchain.
The new SNIA Blockchain Storage Technical Work Group (TWG) will focus on understanding the existing technical solutions and best practices. Why try to do something which has already been done? Instead, it’s better to add this to our knowledge of storage and networking to build new open source specification for blockchain protocols to work across blockchain networks. The TWG will be utilizing aspects of Proof of Capacity and Proof of Space protocols to address storage bottlenecks.
The Blockchain Storage TWG is currently supported by companies such as DELL EMC, IBM, Marvell, Western Digital, ActionSpot and Bankex. We come from different backgrounds, but our common goal is to build something great. For more information about this new technical work group, please contact membershipservices@snia.org.