影响区块链应用的主要技术挑战有

区块链技术的发展迅猛，它已经成为金融、制造业和其他行业的重要创新技术，但是，它也面临着一些技术挑战，这些技术挑战将影响区块链应用的发展。本文将介绍三个主要的技术挑战，分别是可扩展性、安全性和隐私保护。

可扩展性是指区块链系统的能力，它可以扩展以满足不断增长的用户需求。现有的区块链系统存在着一些瓶颈，例如每秒交易数量有限，网络的可用性不高，等等。这些问题都会影响区块链系统的可扩展性，限制其在大规模应用中的发展。目前，解决这些问题的方法包括改进现有的共识机制，提高网络的可用性，改进网络结构，以及开发新的数据存储技术。

安全性是指区块链系统的能力，可以防止未经授权的访问和修改。由于区块链系统的分布式特性，任何一个节点的失败都可能导致系统的安全性受到威胁。因此，确保区块链系统的安全性是至关重要的。为此，必须采取有效的安全措施，例如加密算法、多方认证机制、安全测试等，以确保区块链系统的安全性。

隐私保护是指区块链系统的能力，可以有效保护用户的隐私。目前，区块链系统的大多数交易都是公开的，这意味着任何人都可以查看交易的详细信息。这可能会导致一些问题，例如恶意攻击者可以利用用户的交易信息来窃取财产。为了解决这个问题，必须开发新的隐私保护技术，例如零知识证明、基于区块链的隐私保护技术等，以有效保护用户的隐私。

总之，可扩展性、安全性和隐私保护是影响区块链应用的主要技术挑战。为了让区块链应用能够在大规模应用中发挥作用，必须解决这些技术挑战。

A. What are the existing problems with blockchain technology

1. Performance issues

Size issues

Block The requirements of the chain for data backup pose challenges to storage space. Blockchain requires that after a transaction is completed, it is broadcast to the entire network, and every node in the system must back up data.

Take Bitcoin as an example. The block data since the creation block has exceeded 60GB, and the amount of blockchain data is still increasing. This will bring problems to the operation of the Bitcoin Core client. A big challenge.

Processing speed issues

The Bitcoin blockchain currently processes a maximum of 6.67 transactions per second, and a confirmation time is about 10 minutes, which can easily cause congestion delays for a large number of transactions, which may Applications with small multiple transactions and highly time-sensitive transactions will be restricted.

Although there are some methods to overcome it, methods to comprehensively solve transaction efficiency still need to be discovered.

Energy consumption is too high

Thirdly, the computing power in the mining process does not produce additional actual social value, and also wastes a large amount of electronic resources. With the increasing popularity of currency, blockchain has gradually become a capital-intensive industry with high energy consumption.

2. Centralization problem

Inequality of nodes

First, in theory, every node in the distributed network should be treated equally , but in order to obtain rewards for mining, each node may increase its computing power to compete for hardware, resulting in node inequality and destroying the randomness of blockchain accounting rights.

Industrialized and large-scale mining has given rise to mining pools

Theoretically, if the mining pools collude to control more than 51% of the computing power for system supply, a dual Although the costs of payment far exceed the benefits in the actual process, the possibility of collusive supply cannot be denied.

3. Privacy and security issues

Private keys are easily stolen

First, the current blockchain uses an asymmetric key mechanism. It has high security, but the private key is stored locally and can be easily stolen by hackers.

The transparency of blockchain data can easily lead to privacy leaks

Every participant in the public chain can obtain a complete data backup, and the entire system is open and transparent. The currency protects privacy by isolating the connection between the transaction address and the holder’s true identity.

When the blockchain needs to carry more businesses, how nodes verify information and execute commands requires more consideration.

4. Upgrade and incentive issues

The number of participating nodes in the public chain is huge

Whether it is upgradingIt is still impossible to close the system and focus on fixing errors, so it may be necessary to consider relaxing the decentralization issue.

There is a competitive game between each node

Requires the improvement of incentive compatibility mechanism, how to enable self-interested nodes in the decentralized system to spontaneously carry out block data verification And accounting work, and designing a reasonable penalty function to suppress irrational competition is another challenge faced by the blockchain.

