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Blockchain enables digital provenance by having everything on the nodes to have verifiable proof of each step of the transaction.
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In a normal database you can change, edit, and delete entries.
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It can ensure the highest quality and help in supplier disputes, helping to avoid grey market areas by showing where the product comes each step of the way.
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Blockquote How does blockchain enable digital provenance?
By making past immutable. “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” © 1984
Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?
Because it doesn’t have history as a first-class un-removable citizen.
Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?
It makes reputation provable.
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- Data is written to the blockchain and can’t be deleted.
- Unlike the blockchain that utilizes multiple computers that run the same data on each system, a normal database or computer can be hacked, crash or be overwritten.
- Real time auditing where the transaction layer and the auditing layer both happen at the same time. This also removes the trust factor.
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You can see where something has come from because the records can’t be erased. A public ledger is used so that anyone can check anything. You do not need permission to add to the public register.
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The information in a normal database is centralised so instead of having provenance you need to trust in the claims of the person controlling the database.
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Businesses do not have to trust who they transact with. The transaction and accounting happen together. Businesses do not have to use extra time and money in auditing. Businesses can get reliable information and see where they have problems.
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How does blockchain enable digital provenance?
It allows to track the provenance of every transaction, the transactions cannot be removed. -
Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?
Th transactions can be removed or erased, they are centralized. -
Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?
It can be verified by anyone, with real time auditing, and we can remove trust from equation.
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Homework on Provenance - Questions
1. How does blockchain enable digital provenance?
Digital provenance is about knowing without any doubt that a piece of data truthful, but its entire history is also truthful.
Blockchain is a type of database which can only be written to, but not altered. It is a public ledger which is secured mathematically from tampering. Everything that has every occurred on a blockchain is immutable or permanent. This makes it perfect for creating a secure transparent public record of everything that has happened in the database since its inception. Due to its decentralized nature it is a highly available and secure technology which cannot be easily manipulated like traditional databases.
2 Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?
A normal database allows for records to be edited or changed. There are traditional high availability databases, and there are traditional distributed or decentralized databases, but they are not immutable. This means that the concept of being immutable does not exist in other types of normal databases. A normal database can be audited, backed up, and then manipulation can be detected, but not in real time. Blockchains are form of public digital ledgers and they are far superior because they can immediately allow for validation of any data’s current state, as well as its entire history.
3 Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?
Our day to day lives are built on assumptions and these assumptions often lead to a great deal of inefficiencies or inaccurate conclusions being drawn from data due to these assumptions. Digital provenance allows for more efficient communication and data sharing between consumers or businesses. Assumptions also lead to deceptive marketing practices not allowing companies or consumers to verify ingredients or sourcing. Digital provenance can help society build on less trust or assumptions and more on verification. Don’t trust, verify.
One example would be the sales qualification process or underwriting process for an insurance company. Many businesses must often rely on unverifiable data from their customers or potential customers. When a company is shopping for insurance there are many questions which cannot be verified by the insurer such as actual insurance assets, history of some types of insurance, amounts of coverage, accurate financial history, accurate loss history, etc. Consumers or salespeople learn to game the system over time and in turn this impacts the risk models because they are now not grouping similar risks as intended by the actuaries. In turn these actuaries will then make decisions based on loss data making even more far fetched assumptions when adverse results occur and the data is built on many assumptions that were ultimately inaccurate.
Say that you are an organic food retailer and your business model is to only sell the highest quality products to your customers. Your customers come to you because of trust and having a highly curated selection of products. While a business owner and consumer can do some level of research there is some level of trust which is required. Things like ingredients, processes, and sourcing may not be as they are advertised. Consumers can very quickly turn on brands and suppliers which source ingredients from conflict zones, slave like labor conditions, and deceptive practices when it comes to the ingredients in a product. Manufacturing and supply chains are built on a high degree of trust.
Digital provenance provides a much higher degree of certainty of the accuracy of things like ingredients, processes, and source. The retailer in the example above now can be more prudent in selecting products which are of the highest quality for their customers. Consumers would in turn be able to verify all the information about the products they are purchasing.
Digital provenance at your fingertips for anyone is such a new concept that we have not even scratched the surface for how many different ways it can be used to improve business operations or decisions for the end consumers.
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How does blockchain enable digital provenance?
Supplychain
Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?
A lack of audit trails / supply chain validation. In other words the current process is opaque.
Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?
Immutable proof regardless as to when an audit occurs. If there was ownership, or records of transactions on the blockchain this is available at anytime from anywhere to be audited. Companies establish global trust and nonrepudiation of historical corporate ethics.
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Homework on Provenance - Questions
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How does blockchain enable digital provenance?
The ability of trustless transactions/communications. -
Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?
Due to Trust, and Credibility. -
Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?
It has the possibilities and ability to bypass human-touch-interaction per say; and also provides a lineage to its origin. Imagine if we knew our ancestors by their first name/location/birth/etc., 20, 30 generations back with precision?
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The blockchain enables digital provenance because it is a public ledger. Once ownership is recorded on the blockchain it is immutable and anybody can view it.
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Normal databases typically have barriers to entry - you can only access it through special passwords and it is managed by people in whom you need to trust. Blockchain is widely accessible and trustless, which makes it more efficient for provenance.
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It makes it easier and cheaper to track provenance, which is beneficial to businesses.
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- How does blockchain enable digital provenance?
Blockchain enables digital provenance through operating in a trustless manner, based on math & and verifying the origin of products. With the blockchain’s use of a network of computers to consistently, in-real time verify the information that is being added on the blockchain illegitimate information never passes through. All interactions are recorded forever, and cannot be edited by anybody.
