Blockchains and Higher Education

Prof. John DomingueDirector, Knowledge Media Institute, the Open University, UK

http://kmi.open.ac.uk/

blockchain.open.ac.uk

BLOCKCHAINS IMPACT

Copyright http://dilbert.com/

Blockchain

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WorldEconomicForumSurveyProjectsBlockchain‘TippingPoint’by2023

Santander:Blockchain TechCanSaveBanks$20BillionaYear

https://www.docusign.com/blog/the-future-of-car-leasing-is-as-easy-as-click-sign-drive/

Everledgerwww.everledger.io

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/transactive-grid-ethereum-brooklyn-microgrid

BLOCKCHAIN OVERVIEW

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Ledgers

Cryptographic Hash Function

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function

Blockchain is a Linked List (1/2)

Ablockchaincanbethoughtofasalinkedlistoftransactionsthatisbuiltwithhashpointersinsteadofpointers

Source:Bitcoin andCryptocurrency Technologies- ArvindNarayanan,JosephBonneau, EdwardFelten,AndrewMiller, StevenGoldfeder

Peer to Peer Network

http://www.terndrup.net/2015/10/27/Building-a-P2P-Peer-Client-with-Node-js/

Addeveryonehasacompletecopyofthedata Who Next?

Proof of Work• Find x such that f(nonce + x) < t

(cryptographic hash)"Hello,world!0"=>1312af178c253f84028d480a6adc1e25e81caa44c749ec81976192e2ec934c64"Hello,world!1"=>e9afc424b79e4f6ab42d99c81156d3a17228d6e1eef4139be78e948a9332a7d8"Hello,world!2"=>ae37343a357a8297591625e7134cbea22f5928be8ca2a32aa475cf05fd4266b7 ...

"Hello,world!4248"=>6e110d98b388e77e9c6f042ac6b497cec46660deef75a55ebc7cfdf65cc0b965"Hello,world!4249"=>c004190b822f1669cac8dc37e761cb73652e7832fb814565702245cf26ebb9e6"Hello,world!4250"=>0000c3af42fc31103f1fdc0151fa747ff87349a4714df7cc52ea464e12dcd4e9

Proof of Work

• Hard to outpace the entire rest of the network… a 51% attack could do it, but otherwise it is like buying thousands of lottery tickets –doesn’t help you that much!

Source:MarcEisenstadt ‘WhatisthegeniusbehindBitcoin’

Proof of Work

As you go back in time, an attacker would have to outpace the network for a longer amount of time to carry out a double spend attack, and replace a block.

Source:MarcEisenstadt ‘WhatisthegeniusbehindBitcoin’

Blockchain is a Linked List (2/2)

Ablockchain actuallycontainstwodifferenthash structures.Thefirstisahashchainof

blocks thatlinks thedifferentblocks tooneanother.

Thesecond isinternaltoeachblockandisaMerkle Treeof

transactionswithintheblocks.

This allowsforefficientlyverifiableproofs thata

transactionwasincluded inablock.

BitCoin Mining

http://knkx.org/post/central-wash-home-nations-biggest-bitcoin-mine-more-coming

https://cointelegraph.com/news/the-inevitable-failure-of-proof-of-stake-blockchains-and-why-a-new-algorithm-is-needed

Ethereum Virtual Machine

Sources:Ethereum DevelopmentTutorial

TheEthereum VirtualMachinecanbethoughtofasalargedecentralizedcomputercontainingmillionsofobjects,called"accounts",whichhavetheabilitytomaintainaninternaldatabase,executecodeandtalktoeachother.Thereare2typesofAccounts:

Externallyownedaccount(EOA):anaccountcontrolledbyaprivatekeythathastheabilitytosendetherandmessagesfromit.

‘Smart’Contract:anaccountthathasitsowncode,andiscontrolledbycode.

AnyusercantriggeranactionbysendingatransactionfromanEOA,settingEthereum's wheelsinmotion.

Ifthedestinationof thetransactionisanotherEOA,thenthetransactionmaytransfersomeetherbutotherwisedoesnothing

However, ifthedestination isa‘Smart’Contract,thenthecontractinturnactivates,andautomaticallyrunsitscode.

DApps

Source:Ethereum - StephanTual

AĐapp isadecentralised applicationwhichservessomespecificpurpose toitsusers,butwhichhastheimportantproperty thattheapplicationitselfdoesnotdependonanyspecificpartyexisting.

Ratherthanservingasafront-end forsellingorprovidingaspecificparty'sservices,aĐapp isatoolforpeopleandorganizationsondifferent sidesofaninteractionusetocometogetherwithoutanycentralizedintermediary.