B. The blockchain industry is ushering in a new market trend. What are the bottlenecks in the development of the blockchain industry?

Blockchain technology is a new distributed foundation Architecture and computing paradigm that enable the sharing, replication and authorization of distributed ledgers. It has the characteristics of multi-point consensus and is difficult to tamper with. It solves the problem of how to enable cross-institutional trust transactions in business networks, connecting all parties involved in financial services, and brings challenges of breaking down data silos and improving data quality. It has the potential advantages of security and lower transaction costs. Enhance risk control capabilities and have broad application prospects in the financial field. The blockchain industry is ushering in a new market trend, and there are some bottlenecks in the development of the blockchain industry. Only by breaking through these bottlenecks can we usher in the spring of blockchain. bring better development.

Finally, the development of blockchain technology will bring certain network security issues. We must pay attention to and solve information security and network security issues. Blockchain technology is not inherently secure. Any software system inevitably has defects and vulnerabilities, and will face attacks from the Internet. Poorly designed and poorly managed blockchain systems can be vulnerable to attack. In applications in the financial industry, data is an asset, so we should have a comprehensive understanding of the security of the blockchain, and first put security design and self-control first to avoid the occurrence of Bitcoin theft.

C. What risks does the blockchain face that need to be addressed

Although the blockchain industry is experiencing rapid development driven by the influx of capital and talent, as an emerging industry , its frequent warnings about security vulnerabilities have triggered concerns about blockchain risks.

Yu Kequn, director of the National Information Technology Security Research Center, pointed out that the emergence of blockchain has brought a lot of expectations to people regarding issues such as privacy exposure, data leakage, information tampering, and online fraud. However, there are still many challenges in the security of blockchain.

Li Bin, assistant director of the China Information Security Evaluation Center, analyzed that the current blockchain is divided into three types: public chain, private chain, and alliance chain. No matter which type has different advantages in algorithms and protocols, There are security challenges in many aspects such as , usage, time limits and systems. What is particularly critical is that the current blockchain is still facing the 51% attack problem, that is, a node has the ability to successfully tamper and forge blockchain data by mastering more than 51% of the calculation examples in the entire network.

It is worth noting that in addition to the risk of external malicious attacks, the blockchain also faces the threat of its endogenous risks. Yu Kequn reminded,How to build a complete secure application system around the equipment, data, applications, encryption, authentication, permissions, etc. of the entire blockchain application system is an important issue that all parties must face.

Wu Jiazhi also analyzed that as an emerging industry, practitioners in the blockchain industry lack security awareness, resulting in the current blockchain-related software and hardware having a low security factor and a large number of security vulnerabilities. In addition, , there are many links in the entire blockchain ecosystem. In comparison, the relevant security practitioners are dispersed and it is difficult to form a joint force to solve the problem. Meeting the above challenges requires systematic solutions.

Content source: China News Network

D. New opportunities and challenges for blockchain enterprise applications

New opportunities and challenges for blockchain enterprise applications
New technologies come from the combination of existing technology modules. Once the power of the combination is superimposed, it will stimulate exponential economic growth. Economy is an expression of technological evolution.

