dgw birch eris_presentation

Private and confidential. Images and text (where applicable) copyright Eris Industries Limited, 2015.

“It’s just software.”

ERIS

The Distributed Application Platform

Private and Confiden.al 2

What?

We have built a software platform that will allow developers to solve

difficult commercial and governance problems

using blockchain, distributed computing and smart contract systems.


Why?

Because automation of industrial processes is a primary driver of human progress.

Secure automation of data management is overdue.

We build the tools to help developers solve these problems.


How?

Most people look at blockchains like this

“Can have it in any colour you like, as long as it’s black” -Henry Ford


We look at them like this

See what we did there?


Commercial thinking demands

Accountability.

Controllability.

Repeatability.

Reversibility.


What this means in practice

A blockchain IS NOT: Magical.

An internet money machine.

A blockchain IS:

A database.

Software.


What Bitcoin etc. doesn’t want you to hear

A blockchain WILL:

Do exactly what we tell it to do, no more, no less.

THEREFORE:

You can use a blockchain and explore its potential in your organisation without needing to use any existing or proposed cryptocurrency

network.

Without paying anything to anyone.


Wait, what? B-but, “decentralization,” “new paradigm…”!?!

To be perfectly frank

It’s bulls**t

(Ok, that’s a little strong, but I have a flair for the dramatic)

(Let’s just say it is for the foreseeable future)


HOW THE INTERNET CURRENTLY WORKS


When you interweb, the work is done by somebody else


Peer-to-peer architecture, as you know, is different


Blockchains are more different still


An explanation in English

Blockchains are:

1) distributed rulebooks

2) that track changes made to them

3) where write permissions are controlled by public-private key

cryptography

and

4) as a result, knowledge of the rules does NOT give someone the ability to

change them

(Sort of like French law actually)


A BLOCKCHAIN DATABASE’S THREE CARDINAL RULES

TELL ‘EM WHAT YOU’RE GONNA SAY

SAY IT

TELL ‘EM WHAT YOU SAID


RULE 1: TELL ‘EM WHAT YOU’RE GONNA SAY

Also known as the “transaction protocol”

Effectively: users’ rules of the game

Who can broadcast transactions?

What can they “spend?”

How do they go about “spending” it?


RULE 2: SAY IT

Also known as the “networking protocol”

Open standard for common communication to achieve a common

goal

What can we say?

What do words mean?

To whom can we say it?


RULE 3: TELL ‘EM WHAT YOU SAID

Also known as the “consensus protocol”

Agreeing the truth

What has been said?

Who has said it?

Is the record correct?

“The dragon that eats its own tail:” what has happened (past) determines

what can happen (now and future)


PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

="Mais,!c’est!en!français… "


A SHORT COMMERCIAL NOTE

Just as drawing a line through s. 177 of the Companies Act in an statute book doesn’t change the law, having a copy of the

rulebook does not give you the ability to change it beyond the scope of your permissions.

This means new people can get copies of the rules of a system - and play by them - just by knowing what the rules are.

Blockchains == data infrastructure without fixed infrastructure.


TRANSLATE IT INTO ENGLISH


Hey, presto.

That’s a blockchain application.


WHY THE ENTIRE WORLD THINKS BITCOIN (etc.) IS SPECIAL

CRYPTOCURRENCY RULE 1

Open to all Evades government controls


Distributed architecture = resilient to interference/destruction


Relies on competitive “mining” and awards “Bitcoins” etc Process is automatic, no central third party required

Fraud difficult (but not impossible)


Futurist histrionics notwithstanding

Bitcoin doesn’t solve any particular problem well

Unless you’re a libertarian

(Most people are not libertarians.)

(Disclaimer: I’m a libertarian, but not *that* kind of libertarian.)


HOWEVER

Blockchain solutions can be engineered that do


DEFINE THE PROBLEM

Does this solve a problem I have? TENDING TO YES:

Harmonising between separate software stacks

Simplifying multiple processes into single process

Timely verification is paramount (e.g. settlement)

Reducing supervision and oversight cost


DEFINE THE PROBLEM (Cot’d)

Does this solve a problem I have? TENDING TO NO:

Requires speed (blockchains are slow)

Requires heavy computation (blockchains are passive)

Is fully automatic anyway (order of magnitude improvement harder to achieve; though blockchains could still be useful qua

secure open standard)


Then, write appropriate rules.

MyChain Rule 1:

Must be controllable in every respect All write permissions must be accessible through P/P key crypto

In 99.99% of cases in finance, cannot be open/fully public

MyChain Rule 2:

Cryptocurrency got this mostly right, tweak for system reqs

MyChain Rule 3:

Must be able to change any aspect of the system on command Commercial standards of data security/certainty needed

Reversibility required No “mining” to secure as this is pointless


DESIGN YOUR APPLICATION

THEN COME TO MOMMA

(That’d be Eris Industries’ website)

STEP 1: GET THE TOOLS

Two commands:

Then two more:

STEP 2: ROLL THE CHAIN

And roll the chain (one command):

Write your rulebook:

STEP 3: DEPLOY YOUR DAPP

(one command)

Translate into English, etc. In this case JavaScript.

Then do it again until you get it right

(Because you won’t on the first try)

(Because this is how software is meant to be built)

(Because you can roll as many b’chains as you want)

Private and confidential. Images and text (where applicable) copyright Eris Industries Limited, 2015.

Happy to answer questions!

dgw birch eris_presentation

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