Prof. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a Research Affiliate at MIT Sloan School of Management, Fellow of the Initiative on the Digital Economy and of the MIT Connection Science initiative, a Guest Columnist at WSJ CIO Journal, and Chairman of the Advisory Board at r4 Technologies based in the United States participates in Risk Roundup to discuss The Future of Blockchain.
The Future of Blockchain
While the World Wide Web was built for everyone across nations to participate equally and have equal opportunity, the founding vision seems to be not quite working– and is, in fact, making everyone and everything more vulnerable– as centralized services that are being built on decentralized internet are finding unique ways to consolidate power—challenging the very fundamentals of net neutrality and level playing field.
Over the years, everyone and everything is going digital. When everyone and everything is getting digitized, the growing digital presence and activities bring nations an explosion in digital data—which is already becoming the most important asset for not only today but also for the coming tomorrow. Now, most of this digital data is locked up in centralized systems and owned and controlled by just a few globally. Since it is rapidly becoming commoditized, it is putting everyone and everything’s identity, privacy, and security at risk. Understandably, the ongoing inclination towards democratization and decentralization is, therefore, growing stronger, not only in our digital lives and cyberspace but also in geospace and space.
Amidst that blockchain technology seems to be bringing us the power and potential to transfer the consolidated digital power and control from a few central authorities/organizations and distribute them to the collective community.
So, as blockchain technology—that gives us the potential to bring democratization, decentralization, and trust in the digital interconnectivity gives us a tracking capability –and allows us to move away from centralized top-down structures and towards fully distributed decentralized approaches to how each component of a nation: that is government, industries, organizations, and academia operate – it is important to understand what is the future of blockchain—and where will it take us.
Time is now to talk about security risks emerging from the future of blockchain!
About the Author
Prof. Irving Wladawsky-Berger is a Research Affiliate at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and Fellow of the Initiative on the Digital Economy and of the MIT Connection Science initiative.
He retired from IBM in May of 2007 after a 37-year career with the company, where his primary focus was on innovation and technical strategy. He led a number of IBM’s companywide initiatives including the Internet, Supercomputing, and Linux. He’s been an Adviser on Digital Strategy and Innovation at Citigroup, at HBO, and at MasterCard. Since 2005 Dr. Wladawsky-Berger has been writing a weekly blog, irvingwb.com, which has also been published in the Wall Street Journal’s CIO Journal since April of 2012. He is a Senior Fellow of the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University; a Distinguished Associate of the Energy Futures Initiative; a member of the Advisory Board of USC’s Annenberg Innovation Lab and of AiRo Digital Labs; and a Director of the Board of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives. He was co-chair of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, as well as a founding member of the Computer Sciences and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council. He is a former member of the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratories, of the Board of Overseers for Fermilab, and of BP’s Technology Advisory Council. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A native of Cuba, he was named the 2001 Hispanic Engineer of the Year. Dr. Wladawsky-Berger received an M.S. and a Ph. D. in Physics from the University of Chicago.
About the Host of Risk Roundup
Jayshree Pandya (née Bhatt), Founder and CEO of Risk Group LLC, is a scientist, a visionary, a futurist, an expert in disruptive technologies, and a globally recognized strategic security risk intelligence expert with decades of experience in science and technology, technology trends, digital disruption, strategic security risks, and national preparedness.
Her doctorate work focused on hydrogen production by Halobacterium halobium, for which she received India’s National Young Scientist Award in Biochemistry. Her publications on this work have been cited in several books, journals, and reports published by governments, including a report from the United States Department of Energy (Review of Non-conventional Bioreactor technology by C, E Turick and M.E Mcllwain Prepared for the US Dept of Energy. Published September 1993). Her work on anti-cancer drugs also received worldwide attention and, amongst other citations, has been referenced in a report published by the World Health Organization (Review of Non-conventional Bioreactor technology by C, E Turick and M.E Mcllwain Prepared for the US Dept of Energy. Published September 1993).
In 1991, she was invited to come to the United States (under the Scientist Exchange Program) to continue research on hydrogen production and was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. Next, she researched atherosclerosis at the University of Chicago Medical School—followed by a job at Aurotech, a biotech company based in Wisconsin. As in her Ph.D. research, she used microorganisms to develop natural processes and technologies, and some of the projects she worked on were quite promising. While her doctorate and post-doctorate studies gave her the first taste of the power of interdisciplinary research, it also introduced her to the repressive power of institutional silos and inefficiencies. As a result, her physical location wasn’t the only thing that shifted in the 1990s; her focus did as well. Since Microbiology trained her to see changes in tiny organisms coming from natural selection, she began to see similar forces at work in the evolution of individuals as well as entities across nations: its government, industries, organizations, and academia (NGIOA), and society in general. It’s all the same basic mechanism. Her career took another turn after she was asked to consider risk management as part of a strategic planning effort by one of her employers. She quickly realized that most risk management is all process, with no actual benefit. That was the beginning of Risk Group, the strategic security risk research organization she founded in 2002, where she is passionately creating and managing cutting-edge security ventures that bring a futurist perspective to nations and all its components to improve innovation capacity and define and design new ideas, innovations, products, and services for security and sustainability.
A globally recognized thought leader and influencer, Jayshree is actively engaged in driving the thought leadership on existing and emerging technologies, technology transformation, and national preparedness. From the National Science Foundation to organizations from across nations, Jayshree is an invited speaker on emerging technologies, technology transformation, digital disruption, strategic security risks, industry risks to country risks. She is the author of the book, The Global Age: NGIOA @ Risk.
About Risk Roundup
Risk Roundup, a global initiative launched by Risk Group, is a security risk reporting for risks emerging from existing and emerging technologies, technology convergence, and transformation happening across cyberspace, geospace, and space. Risk Roundup is released in both audio (Podcast) and video (Webcast) format and is available for subscription at (Risk Group Website, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher Radio, Android, and Risk Group Professional Social Media).
About Risk Group
Risk Group LLC, a leading strategic security risk research and reporting organization, is a private organization committed to improving the state of risk-resilience through collective participation, and reporting of cyber-security, geo-security, and space-security risks in the spirit of global peace through risk management. Incorporated as a limited liability corporation and headquartered in Sugar land TX, Risk Group is independent, impartial, and not tied to any interests. Best known for its Risk Roundup initiative, Risk Group publishes benchmark Risk Roundup Webcast and Podcast reports on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Internet of Things, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Quantum Computing, Virtual Reality, Synthetic Biology, Big Data, Drones, Nanosatellites, Cyber-Security, Geo-Security, Space-Security, Cyber Warfare, Electronic Warfare, Dual-Use Technologies. Risk, Risk Management, Resilience, Wearables, Technology Trends, Strategic Security, Futurism, and much more. The rapidly growing Risk Roundup Community is a beacon of hope for the future of humanity.
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Understanding CryptoEconomics 