Blockchain is actually a combination of several technologies, including peer-to-peer communication (P2P), distributed ledgers (also known as distributed storage), asymmetric encryption, etc. Once these technologies are combined, they will have a great impact on some new business models and economic forms, and these impacts are being revealed - now the world has entered an era called global automation, which is the fourth stage of our current informatization. stage.
We can call the Internet era that began in the 1990s and continues to the era represented by social media such as Facebook the pre-Internet era, that is, the first half of the Internet economy. The core of the rules in this first half is to improve productivity. Many technologies do not actually change the shape of enterprises and the economy. They achieve economic leaps by improving productivity. Now the new rules are called the era of automated global network economy. The core of the rules is to enhance connections and improve production relations, such as the sharing economy that has opened up a new business form. However, the current form of the sharing economy is still an economic model built with centralized Internet companies as the core. The current shared bicycles and Didi are a one-way economic model. In fact, they do not feed back the growth and improvement of value to users.
The global era of automation not only requires productivity-enhancing technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain edge computing, etc., but more importantly, it requires a new model to improve production relations. Blockchain is actually such a new technology that can bring a new shift in business models to everyone.
So the future is here. Among the current eight core technologies, including blockchain, Internet of Things, augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robots, drones, 3D printing, etc., only blockchain has made improvements. Production relations, technologies that enhance connections.
Microsoft believes that technologies such as mixed reality, artificial intelligence and quantum computing are revolutionary new technologies that will continue to improve productivity in the future. But in fact, blockchain is not a new technology, it is just an existing technologySome combinations, its value lies in creating a platform of trust. As Alan Weber, founder of Fast Company, said: The new economy starts with technology and ends with trust.
In November 2015, the cover of The Economist magazine was called trustmachine, which is the machine of trust, the promise of blockchain. In fact, it is announced from this perspective: Blockchain technology is actually the core technology of the future Internet 3.0. This technology will gradually be transmitted to many aspects of the entire social and economic life through upper-layer applications, providing support for many business models, industry operations and governance systems. Bring innovation. Blockchain builds a new type of Internet with value as the core, rather than the old generation Internet with information as the core.
2 Blockchain+ vs. Internet+
Blockchain integrates trust mechanisms and technology and will bring great changes to the world.
In the Web 1.0 era before 2005, e-commerce portal entrepreneurs basically used a large portal to start their business in a one-to-many manner.
The Web 2.0 era is the era of social networks and sharing economy, but in this ecosystem, core enterprises are still centralized, monopolizing user relationships and large amounts of data, enjoying the value of user contributions, and being able to decide rules at will. In this case, the so-called Internet + is an information model that is harmful to traditional enterprises.
The Web 3.0 era is a new global sharing economy based on the blockchain value network. It is decentralized, so there will be no oligarchic monopoly on innovation, interactions will be more spontaneous, and the scope of collaboration will be wider. Extensive, the impact will be more comprehensive and deeper.
Therefore, the best way to digitally transform and upgrade traditional enterprises or industries is not Internet+, but Blockchain+. Because Internet+ still needs to rely on a centralized, classical Internet enterprise. Although companies like Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, and Xiaomi are now at their peak, they are still essentially centralized enterprises. They formulate the rules of the game in the ecosystem and monopolize customer relationships and data.
We call blockchain+ web3.0, which actually has a higher dimension than traditional Internet companies and Internet ecological companies. When information was scarce in the past, it was necessary to build a hierarchical structure and center to improve the overall information transmission efficiency. But when there is enough information, the network of peer-to-peer relationships (P2P) will gradually replace it, and when these networks of peer-to-peer relationships are connected together, a high-dimensional additive value network can be formed. . Enterprises formed based on this network system are called consensus economic social enterprises.
The high-dimensional business model of blockchain+ has a stronger future-oriented imagination than the existing Internet ecosystem or companies such as Internet+ enterprises. Let’s review most traditional companies here: One-dimensional companies are engaged in engineering;The main business models are actually rent-seeking, resource monopoly, and customer relations; two-dimensional product companies have certain product development and marketing capabilities, but both of these are company forms in the industrial economy era, and their value curves are linear. Yes, if you invest one, you will get one; if you invest ten, you will get ten. Therefore, a company like Jack Ma with a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars actually conforms to the traditional neoclassical economic growth pattern due to so many years of accumulation, and its marginal returns are diminishing.
