Homework on Provenance - Questions

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#1175

Nice point on the potential legal inconveniences that can come from people losing trust in their operations, that’s a good way to summarize it!

2 Likes
#1176
  1. Blockchain is the digital ledger and anybody can’t remove something that is there, and it is also open-source that everybody can take a look at what’s happening.
  2. Because a normal database is not secure like blockchain, we can cheat and remove things and change in whatever we want, while in blockchain whatever is written into blocks it can’t be removed.
  3. Because we can track everything that we are buying, clothes, food, medical cure…
    Nobody can’t lie to us, like you said Don’t trust - go verify.
1 Like
#1177

  1. ) Because the blockchain can be made public and data cannot be removed from it, it makes it easier and more transparant to verify the provenance of assets on a blockchain.

  2. ) Because data can simply be changed by anyone who has access to the database. This can make it hard to verify whether the historic data of something is true and unchanged.

  3. ) When digital provenance is so readily available as it could be on a blockchain, it saves businesses a lot of costs in auditing.

1 Like
#1178
  1. Using a decentralised digital ledger that can’t have info removed (only appended), it records the origins of it’s data.
  2. Other databases can be edited / deleted & hidden.
  3. Trustlessness!
2 Likes
#1179

  1. How does blockchain enable digital provenance?
    It is a database of only added transactions where nothing can be removed and all cpu’s in the network keep a copy of. So everything can be ‘tracked’, and that in real time. That’s quite some provenance.

  2. Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?
    No enough of same copy’s of it. No agreeing accross devices per se, i.e. portability.

  3. Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?
    No need to trust other parties, they can check the transactions and for instance see what they actually purchased, and perhaps how it was purchased in the first place from the seller, and so on…

1 Like
#1180

By being a decentralized source of unchangeable facts, i.e. truth - similar to the runestones :wink:

Blockchain is decentralized, there are no kind of permission settings, everybody has the same access privileges, and it is accessible anytime by anyone, anywhere.

Benefit for businesses because of its transparence, accessibility and its inception in simple logical truth, and not in some human made value.

1 Like
#1181

True, nobody in a decentralized network can have more privileges than others and no one should be able to change anything unless it is according to the rules. A normal database in the other hand is usually controlled by 1 or several selected people that can easily change and manipulate the past or future actions.

@Bunbo_Hue Great answers. I like that you emphasized the word “decentralization” in your answers. Its the most important part to ensure we can have true provenance. Keep it up.

2 Likes
#1182

By making it decentralized it is trust less which means you can add anything into the blockchain , but you would not be able to change the data in it.

There is alot of trust in a normaldatabase and with blockchain the goverment cant control it or manipulate it.

Costumers can verify if the products are safe and that the product comes from where it was created. It could even track food, car historic, be used in medicial and alot more.

#1183 
1. How does blockchain enable digital provenance?

Blockchains record and store the entire history of transactions along with a date and timestamp of each transaction. Since the blockchain is stored decentrally on computer nodes around the world, it is practically infeasible for anyone to alter the history on the blockchain, thereby making the blockchain immutable. When used in a supply chain application, the source to shelf journey could be recorded on the blockchain so that receivers of goods would be able to trace the origins of these goods and not have to rely on trust.

2. Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?

A normal database is stored centrally so there is a single point of failure where transactions can be altered, hacked or deleted without the ability to restore.

3. Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?

Digital provenance enables businesses to benefit from real time auditing which reduces the need to pay external consultancies for lengthy audits. It also reduces the scope for errors and fraud within their organisation since the transaction and accounting is dealt with at the same time on the blockchain as opposed to separately in the current process.
They would also not need to rely on trusting suppliers regarding the origin of their products, leaving them less exposed to risk of unethical behaviour of their supply chain partners negatively impacting their consumer facing business.

1 Like
#1184

Glenn_CostaRica

1. How does blockchain enable digital provenance?
Blockchain is a technological development thanks to which we obtain open, public, decentralized and trustless access to data storage. This data is, however, immutable and unstoppable. No one can alter the data and no one can make it disappear. It’s written “in stone”. This kind of database can be used to track the origin of products and services in any market, since access is not restricted. People – literally anyone with a connection to Internet – can use it to keep detailed records of the origin of any kind of goods.

2. Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?
A normal database consists of a centralized service programmed and managed by a centralized organization who, naturally, acts only according to some very particular interests, usually selfish interests. The organization in control keeps full access and total capacity to alter data and even to rewrite the history of the private ledger. The organization can modify any record, because it is inside their private computers. Believing that the organization would never tamper with the information would be simply an act of faith in the centralized entity and in anyone who has access to the private computers.

3. Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?
Most businesses depend on products and services they obtain from suppliers. Even a school depends on the chalk or the pilots they buy from suppliers they don’t know. An ice cream producer has to trust – an act of faith – on the milk and dairy products he/she buys from suppliers. Of course, big businesses suffer a lot more with this, because they invest millions of dollars in products that come from obscure places. Not to mention drugs and the whole pharmaceutical products and their low levels of traceability! Little and big businesses can benefit highly if their suppliers can offer trustless verifiable data that tracks the origin of each product through the immutable and transparent technologies of open, public and truly decentralized Blockchains.

1 Like
#1185
  1. decentralized with digital stone like ledger where information cannot be modified or erased. it can only be added.
  2. other database can be easily copied and modified.
  3. it creates transparency by keeping all previous transactions. it allows all previous transactions to be verified. no need for ‘trust’
1 Like
#1186
  1. Permanent, infallible, public records
  2. Normal databases are not inherently permanent, infallible or public.
  3. A multitude of possibilities, including exponential improvement of supply chain accountability and efficiency (particularly when production is offshore).
1 Like
#1187

  1. Blockchain enables digital provenance by utilizing a database structure combined with a decentralized network to allow the tracing and tracking of all accounting and transactional information simultaneously.

  2. A normal database doesn’t bring the same provenance because it allows the deletion of data while blockchain only allows data to be added, tracked and verified.

  3. Digital provenance is such a great benefit to businesses because it creates a trustless environment where accountability is transparent and all elements and stages of a supply-chain, service or product are recorded, thus eliminating fraud and reducing inefficiencies.

1 Like
#1188
  1. Blockchain identifies ownership and calculates financials in a decentralized system that cannot be changed once created.
  2. A normal database is centralized and therefore controlled by a third party where changes can be made without owners permission. Ownership of a normal database is not guaranteed. .
  3. Blockchain allow maximum security, is always up to date and accurate and much cheaper to operate.
1 Like
#1189

1: Every transaction is traceable and can be audited and the transactions can not be removed.
2: A normal database is centrally controlled and can be manipulated.
3:It is always available and transactions are available for all to see.

1 Like
#1190

[quote=“ivan, post:1, topic:8423, full:true”]
Homework on Provenance - Questions

  1. How does blockchain enable digital provenance?All legitimate transactions are recorded, leaving a digital trail of info. It’s set on stone, and cannot be rigged or cheated
  2. Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?
    It can be altered and is not immutable. Can delete and copy/paste Ex. Microsoft Acess/Excel. Also, this is centralized.
  3. Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?
    Trust less means you can do business/transactions with any entity individual or company. However, the drawback is that mistakes cannot be retracted.
1 Like
#1191

Hi Fabrice, am trying to reply homework ,but the its telling me that the body of work is not a compete sentence and am not sure what this means, i have bad Dyslexic for write words.

#1192
  1. Digital provenance is enabled through the tracking of the financial transactions based on the blockchain fundamentals that every transaction is verified instead of simply trusted.
  2. The database could include bias based on the fact that mostly it’s controlled by a central authority.
  3. For businesses which are transparent, can use the digital provenance to develop a way through which the customers / stake holders (investors) can check all the components through which the business is conducted. This will also reduces the influence from the stake holders which will result in a step towards a decentralization of the business. (Something that is lacking on Wall Street as well as almost all financial institutions such as banks)
1 Like
#1193
  1. How does blockchain enable digital provenance?

As blockchain is a network of computers and all of them have a copy of the DB, any transaction or information can be verified by this network of computers resulting in Provenance

1 Like
#1194

Why doesn’t a normal database bring the same provenance?

A normal database maybe just shared within a few computers and also has a central authority to verify the transactions. If the central authority server is down then the tracking mechanism is lost and you lose any control that you have. While in BlockChain you have a network of computers with the same copy of the DB resulting in provenance

Why is digital provenance such a great benefit to many businesses?
With Digital Provenance comes immutability resulting in transactions being tracked seamlessly and the transactions cannot be removed and hence tracking and subsistence of transactions becomes easy resulting in a great benefit to many businesses

1 Like