With auditing, this allows the accounting layer & transactional layer to merge, whereas in traditional databases they are completely separate. Producing the need for more labour, and more risk for error, as well as more resources used.
- Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?
A normal database doesn’t bring the same provenance due to the processing layers being separated, when you have a transaction is doesn’t hold all information a receipt does, which brings need to analyse two datasets in order to come to a conclusion.
With a public ledger, it removes the need for centralized authorities only having access to the information, which makes it accessible and transparent. Old methods are easily corrupt & tampered with.
- Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?
With the blockchain, it merges the receipt and the transaction, allowing for seamless & trustless analyzation of financial transactions as well as supply chain processing. Food, origin of ingredients, amount of ingredients and state of product are transparent and leaves nothing down to trusting a supplier is providing you with honest information. As well as fashion, with question of who produced the garments & in what conditions they were working.
It creates a cheaper, more efficient & transparent environment rather than an opaque environment.
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The blockchain combines the accounting layer and transactional layer layer from Tradfi. It contains a record of every transaction validated by the network. Once an entry is made it may not be edited or deleted. Subsequently, every aspect of a transaction on the blockchain can be traced and verified in real time making the process trustless. These features of blockchain technology are at the heart of digital provenance.
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Normal databases cannot be considered ‘Trustless’ because the ability exists to edit or remove entries - and provenance relies on operations being trustless. On the other hand, with blockchain, trust is built into the network. Digital provenance is a consequence of using blockchain technology and occurs as naturally as breathing.
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Wow this is a deceptively simple question, I could write a book in reply… Well, businesses only exist for one reason and that is to earn money. Therefore, there can be only one reason why digital provenance is such a great benefit - it makes money. The specific applications are numerous from tracking inventories to tracking consumer spending habits - but ultimately, that is it.
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- A blockchain allows to track the provenance of any given transaction. Every transaction is written on the blockchain or ledger and cannot be removed (immutability).
- Because in a central database, a transaction can be removed or erased. If the database crashes, data can be lost.
- No need to trust any intermediate Person or Institution.
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- Blockchain can be viewed as a public Database where anyone can see all the transactions ever added to the blockchain making all the data traceable.
- When it comes to normal databases, whoever has access to them can add and remove data. The situation is different with a blockchain, as data can only be added to it, it can’t be removed. Once transaction has been approved, it stayed there forever.
- Digital provenance removes trust from the equation. Once data has been added to the blockchain, it can’t be removed and tampered with, making it a single point of truth.
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- The fact that blockchain transactions can be publically traced back to the very first block, and that they cannot be modified once written, is unique and a cornerstone of digital provenance.
- A normal database is centralized and permissioned and its structure, rules and content can be altered by the authority controlling the database. The database requires a trustworthy controller so that the database itself can be trusted.
- Businesses usually operate with partners within their domain or supply chain in order to deliver goods and services to their clients. Digital provenance enables businesses to verify information provided by their partners (e.g. suppliers) instead of having to rely on trust alone.
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Blockchain enables digital provenance by having a public ledger that records the transaction and the auditing information. (Accounting layer and transactional ledger in the same ledger)
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Because the transactions and accounting information are in different databases.
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Easy to audit in real time. Ability to trace transactions/purchasing made by supplier/ business associate.
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The blockchain is immutable which means all transactions are there for all to see and cannot be changed so it can thus be trusted to be true.
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Normal databases are centralized and therefore open to be tampered with, meaning one can never truly trust the data as one never knows if anyone might have changed it.
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Because they can now truly trust the data and do not have to worry about human error or misconduct.
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Homework on Provenance:
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Blockchain enables digital provenance since it tracks and verifies all transactions within a database. Then, it provides all details of the online currency purchased for users to view.
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Normal databases don’t bring the same provenance as Blockchain. Due to the fact they are centralized and real-time auditing is not provided. Meaning, since Blockchain has no central authority, no transactions can be controlled or removed. In which provides an un-edited database of all transactions. Real-time auditing is also implemented to audit transactions every second and/or minute. Therefore, with these qualities, it allows Blockchain to have a greater level of provenance compared to other databases.
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Digital provenance is trust-less element that is a tremendous benefit to businesses. This is since it removes the unreliable “trust” policies that are implemented with products and/or databases. Allowing companies to examine their products and databases effectively and thoroughly.
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Answers
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Blockchain is a public ledger, meaning all transactions on a blockchain are seeable and trackable. And one of the most crucial parts is blockchains are immutable.
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To my knowledge, normal databases has own by an entity or person and can control by them. On the other hand. blockchains do not belong to anybody and again, they’re immutable.
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In today’s world, we -business owners- must go to an intermediary to check how we’re doing but we don’t need anybody to audit ourselves with digital provenance. We don’t need anybody to verify us, blockchain itself does this job for us.
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Homework on Provenance - Questions
- How does blockchain enable digital provenance?
- the tech allows for a decentralised database where you can only add information and not take away.
- Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?
- Normal databases are usually centralised or, if open to the public, easily edited. It requires trust between parties that the data is accurate.
- Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?
- It can facilitate trust-less transactions between the business and clients. It also combines transactional and accounting aspects which improves on efficiency and ultimately cuts down on costs.
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- The hash of all former Tx is added to the next Tx.
- It can easily be manipulated / copied / etc.
- There are many possibilities for applications that require provenance (and immutability), so there is protection against e.g. fraud, theft, loss of data, error and possibilities for audit, tracking, ownership, etc.
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