At Sanwei Internet Service Company, due to the addition of online service dimensions, data value-added services began to be provided. Its core is low-cost customer coverage, which reduces the service cost to customers, so its adaptability can be higher than In two dimensions, the price-to-earnings ratio of a company in this form can be as high as more than twenty times. The third-dimensional company can further open up the API and allow third parties to develop more applications on its platform. At the same time, it can connect service providers and users to form an online market. This constitutes a platform company. Platform The company's price-to-earnings ratio can exceed forty times.
When platform companies further open up their capabilities, combine resources such as data network brands and users with investment services, and empower partners, they will become Internet ecological enterprises like BAT. This ecosystem The price-to-earnings ratio of Internet companies in a centralized cluster may even exceed 100 times.
This is why these companies are desperately advocating Internet +. In fact, Internet+ does not create new value for traditional companies. It just uses the method of attracting stars to attract all the data, customer relationship channels, etc. of traditional companies to Internet ecological companies. They only play a subversive role in traditional enterprises, but they do not create greater value for society. They are still a value ecosystem with their own enterprises as the core.
Everyone has contributed to Jack Ma’s company for so many years, and has continuously contributed so many transactions and data to support his corporate price-earnings ratio. If you think this is not a particularly fair way, then we now have a new business model, which is blockchain. Through the blockchain + industry, an alliance ecosystem is formed, that is, the alliance chain. Even if it does not issue coins, it can have a higher dimension than existing Internet companies, because it is a cross-organization and cross-platform industry-oriented business processes, a secure distributed sharing, which will completely subvert the traditional enterprise ownership model.
The blockchain uses consensus mechanisms and beliefs to connect enterprises, which forms an industry chain, a decentralized social enterprise owned by the whole people, and can embed trust and security mechanisms without the need for a third party. In the autonomous agreement of the entire industry chain, the data of all relevant parties will be respected and protected on the chain. At the same time, if C-side users can be added in the future, and then through digital currencies, certificates or tokens, new business model dimensions can be added and greater value space can be opened up. That is to say, all businesses are combined with B2C business to form an industry palace for all employees.
This is what we call blockchainThe bright prospects of the business model that 3.0 brings to everyone are completely based on a decentralized high-dimensional value network. I have listed for you some entrepreneurial project companies in this field, whether in distributed cloud storage, decentralized secure social networking, distributed identity management, distributed copyright and digital asset management, Internet of Things smart contracts, public governance There are many 3.0 creative innovation companies in fields such as anti-counterfeiting and anti-fraud, and digital market transaction prediction.
Three Opportunities and Challenges of Blockchain
Most of the projects currently implemented are relatively easy to combine finance and digital asset management due to the inherent properties of blockchain technology. However, in fact, we have also seen that traditional industries are also becoming more and more popular. There are more and more new opportunities to combine blockchain. This market will reach 176 billion US dollars by 2025, and will reach 3.1 trillion US dollars by 2030. This is actually a very, very huge number.
There are actually many strange entrepreneurial projects in China, but now the government has imposed some restrictions last year. However, in the future, the government will have some new compliance requirements for digital currencies, and will gradually relax restrictions on blockchain infrastructure.
2018 is a very critical year for enterprises to go online. This is equivalent to 20 years ago when you talked to companies about enterprise internet. It sounded like a fantasy and they didn’t know how to start. But those who started exploring the Internet for enterprises early were precisely the group of pioneers from around 1997 to 2000. They eventually became the trendsetters of the previous generation of classical Internet. Therefore, 2018 is a very critical opportunity for traditional enterprises.
The main application scenarios of blockchain + are actually nothing more than several areas based on the core technology of blockchain, such as digital identity management, digital asset management, development and deployment of distributed applications, and the development and deployment of smart contracts. Services, these four main application scenarios combine some characteristics of the industry to provide enterprises with application implementation services.
Four Theoretical Pioneers of Blockchain
So enterprises need to fully refresh their understanding and upgrade the underlying commercial operating system in this round of opportunities. There are some disruptive innovations here, giving traditional industries and the public the opportunity to counterattack the classical Internet. I have listed a few books here. If you have time, you can read them and have a deeper understanding of blockchain. Although some of these books were written in the 1930s and 1970s, classics always have guiding significance.

