ABOUT THE SUMMIT

Unicom

About Unicom

10mins

Dr. Shankar Ramamoorthy, Professor - Information Science & Engineering, CMR Institute of Technology

Topic Abstract

Truth Triumphs: 4 Generations of Block Chain
Roughly a decade ago, the first practically applicable blockchain made a subtle, almost unnoticed entry into our world. Developed to be the technology underlying Bitcoin, the first ever cryptocurrency, blockchain was far more niche than it is today. Back then, if you interrupted a business executive at a meeting and asked him what blockchain was, he’d likely be clueless about it. Today, even if every person walking up and down the street might not know about it, a large section of business executives, entrepreneurs and governments definitely do.

The idea of the first generation of blockchain, developed by Bitcoin’s anonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto, was that of a distributed ledger of information, simultaneously validated by a large number of nodes spread out all over the world. Promising transparency, immutability, accountability and security, this blockchain began to gather speed as more and more cryptocurrencies (mostly forks of Bitcoin) like Litecoin.Com and Bitcoin Cashstarted coming to the fore with blockchain at their respective cores.The first generation of blockchain was characterized by the Proof of Work consensus mechanism, which necessitated the use of heavy mining hardware and expenditure of significant resources. It was a good start but soon problems started emerging in terms of scalability, interoperability, sustainability and speed. Till date, Bitcoin is one of the slowest cryptocurrencies out there, taking about 10 minutes to confirm a transaction.Nakamoto’s blockchain was mostly limited to facilitation of payments, at slow speeds and high costs. The promised security and immutability were often suspect as well, collapsing in the face of possible 51% attacks.

The second generation of blockchain led by ethereum in 2013, sought to overcome a few of these limitations.The new blockchain offered a world of expanding functionalities: from hosting blockchain smart contracts to decentralized applications, from tokenizing assets to supporting DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations). These still used the Proof of Work algorithm and continued to have high network fees and less-than-optimal speeds but fueled by the availability of new functionalities, Ethereum quickly became the darling of businesses, the go-to blockchain for enterprise use. NEO, Waves, BAT quickly followed suit.

The third generation of blockchain is still the new kid on the block, trying to fix the failings of the versions that have come before. Focusing on scaling up, the third generation blockchain networks are also trying to introduce greater interoperability and boost network speeds. Promoting cross chain transactions, using techniques such as sharding (particularly in the case of Ziliqa) and establishment of parallel chains are only some of the approaches being taken by these 3rd generation blockchain solutions.Using mostly Proof of Stake and other new consensus protocols, the third generation blockchain networks include notable examples like Cardano, IOTA, Nano and so on.Considering the fact that the third generation of blockchain is still finding its footing.

Basically, the 4th Blockchain is being developed as a blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform to cater to a plethora of industrial needs. Each peer-to-peer transaction is made by cells, each cell having 512 nodes grouped together based on space and time factors by the unique grouping algorithm. It is an interesting way to approach the efficiency and scalability problem, introducing brand new innovation to tackle existing issues and cater to mass requirements.Some other projects like Aergo and Insolar are also in the making, as far as fourth generation blockchain is concerned. Insolar is designed as a BaaS platform offering compliant, governance-friendly hybrid blockchain networks.

Araf Karsh Hamid, Co Founder / Chief Technology Officer, MetaMagic Global Inc

Topic Abstract

Prasanna Padmanabhan, Co-Founder, PiChain Innovations Pvt Ltd

Topic Abstract

Managing today’s supply chains—all the links to creating and distributing goods—is extraordinarily complex. Depending on the product, the supply chain can span over hundreds of stages, multiple geographical (international) locations, a multitude of invoices and payments, have several individuals and entities involved, and extend over months of time. Due to the complexity and lack of transparency of our current supply chains, there is interest in how blockchains might transform the supply chain and logistics industry.

Vijay Rajhans, Certified Blockchain Expert

Topic Abstract

As per PwC, AI will add up to $15.7 trillion to the world economy by 2030, and as a result, global GDP will rise by 14%. According to Gartner, business value added by Blockchain technology will increase to $3.1 trillion by the same year. As a result, these two undoubtedly are the highly discussed technologies today. The talk focusses on the convergence of Artificial Intelligence with Blockchain and how that is going to alter the global technology and business landscape over the next decades. The talk also focuses on the applications of AI and Blockchain across BFSI, Supply Chain, Retail, E-Commerce amongst other industries.

Before you are overwhelmed by questions as you course through the excellent learning sessions with our speakers, get answers and better insights to your doubts through 'Ask me Anything'. Here is an opportunity to undertake a balb session where you get to ask any question relative to the event and gain professional guidelines and cognisance form individuals with in depth knowledge on the subject matter. With this effective Q/A session we allow you to address the most burning questions by asking our team of influential and expert speakers.

S. Srinivasa Sivakumar, Chief Digital Advisor, Microsoft

Topic Abstract

Everyone's heard the hype about blockchain, but what are people really using it for? The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently released a paper called, “Building Block(chain)s for a Better Planet”. This is an overwhelmingly positive piece for blockchain, and proposes numerous areas where blockchain could make a big difference. In this session we'll explore and demo real world customer scenarios built on Azure Blockchain Service.

Vishvas Rao, Managing Director, Parkes and Rao Research International Private Limited

Topic Abstract

Most of the applications of Blockchain have been around Financial Services and Real estate.

However, “Food” which is the third most important ingredient for life to sustain on earth after air and water hasn’t been given its due. With organic farming picking up on large scale in parts of the world, it is becoming imperative that technology provides assistance to ensure end to end traceability of the product.

One of the key requirements of Organic Farming is to ensure that there is no chemical fertilizer that is used. We are working on an application that would provide a farmer to track his activities on a blockchain so as to ensure end to end traceability of the process that has been followed from the day the seeds were bought all the way till the produce reaches the store. End to end solution covering Farmers, Certification agencies, Processors and possibly Marketplace using a combination of Blockchain and Microservices is the need of the hour.

QR Codes for the consumers to check based on what they see on the product – Details from producer, geography, seeds used, the key milestones during the production phase, etc.

This session features the requirements and functional design of the project, supported by market research that was carried out to ascertain the potential for the solution.

Gururaj Rao, Engineering Lead & Blockchain Labs Lead, DXC Technology

Karthick Hari, Lead Consultant, DXC Technology

Topic Abstract

Blockchains, due to being decentralized, Peer to Peer Architecture based - differ fundamentally from current Enterprise Technologies . That Enterprise Blockchain use cases span multiple businesses, wherein copy of data is available in partner blockchain nodes, that they are immutable - calls for focus taking into additional aspects of Application Architecture / Design / Development / Deployment and Project Management. What are these aspects, how do they impact stakeholders and how these have made Blockchain Adoption slower - will be some of the themes that will be covered in the talk by alluding to Blockchain Problem Patterns, Industry Domain Business Process examples and Blockchain Platforms capability.