personal data and blockchain: opportunities and challenges - michele nati - lead technologist...

Personal data and blockchain: Opportunities and Challenges MyData 2016 Conference Day 1, August 31st, Helsinki Session: Blockchain and Personal Data

Michele Nati Lead Technologist Personal Data and Trust Digital Catapult, London @michelenati

Personal Data: Opportunities

•  Overall financial benefit

•  £15bn untapped wealth for UK consumers

•  The incentive to share •  30% of consumers believe “to improve

services and benefit” is the most important incen5ve for sharing personal data

•  How to incentivize •  43% said the main incen=ve for sharing

personal data is if it was going to be used to improve society

Personal Data and Trust Review: h<ps://www.digitalcatapultcentre.org.uk/pdtreview/

Personal Data: Barriers

•  Trust •  44% of consumers trust the public sector

most with their personal data •  2% choose telecoms as the most trusted

sector •  30% feel the retail sector is not clear on

how use their personal data

•  Consent •  65% of consumers are insure if data is

shared without their consent

•  Loosing control •  76% of consumers feel they have no

control over how their data is shared or who with

Personal Data and Trust Review: h<ps://www.digitalcatapultcentre.org.uk/pdtreview/

Personal Data Ecosystem

•  How data can be linked together?

•  How access can be granted and controlled?

•  How all involved parties can trust each others?

•  How the right incentives can be created?

Blockchain in 2015

h<p://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-‐cycle.jsp

Blockchain in 2016

h<p://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-‐cycle.jsp

Blockchain Ecosystem

•  Blockchain: business case vs trust case •  Bitcoin: (and alt-coins) interoperable

incentives within the ecosystem •  Smart Contracts: consent management •  Decentralized and Autonomous

Organizations (DAOs): data sharing for social benefits and causes

Do you need blockchain?

1.   Consensus – is the use case benefiting from agreement across all the parties that each transaction is validated without 3rd party?

2.   Provenance – is the maintenance of a complete audit trail important for the use case?

3.   Immutability – is it important that the trail of transactions cannot be altered?

4.   Liquid trust – is there a need for an agreed “system of record” trusted by the all network?

Blockchain and identity

•  Role in the Personal Data ecosystem •  Link all the data to one individual •  Be<er and personalized services – combining different a<ributes

•  Identities should be •  Sovereign •  Unique and interoperable •  Verified •  Mul5ple and context-‐based (mul5ple personas)

•  Blockchain role •  (Decentralized) User-‐managed •  Consensus – new forms of iden5ty (for unbanked) •  Notary func5on -‐ Integrity •  Audit trail – non-‐repudiable •  Confiden5ality? (requires some thoughts)

(Attributes) Verification might still require 3rd party

BC and PD ecosystem: An example

Blockchain and Personal Data: An example Benefits distribution and tracking •  Assign coins with clause on how they are

spent (alt-coin) •  Require to verify identities Possible Risks (to address): •  (might) Leak privacy on people identity (e.g.

zero-knowledge proof required) •  Pseudonyms could be de-anonymized •  Deal with malicious behavior (in ethical way;

this might require third party authorities) h<p://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-‐36785872

Blockchain evolution

h<ps://www.digitale-‐exzellenz.de/die-‐blockchain-‐evolu5on/

2009 BitCoin blockchain implementa5on -‐  Criminal ac5vity -‐  2016: AML EU regula5on h<p://ec.europa.eu/jus5ce/criminal/document/files/aml-‐direc5ve_en.pdf



2013 Ethereum Smart Contracts presented -‐  Security and scalability concerns -‐  July 2015 launch aber crowdsale campaign



2016 May daohub.org launch -‐  DAO hacked -‐  June 2016 hard fork



? ML/AI will run organiza5ons -‐  What kind of control we need? -‐  How we guarantee ethical decision?

Governance in decentralized systems •  Everybody can use blockchain, run smart

contracts, participate to DAOs •  But who takes decisions? •  Currently developers and miners •  SW licenses generally disclaim all liabili5es

•  Who should be accountable for malicious behavior?

•  Not yet well-‐defined •  Shall core developers and miners be considered as fiduciaries? (duty of care,

loyalty and good faith)

•  What governance structure will be required?

THANK YOU!

#DigiCatapult

[email protected]

0300 1233 101

Digital Catapult

digicatapult.org.uk

/DigitalCatapult

@DigitalCatapult

personal data and blockchain: opportunities and challenges - michele nati - lead technologist...

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