The most famous is Schumpeter's theory of economic development. He believed that innovation is the fundamental cause of economic development.
Then Thomas Kuhn proposed that the technological paradigm revolution is not continuous. At a certain stage, it will cause a new revolution. When the revolution comes, many traditional enterprises will die, but at the same time new technologies will establish Business models and economic forms will explode.
Christensen’s main contribution is of great significance to how traditional enterprises can seize opportunities, avoid the innovator’s dilemma, and embrace new opportunities to achieve transformation and innovation.
Management in the UKStudy master, Charles Handy, his current book is called "The Second Curve", which mainly talks about how traditional enterprises can achieve leapfrog and transformation with the help of technological innovation and business model innovation.
5 Crossing the Second Curve

In terms of crossing the second curve, Microsoft’s own experience and lessons are actually worth learning from. Everyone knows that Microsoft was the overlord of the PC era. At that time, 76% of the industry's profits were divided between Microsoft and Intel. However, it also fell into the innovator's dilemma. It was the success of the PC that caused Microsoft to miss out on the mobile Internet. The opportunity has allowed companies such as Apple to overtake it, but Microsoft has not missed the opportunity of cloud computing. Microsoft's early layout in AI has given Microsoft a great lead in the world's smart cloud and blockchain. These experiences and lessons can be summarized to help traditional enterprises achieve digital transformation.
Microsoft has seized opportunities in artificial intelligence-led cloud computing, blockchain IoT edge computing, and mixed reality. The second curve has been achieved, and Microsoft will have some new layouts in the future, such as quantum computing, etc., which are some of Microsoft's own successful experiences. Of course, there are some lessons from failure. In terms of mobile Internet, Microsoft also acquired Nokia. In fact, Nokia is not worth acquiring at all, because Nokia has not crossed from the first curve to the second curve. In terms of mobile Internet, Nokia will be ignored by outsiders. Companies that have never done mobile Internet are easily defeated.
This kind of digital transformation of the enterprise industry, or the conversion of old and new kinetic energy, mainly helps traditional enterprises connect with external entrepreneurs, incubate entrepreneurial projects through propositions, and achieve transformation and innovation. Therefore, a new type of enterprise outsourcing innovation is needed. Incubation method. Because if the company does its own incubation, it will still be tied to the business trajectory of the first curve, so it can only be incremental innovation to improve the efficiency of existing products or services. For the second innovation, it needs to allow a certain space for trial and error, so it needs to use new methodologies to guide disruptive innovation.
It needs to be oriented towards value creation and growth, and cannot be tied to the current core business, because once tied to the current core business, all performance appraisal management mechanisms will fall into excessive path dependence, resulting in lock-in. In this case, it will not be able to jump out of the original business boundaries and will not be able to see changes in the external market. This is also the reason for Nokia's failure. Nokia strives for excellence in traditional mobile phones, and its management efficiency is very good. So when it was acquired by Microsoft, Nokia didn't know how it lost.
Nokia’s failure was actually due to its failure to see that disruption may not come from within your industry, but may also be intruders from the outside. That is to say, as said in "The Three-Body Problem": If I destroy you, it actually has nothing to do with you.
The second curve plan is to prevent traditional enterprises from falling into their own business development trajectories, so enterprises need transformation and customized accelerators to help them develop new business directions. andThis requires a mechanism to guarantee, because the original internal incubation of enterprises comes from the internal organizational structure process, so we must use external incubation methods to directly recruit outside entrepreneurs to supplement fresh blood, and then achieve transformation and innovation through hybridization. More attention must be paid to External markets and partners.
This will give entrepreneurs a great degree of freedom, and then encourage them with a high risk-reward ratio through the setting of company equity. As an enabler, the enterprise will provide business resources and start-up funds, but do not interfere too much in entrepreneurial projects. own operations and development. All companies need to do is observe, give feedback, and wait. If such a project can be hatched, it will be a great impetus for expanding corporate boundaries and activating corporate ecology.
Six application scenarios of blockchain
The following is a brief introduction to several blockchain application scenarios:

The first is blockchain + cross-border trade financial services. In fact, this involves many solutions, including exporters, importers, issuing banks, issuing letters of credit (LoC), etc. These actually require a mechanism to securely share data across agencies, organizations, and platforms. , and blockchain can just guarantee the realization of the solution. And through smart contract automation, when various conditions are met, clearing and settlement payments can be completed automatically without manual participation.
Cross-border trade finance involves many parties. If we follow the existing method, each party has its own system and some procedures need to be carried out repeatedly. Reconciliation needs to be confirmed by email and fax. It can take three to five weeks to complete a trade finance deal.
Now through the blockchain, all parties in trade finance can share the data on the ledger, and the member units of the alliance chain can be updated synchronously. The use of smart contracts can realize automatic and synchronous execution of multiple parties, so that end-to-end The end-end business process is shortened from three to five weeks to two or three days, and operations that originally required repeated confirmation can be greatly simplified. It only takes about 5 steps to achieve a closed loop of trade finance.