ADapp consistsoftwoparts:afrontend, writteninHTMLorQML,andabackend(thinkofitasthe‘database’foryourfrontend).

DBrowsers

ItisanenduserinterfaceontotheEthereumblockchain.

ADBrowser ishowuserswillfindandinteractwithDApps

‘Mist’isthenameoftheEthereumDBrowser.

Distributed Autonomous Organisations

http://fortune.com/2016/05/15/leaderless-blockchain-vc-fund/

Characteristics of Blockchain DApps

• Shared database• Multiple writers• Absence of trust• Disintermediation• Transaction interaction• Set rules• Validators• Asset backing

http://www.multichain.com/blog/2015/11/avoiding-pointless-blockchain-project/

BLOCKCHAINS AND HIGHER EDUCATIONAL

MSc Certificates on Blockchainhttp://digitalcurrency.unic.ac.cy/certificates

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For example, after taking an examination to demonstrate his or her academic proficiency level, an individual could direct the testing organization to share the test results with one or more third-party evaluating organizations. With this diversification and the changes it

brings about, different evaluating organizations may come to utilize individuals' test results in different ways, each in accordance with its own evaluation methods.

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201602/16-0222E/index.html

Demosofmoviesavailableat:http://blockchain.open.ac.uk/

Peer Reputation

ReputationContract

Functions:

Storage:

sendReputation

getPersonBalance()

getReputationAttribute

attribs[address=>Attrib]Attrib {uint balanceOf;

mapping(string=>uint);string[]attribStrings

}

ReputationAttributetoken

Balances

Reputation Smart Contract

Tokenslefttoassign

MyReputation

PeerReputationPage

Kevin’sReputationView

Communication: 14

Collaboration: 06

Organisation: 12

Ethics: 05

ProblemSolving: 10

Engagement: 04

yourEthereum address

passwordtoprivatekey

Signing this transactionwill transfer statedReputationTokens+ETHgaspaymentfromyouraccount.Estimatedgascostis0.02ETH.Maximumgascostis set to0.05ETH

Transfer

ReputationTokensLeft:57

numberoftokenstotransfer

AssignReputation

MyReputation

PeerReputationPage

Michelle’s ReputationView

Communication: 06

Collaboration: 02

Organisation: 10

Ethics: 12

ProblemSolving: 08

Engagement: 16

yourEthereum address

passwordtoprivatekey

Signing this transactionwill transfer statedReputationTokens+ETHgaspaymentfromyouraccount.Estimatedgascostis0.02ETH.Maximumgascostis set to0.05ETH

Transfer

ReputationTokensLeft:68

numberoftokenstotransfer

AssignReputation

SignedTX

ReputationAttributetoken

Balances

Tokenslefttoassign

Michelletransfers4Reputationtokensfor‘Organisation’toKevin

Michelletransfers4Reputationtokensfor‘Organisation’toKevin

FUTURE AND SUMMARY

Higher Education Disaggregation

UK Higher and Further Education Blockchain

Summary: Blockchain Benefits (1/2)

• Inbuilt identity management• Data controlled/owned by students rather

than any single institution• Increases transparency• Reduces risk of fraud• Lowering of process costs

– Lowers entry barriers to education market – ‘university of one’

Summary: Blockchain Benefits (2/2)

• Enables collaboration/interoperability • Facilitates disaggregation • Permits disintermediation

– Badge issuing based on badge collection• Allows construction of educational

‘countries’

Acknowledgements• KMi@OU Implementation Team

– Michelle Bachler– Kevin Quick– Allan Third– Chris Valentine

• Discussants– Tomas Aste, UCL– Sören Auer, Fraunhofer– Adi Ben-Ari, Applied Blockchain– Carla Casilli, Mozilla Open Badges– Marc Eisenstadt, OU– Matthew English, Fraunhofer– Denis Gillet, EPFL– Hugh Halford-Thompson, Blockchain Tech Ltd– William Knottenbelt, Imperial College– Konstantin Kudryavtsev, Ethcore– Andrew Law, OU– Patrina Law, OU– Giacomo Livan, UCL– Gary McKay, APII– Rebecca Migirov, Consensys– Titi Roman, Sintef– Philipp Schmidt, MIT Media Lab– Mike Sharples, OU– Elena Simperl, University of Southampton– Ashley Taylor, Consensys– Sergej Zerr, University of Southampton

• Graphics– Harriett Cornish, OU

blockchain.open.ac.uk