Technology Trends/Blockchain
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Aurora design system logo | |
Aurora design system | |
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Developer | Digital Collaboration Division |
Initial release | September 24, 2018 |
Latest version | V1, September 24, 2018 |
Website | design.gccollab.ca |
UI kit | Download UI kit |
GitHub repository | Github Repository |
Aurora design system is a central design guide developed in 2018 by the Digital Collaboration Division within the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat of the Government of Canada. It was built through a collaborative effort between various designers, developers and writers across the Government of Canada.
Lead by the Digital Collaboration Division at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Aurora design system was created in collaboration with the Canadian Digital Service: Talent Cloud, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and other individuals within Government of Canada. Aurora design system was created to standardize the visual language and user experience of the Open Accessible Digital Workplace's online applications and tools.
1. Business Brief
Blockchain is a list of digital records (called blocks) that are securely linked together to form a chain using secure encryption and time stamps. Blockchains form a digital ledger, which is a history of transaction records that can be accessed by multiple users but cannot be individually modified. The theory behind blockchain was first described in 1991. The desire was to create a system in which documents could be timestamped and linked together digitally or cryptographically. In 2008, someone or a group of people, known as Satoshi Nakamoto, created the first cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin. The creation of Bitcoin in 2008 also unveiled the technology behind it - Blockchain. Blockchain provides the means for recording bitcoin transactions (as a shared ledger), which can be used to record any transaction and track the movement of any asset that is tangible, intangible or digital. Due to increasing mistrust around data sharing by some large corporations, as well as the financial crisis earlier that year, there was a growing desire for a means in which personal data or currency could be held individually. It needed to be decentralized and needed to reduce the requirement for middlemen, such as banks, brokers, or insurance companies. As the first of its kind, blockchain technology was revolutionary. While blockchain technology has begun to expand since its creation, when it first began, users were exclusively individuals. While individual uses involving cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin are still in existence, companies such as Ethereum, Golem, and Blockstack have since emerged and also employ blockchain technology for the rendering of “smart contracts” between individual parties, the sharing of computer processing power and open-source app development respectively. However, the technology is still deemed immature and underutilized. Of the respondents to Gartner’s 2018 CIO Survey, only 1% have invested in and deployed blockchain technology.
2. Technology Brief
In contrast to traditional records of transactions, which often require an intermediary such as a bank or other administrator, and involve multiple records of the same transaction, the data or transaction records contained within a blockchain are decentralized. For example, in a traditional purchase, a consumer would have a record, the merchant would have a record, a supplier would have a record, and an auditor or accountant would have a record. The bank would also have a record. All of these records are kept separately. Therefore, this process requires a great deal of trust between the individual parties that one record will not be tampered with or lost. With a blockchain transaction, each of the parties involved (called nodes, users or miners), all have the same replica of a ledger, which is contained in the blockchain on a peer-to-peer (or node-to-node) network. As a result, the bank and the traditional merchant databases traditionally used to record and organize the data in ledger would be eliminated (i.e. transaction time and date, product, buyer). In order to form a block or a blockchain, each user requires a specialized computer and mining software. A blockchain is managed and verified collaboratively on a network accessed by multiple users or nodes. These users work collaboratively and use mining and “consensus algorithms” to solve complex mathematical problems. A consensus algorithm is an agreed-upon process for solving calculations and there are several used in blockchain technology depending on the type of calculation to be solved and the type of data to be verified. Blockchain’s decentralized, open and cryptographic nature allows people to trust each other and perform perform peer to peer transactions, which removes the need for intermediaries. It is resistant to hacking attacks that impact centralized intermediaries like banks because to succeed, an attacker would need to hack both the specific block in a blockchain as well as every one of the other potentially million ledgers in the network simultaneously. This would be a difficult endeavor given that the blocks are secured with both public and private keys and require verification by multiple individual users and computers. Even if it were possible, they would also need to update every subsequent transaction in the chain and overwrite every other copy of the ledger in the network to ensure integrity of the new chain. Despite this natural resistance to attacks, it was reported in the MIT Technology Review that security holes are increasingly appearing in cryptocurrency and smart contract platforms. In some cases, the security issues are fundamental to the way the platforms were built. By gaining control of more than half of the network’s computer power, a hacker was attempting to rewrite the transaction history of the exchange platform for cryptocurrency called Coinbase, allowing for the same cryptocurrency to be spent more than once to a total value of $1.1 million.
3. Industry Usage
The most well-known use of blockchain is in support of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. A digital currency launched in 2009, Bitcoin does not rely on a monetary authority to monitor verify or approve transactions, but rather relies on a peer-to-peer computer network made up of its users’ machines to do that. Blockchain can be used for all sorts of inter-organizational cooperation. In 2017, Harvard Business Review estimated that approximately 15% of banks are expected to be using blockchain. Although Bitcoin is the first and most well-known use of the blockchain technology, it is only one of about seven hundred applications that use the blockchain distributed ledger system. Blockchain is a digital ledger on top of which organizations can build trusted applications, via a secure chain of custody for digital records.
4. Canadian Government Use
Canada does not currently have a federal policy on blockchain. While blockchain is an important emerging technology, how it could be used by the Government remains to be seen. At this point, the ideal GC use case for blockchain would be a system of public record to register secure transactions from multiple contributors toward distributing a single source of truth in a non-refutable fashion. According to Gartner, there is no Government around the world that is operating a true blockchain initiative , although some (State of Georgia, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirate) are operating pseudo-initiatives and starting to experiment with the technology. Treasury Board of Canada notes highlights a few specific initiatives: Estonia uses an eHealth Foundation partnership to accelerate blockchain-based systems to ensure security, transparency, and auditability of patient healthcare records. Singapore employs the use of blockchain to prevent traders from defrauding banks through a unique distributed ledger-based system focused on preventing invoice fraud. In 2017, “The Blockchain Corridor: Building an Innovation Economy in the 2nd Era of the Internet” was developed, discussing ways to turn Canada into a global hub for the “Blockchain revolution.” Written by a high-tech think tank and prepared for / partially funded by the federal Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED), the report lays out a few proposals regarding how to cement Canada’s role as a world leader in blockchain technology. The Canadian Government announced in July 2017 the intention to run at least 6 select pilot projects on the use of blockchain. This included establishing a digital economy commission, which will be tasked with developing solid recommendations regarding how Canada can become a leader in developing technologies such as blockchain, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and self-driving vehicles. It also recommended getting governments currently using blockchain to transform their own operations and provide examples of how the technology can benefit public sectors in Canada and abroad. Governments could use blockchain to verify the payment of taxes and manage public services more efficiently.