Blockchain can also be used to improve medical and health services. Patients have certain rights to decide who to share their medical history and other information with, to what extent, for how long, etc. Blockchain can effectively solve problems that traditional, decentralized medical drug R&D, physical examinations and other institutional systems cannot solve. This requires the establishment of a personal health data bank.

Blockchain can also be used for cold chain logistics and end-to-end food safety traceability services. From the origin of food to slaughtering, processing, and transportation, all data parameters can be uploaded to the chain, which will provide an end-to-end security guarantee.
For example, the salmon in Norway is doing food safety traceability through a blockchain company, and in this process, because the data of all parties are on the chain, he can later pass Self-service smart contracts realize payment and settlement of supply chain finance based on event triggers.Doing so greatly improves the efficiency of the entire supply chain.

Blockchain can also provide services in the education and employment markets. School research institutions, examination institutions, employers, and government departments can safely share students’ academic qualifications, certificates, papers and other data.

The most important thing is that blockchain can also realize P2P peer-to-peer, microgrid power trading or energy trading services. For example, during the renovation of the old city in Brooklyn, photovoltaic solar panels were added to the roofs of houses to generate electricity. The electricity generated is not sold to power energy companies, but is made into a microgrid in the community and then traded through virtual currency.
This model can be further expanded, and the solar energy produced on the roof can be further used as a distributed charging pile, and then internal household electricity, security electricity, smart door locks, etc. can be uploaded to this blockchain. Provide overall shared services.

E. What challenges does the blockchain currently face

What challenges does the blockchain currently face
At this stage, application projects in the blockchain field are mainly divided into There are two aspects: one is new business models that are more compatible with blockchain technology, such as cross-border payments, supply chain finance, product traceability and other scenarios; the other is applications based on reform of existing centralized businesses, that is, the use of Token economic incentive mechanism.
With the development of technology, the number of application projects in this field is expanding rapidly. Many people believe that 2018 will be the year when blockchain will truly integrate with the real economy and explode. However, blockchain technology is still in its early development stage and faces challenges including the regulatory environment, lack of talent, and technical awareness.

From a technical perspective, applying blockchain technology to actual industry scenarios requires solving issues such as transaction speed, data consensus, and node maintenance. The current Bitcoin network can only process seven transactions per second, and the leading Hyperledger technology can only reach the level of 200 to 300 transactions; compared with the centralized system that can process tens of thousands of transactions per second, there is still a gap. Large distances. In addition, the current lack of relevant incentive mechanisms in the field makes it difficult for participating nodes to operate in an orderly manner. From a regulatory perspective, although most countries are actively embracing blockchain technology, there are currently no relatively complete regulatory regulations and industry standards. Inappropriate regulatory measures may hinder the innovative development of such emerging technologies.
Affected by various factors such as the underlying technology that needs to be further matured, the lack of public chain platforms for smart contracts, the lack of ecological compatibility of various Tokens, and unclear government supervision; at this stage, the implementation of blockchain application projects is relatively slow, and at the same time, It shows that the quality of projects varies from good to bad. For this reason, analysts said that compared with general-purpose blockchains, what will achieve breakthroughs in the short term may be focused blockchains for specific scenarios and applications.

F. One of the top ten challenges of blockchain: Unsustainable energy consumption

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Unsustainable energy consumption

In these early stages of the Bitcoin blockchain, the proof-of-work mechanism described in Chapter 2 is very important to building people's trust. Many years later, when we look back, we should understand the ingenuity of this mechanism, which solves the problems of minting and distributing new Bitcoins, as well as assigning identities and preventing double spending.

This is truly remarkable, but according to some critics of cryptocurrencies that use proof-of-work to maintain network security and anonymity, such energy consumption is unsustainable.

The process of hashing and verifying pending transactions using the SHA-256 algorithm consumes a lot of power.

