Digital Evolution and overcoming business

ethical dilemmas

Nii N. Quaynor, Ghana Dot Com, Accra, Ghana At

ACCA Africa Member Convention, Addis Ababa, 6 December 2017

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Digital Evolution • Computer science has been maturing and

nurturing high impact technologies, notable among them

• Internet and cloud computing

• Blockchain

• Artificial Intelligence (coming fast)

2

Ethical dilemmas • Digital objects are exact when copied

• Identity becoming digital keys (can lose them) in e-business

• Global nature of facilities complicates issues

• How to achieve optimum value, goal and act in public interest in these circumstances

3

As Africa adopted Internet

Foundation Beginning Formation Growth

86-90

Preconditions

91-95

First Connections

96-00

Structures & communities

2000-2005+

Formal Institutions

20+ years4

9/91 Internet Society, country connectivity

5

6/15/97 Internet Society, country connectivity

6

Af*, Internet institutions 2001-2005

• Internet on global agenda: WSIS,IGF, national ICT plans

• Community and capacity: NOGs, ccTLDs, a NIC, NRENs, CERTs, registrars,...

• Submarine cables and mobile uptake

• New issues: cyber security and crime, cross border connectivity and adopting bottom up multi stakeholder processes

7

The technology shiftsAxes Foundation

86-90Beginning

91-95Formation

96-00Maturity 01-05+

Policy Centralized Reforms Regulator Competition

Infrastructure National operator Separation Private Private/

Public

Workforce Telco Computersciences Industry Proliferation

Governance QuasiCorporate Corporate Dialog

ForumsMulti

Stakeholder

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blockchain?Last

Document

10

Blockchain as records• Ordered permanent records (immutable and

immortal)

• Records may be: Transactions, data or programs

• Employs computer science techniques: networks, cryptography, consensus, electronic ledger and contracts

• The blockchain may public, private or embedded

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Blockchain as Trust layer of the Internet

Signing : public key hash : consensus

Web : Domain names

Internet : IP addresses

Transmission : interfaces physical

logical

social

Trust

12

9/91 Internet Society, country connectivity 2016 Bitnodes

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Blockchain as Data Structure

• immutable, Txid

• organized, columns

• files, filenames

Blockchain

Databases

Directory Files

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If Blockchain contains Transactions: Bitcoin is a peer

to peer systemWhen Ama wants to pay Baaba:she broadcast the transaction to all Bitcoin nodes

Pay value <v> from addr <A> to addr <B>

Signed by Ama

Network ofBitcoin nodes

NB: Baaba’s computer is not in the picture

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In general: Bitcoin blockchain sectors

Mining Wallets Exchanges DevelopersBlockchain

satoshi satoshi, GHS applications

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satoshi

NodeNetwork

+initiate

Merchants

Mining at GDC• Runs hot

• makes noise

• 1.2Kw

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inputs

inputs

outputs

outputs

Each input spends previous output

T0

T1

Each output waits as unspent Tx output (UTXO) until an input spends it

Bitcoin Transactions

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OP_DUP OP_HASH160 address OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG

sig sig sig sig sig

pub pub pub pub pub

pub address address

address

OP_DUP OP_HASH address OP_EQUALVERIFY DONE

OPCODE Execution sequence of pay to public key hash (P2PKH)

=> => => => =>

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Checks if input address is from your public key and if input signature good

What if transaction value is generalized from coin to other

• <input address, value, output address>

• The value can literally be any asset: land, property, other digital assets and maintain rules about addresses and signatures

• May be a new blockchain or application off existing blockchain platforms

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If transaction is “data” on blockchain

• Use a digest (hash) to increase Integrity

• The data may be interpreted by an external program

• When interpretation is unwieldy use smart contracts

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If code on blockchain, smart contracts

• Ethereum is favored platform

• Autonomous agents, smart contracts

• Applications that know about money and with wallets

• State changes effected by Transactions and invocation of function in contracts on the blockchain

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A B

Tx = Send 2 from A to B

nonce:234 balance:10

Code Storage

nonce:158 balance:15

Code Storage

A balance:10

B balance:15

A balance:8

B balance:17

Accounts

Blockchain

EthereumAccounts and Blockchain

S S’

Apply(S,Tx)=S’

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Blockchain Technology shifts

Axes Internet Asset Registry

Policy Private sector led

recognize digital

currencyopen

Infrastructure cables+data centers nodes+miners nodes+miners

Workforcenet, web, mobile

developmentnew new

Governance MSof/on net

MSof/on

blockchainopen

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Artificial Intelligence (in the news)

• Forbes, 51 AI predictions site Business Intelligence and Analytics for exponentially paced innovation

• In May 2017, researchers at Google Brain announced the creation of AutoML, an artificial intelligence (AI) that’s capable of generating its own AIs.

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AI impact:McKinsey & Company report https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/future-of-organizations-and-work/what-the-future-of-

work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages

• It forecasts scenarios in which 3 percent to 14 percent of workers around the world — in 75 million to 375 million jobs — will have to acquire new skills and switch occupations by 2030.

• In 60 percent of jobs worldwide, "at least one-third of the constituent activities could be automated," McKinsey says, which would mean a big change in what people do day-to-day.

• Up to 800 million global workers will lose their jobs by 2030 and be replaced by robotic automation

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Opportunities • H&R Brock and IBM announced a program for filing

income tax returns

• An auditor may mine and analyze large volumes of structured and unstructured data related to a company's financial information and assets management

• Robotic systems could interface with a client's systems to transfer and compile data automatically, something previously done manually by a junior auditor

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Digital evolution in Summary • internet and governance on/off internet

• Blockchain & crypto currencies

• Asset management

• AI and accounting (bots)

• Augmented reality, visualization, data analytics,

• Tax becomes vat

• Public key as identifiers

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Business Ethics at Play• Multi stakeholder

• public interest

• Accountability and transparency

• Privacy considerations

• Every thing global what are "global" ethical norms. Who knows which sovereign norms applicable

• Traceability getting more difficult vs privacy

• Crossing sovereignty boundaries complicate matters

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Technology and Ethics

• Man and machine (biases induced in machines)

• New identity as key pairs

• Cyber security concerns

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Conclusion

• The struggle to evolve technologies while keeping Human values inside

• Involvement and active engagement would ensure corporate value and in public interest

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Thank you

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Foundation 86-90• Computer science education

• Monopoly telecom

• Enterprise computer systems

• Email scene

• PCs

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The beginning 91-95• Adopting TCP/IP over proprietary network

standards

• Access/connectivity issues

• Telecommunication tensions

• Emergence of ccTLDs

• Web experience

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Formation and self organizing 96-2000

• Secondary cities connectivity

• Telecommunication policy reforms

• ICT 4 development emphasis

• Global internet coordination

• African participation in global, Cotonou convention

• Technology acquisition and sharing, NOGs

• Mobile arrived

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