1.1 Bitcoin mining energy consumption statistics

It is estimated that the energy consumption of the Bitcoin network is enough to match the electricity consumption of 700 ordinary households in the United States or the entire island of Cyprus. The amount of power is comparable. This exceeds 4.409 billion kilowatt hours, corresponding to a lot of carbon emissions, and this design is deliberate.

In early 2015, The New Republic magazine reported that the total processing power of the Bitcoin network is hundreds of times the cumulative processing power of the world's top 500 supercomputers. "Processing and protecting more than $3 billion worth of Bitcoin in circulation requires more than $100 million in electricity bills each year and generates corresponding carbon emissions."

Nathan, the author of this article Schneider wrote something that is still fresh in our minds: “All this computing power that could have been used to cure cancer or explore the universe is now being locked up in machines that do nothing but process Bitcoin-type transactions. do nothing".

1.2 Two details of energy consumption

There are two details here. The first is about the electricity cost used to run the machines, and the second is the power provided for these machines. The cost of electricity required for cooling devices (so that machines are not damaged by high temperatures).

Here's a rule of thumb: for every $1 of electricity your computer consumes, it requires 50 cents of electricity to cool it down.

As the value of Bitcoin increases, the competition to mine new Bitcoins also intensifies; as more computing power is invested in mining, the computational problems that miners need to solve increase. becomes more difficult.

The total computing power of the Bitcoin network is measured in hashrate. Gavin Andresen explained: "Assume that in the future each block can contain millions of transactions, and each transaction will pay an average transaction fee of $1. In this way, miners will be able to get millionsdollars in return, and they spend less than that on electricity to do the job. This is how the economics of proof of work work. The price of Bitcoin and the reward that can be obtained for a block determine the total computing power of the entire network. ”

In the past two years, the total computing power of the Bitcoin network has been increasing significantly, increasing nearly 45 times in one year. This trend will also bring more energy consumption.

"The price of not having a centralized authority is energy consumption," said Eric Jennings, CEO of Filament, an industrial wireless sensor network company.

1.3 Currency and Energy Nexus

“Any form of currency has some relationship to energy,” said Bitpay’s Stephen Pell, repurposing the metaphor of gold. “Gold is very rare on Earth. , because the formation of gold requires a lot of energy. "Gold's high value comes from its physical properties, which are derived from energy.

From one perspective, the electricity consumed makes sense. Digital currency exchange service ShapeShift Founder Eric Voorhees believes criticism that calls the energy spent on Bitcoin mining a waste is unfair. “This electricity is consumed for a reason, it provides a real service, which is to maintain the security of these payments. ”

There are only three types of user groups on the blockchain that can safely achieve decentralization, and each type of user corresponds to a type of consensus algorithm: owners of computing power correspond to standard work Proof-of-quantity algorithm; shareholders correspond to various proof-of-stake algorithms in wallet software; and members in social networks correspond to "confederation-style" consensus algorithms.

It should be noted that among these consensus mechanisms There is only one with the term "computing power". Ethereum 2.0 will be built on a proof-of-stake model, while Ripple is built on a consortium model - a network like SWIFT (Global Secure Financial Information Network). A small, controlled organization like a service provider, where authorized groups reach consensus on the state of the blockchain. These systems do not consume as much power as the Bitcoin blockchain.

Global The brightest technologists are looking for innovative solutions to the problem of energy consumption, exploring more efficient equipment and the use of renewable energy sources. And, as computers become more intelligent, they will undoubtedly be able to provide their own solutions Roger Ver believes, “If the smartest person’s IQ can reach 200, imagine that the IQ of artificial intelligence can reach 250, 500, 5000 or even 5 million. If we humans need a solution, there will always be one. ”

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Article Interpretation

1. The process of hashing and verifying pending transactions using the SHA-256 algorithm consumes a lot of power.

2. Processing and protecting more than $3 billion worth of Bitcoin in circulation requires more than $100 million in electricity bills every year and will also produce corresponding carbon emissions.

3. The electricity bill includes: first, the electricity bill for running the machines, and second, the electricity bill for the cooling devices provided for these machines (so that the machines are not damaged by high temperatures).

4. As the value of Bitcoin increases, the competition to mine new Bitcoins also intensifies; as more computing power is invested in mining, miners need to solve computational problems It will become more difficult again.

5. There are only three types of user groups on the blockchain that can safely achieve decentralization, and each type of user corresponds to a type of consensus algorithm: owners of computing power correspond to standard Workload proof algorithm; shareholders correspond to various equity proof algorithms in the wallet software; and members in the social network correspond to the "alliance-style" consensus algorithm.

Meet Teacher Yunpeng:

Founder of "Blockchain Reading Club", EOS Gravity Zone Gravity Node, Differentiated Master Node/Project Analyst, and GOGOC community co-initiator People etc.

G. What are the supply chain challenges in blockchain technology

Blockchain technology is best known in the financial sector: its origins are related to those who rely on blockchain Cryptocurrency blends transparency and unparalleled security to accelerate its success. Essentially, through a decentralized distributed digital ledger, the blockchain can record any valuable transaction in the entire computer system, so that no record can be silently changed without the consensus of the entire computer system. .
In the financial sector, blockchain is explored and actively used to conduct financial transactions and even manage contracts. For supply chains, the benefits extend beyond simply keeping accurate records: Blockchain radically reduces excessive time spent on paperwork and authorizations. At present, most product or material delivery delays are due to these two points. But on the blockchain, there is no need to spend time verifying previous records. Only a digital signature is needed to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of digital paper records.
Verify authenticity
Taking the diamond trade as an example, currently, consumers must rely on certificates to verify the authenticity of gemstones. A piece of paper can be easily changed, and many diamond owners, when approached for appraisal with the intention of selling, find that their flawless diamond is worth little more than a glass or smaller diamond.
Using blockchain, diamonds can be purchased from the wet marketWhen mined, it is uniquely barcoded as rough and circulates throughout the supply chain while maintaining the integrity of its information, changes made and records of handling. Throughout the supply chain, authenticity can be verified and the absence of unauthorized alterations, so the end buyer is able to trace the origin of the diamond (and indeed any other material used to make the final product) and its entire circulation.
Similarly, with blockchain, the origin, service and ownership history of used cars can be traced, thereby reducing service fraud (such as where odometers are recalibrated) and the number of stolen vehicles in circulation, and it is also hoped that these The industry was completely terminated.
Transparency and Security
Security and transparency are not terms that usually go hand in hand, but on blockchain, they do. As mentioned above, blockchain security does not allow any form of unauthorized changes and ensures data authenticity. By storing "blocks" of information that are identical and require collective approval on its network, blockchain cannot be controlled by any single entity and has no single point of failure, making it the most secure platform to date.
Blockchain is able to provide transparency, however, it is programmed in a way that only allows authorized entities to access information relevant to their specific interests. For example, a buyer may be able to view transaction history but will be denied access to sensitive or personal information such as address.
From a compliance perspective, this helps ensure that all parties comply with laws, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information (PoPI), while still being able to share or access information with Information related to parts of their own supply chain.
Blockchain technology has many application examples, and supply chain is one of them. However, due to the complexity and number of parties involved in the supply chain, blockchain is considered to be the perfect solution to all challenges to date, including security, latency and authenticity.

H. What are the challenges and prospects of blockchain-enabled supply chains

With the continuous development of blockchain technology, supply chains are expected to become the high ground of blockchain applications. . How to play the role of this technology in promoting data sharing, optimizing business processes, reducing operating costs, improving collaboration efficiency, and building a trustworthy system has been discussed by all sectors of society. Existing research has not conducted in-depth discussions on the changes brought by emerging technologies to the supply chain. The development and research status of blockchain have been analyzed, and the technology's effects on transparency in supply, intelligence in manufacturing, and logistics have been discussed. The opportunities and challenges brought by security, platformization in sales, and ecology in governance; based on an in-depth analysis of different operational links, explore how the blockchain empowers the supply chain, and further, from the perspective of blockchain The research results and applications in the field of supply chain are reviewed through three approaches: information sharing, information traceability and trust establishment of chain-empowering supply chain; finally, the future application of blockchain technology in supply chain management is analyzed from two aspects: application exploration and scientific research. The research directions are prospected,In order to support the research and development of emerging cross-fields and bring inspiration to supply chain management practice.
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