Backed by cryptography, consensus mechanism and game theory, "blockchain" has become the hottest discussion point in 2018.
The pain of the Internet is the blessing of the blockchain.
At present, major giants are relying on huge daily data to build their own blockchain foundation, and the layout is already systematic; while startups pay more attention to deep scenes and look for opportunities in the gaps.
Based on the unique academic graph database, the AMiner academic search engine has made a detailed analysis of the academic development and trends in the blockchain-related fields around the world, and launched the "Blockchain Basic Theory and Research Overview".
The blockchain report released this time is a public version, and the content focuses on basic theory and academic research.
The frontier version of the report focusing on blockchain applications, such as the hottest digital currency and the latest papers, will be launched later.
Report content at a glance
1. The background of blockchain
2. Blockchain concept and development stage
3. Core technology and its research status
4. Blockchain application scenarios
01
Why is blockchain so hot?
Behind Li Yanhong's "Chinese people are not so sensitive to privacy", hidden is the public's desire and helplessness for information security.
An encrypted communication channel that does not require a centralized network is undoubtedly significant and exciting for the Internet, which generates a large number of transactions every day.
Information may not be conserved, but value is.
The blockchain is essentially a decentralized distributed ledger database designed to solve the problem of transaction trust.
It uses cryptographic methods to associate the generated data blocks to verify the validity of information or to prevent counterfeiting, and to generate the next block. Blockchain can be divided into three categories: public chain, consortium chain, and private chain.
In the 1.0 stage of blockchain development, digital currency and payment behavior represented by Bitcoin are the most typical applications. It uses pure mathematical methods to establish trust relationships rather than through a central authority, enabling untamperable ledger records to be maintained between participants who do not trust each other or weakly trust each other.
With the popularity of Bitcoin around the world, people have begun to realize that the blockchain, which is the underlying technology of Bitcoin, has the excellent nature of decentralization, and the blockchain 2.0 stage has entered the stage of programmable finance.
At this stage, the blockchain system penetrates into the economic, financial and capital markets to form smart contracts for stocks, bonds, futures, loans, mortgages, property rights, and smart properties.
02
Is there no academic giant in the new field?
Today, with the popularity of applications, the theoretical starry sky is still worth looking up to.
As an academic search engine, AMiner has mined the academic giants and their research trends in the fields of cryptography, consensus mechanism, and game theory supported by blockchain. The names of Ronald L. Rivest, Emin Gün Sirer, Lloyd S. Shapley from abroad, and Professor Wang Xiaoyun from China are all listed in the list. Check the original text of the report for details.
Bitcoin has been closely tied to the blockchain since its birth. Its subversive innovations in the traditional financial system have attracted the attention of scholars around the world, and the research results of Bitcoin have continued to explode this year.
In the report, AMiner not only analyzed the distribution map of blockchain global scholars, but also paid attention to the research overview of China and the United States.
From a global perspective, Bitcoin research experts are concentrated in the United States and Europe. Its expert distribution corresponds to both the industry demand and maturity of Bitcoin.
In comparison, governments in Europe and the United States have a looser attitude towards bitcoin transactions and holdings and actively regulate them, but the development of bitcoin in Asia and Africa is mostly restricted by laws. Differences in government attitudes are one of the important factors influencing Bitcoin research.
Distribution map of global scholars in blockchain © AMiner. All Rights Reserved.
03
What other ideas are there for the blockchain?
Central bank digital currency, game asset exchange, safer and more secure logistics delivery, and even subverting the existing music pattern... These imaginations have been talked about and pursued by the market and the public with the popularity of the blockchain. From cultural entertainment to government management, the application of blockchain is far beyond people's imagination. As a public version, this report also briefly touches on some application scenarios of blockchain.
1. Financial Services
The application of blockchain in the financial field is mainly reflected in securities and banking business, asset management, trade finance, insurance business and anti-money laundering business. Blockchain has become an important practice of "financial disintermediation", which has had a great impact on traditional financial institutions and financial service models.
Since 2015, mainstream financial institutions around the world have begun to deploy blockchain. Banking giants represented by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and UBS have established their own blockchain laboratories and released blockchain research reports or application areas. Blockchain patents and participate in investing in blockchain startups. In addition, stock exchanges in various countries are also conducting in-depth exploration of blockchain technology.
2. Cultural entertainment
In the field of music, blockchain technology is known as "once it is widely used, it will become a powerful force to subvert the existing music industry structure". There is a lot to do in terms of full income generation and so on.
In the game industry, the application of blockchain includes the following aspects: blockchain games, game basic research and development, blockchain-based props trading platform, copyright protection of featured content, payment links, distribution of distributed algorithm hardware, etc. According to DappRadar's statistics, at least 100 blockchain games have appeared around the world. These games are mainly divided into pet development, real estate, business, purchase, gambling, etc.
The blockchain technology provides a new perspective for the deep integration of media in a series of applications such as media source authentication, citizen news review, digital copyright protection, paid content subscription, communication effect statistics, user privacy protection, and digital asset management. and disruptive solutions.
3. Public Welfare
The combination of social welfare and blockchain is embodied in the characteristics of blockchain immutability and high transparency. The data stored on the blockchain utilizes distributed technology and consensus algorithms to boost credibility with shared trust. It is naturally suitable for public welfare scenarios, and can effectively solve problems such as non-disclosure and opacity of public welfare information.
The relevant information of public welfare projects, such as capital flow, donation objects, fundraising details, etc., can be added to the blockchain nodes and be verified and supervised by the entire network. The combination of blockchain and public welfare makes the blockchain truly a "trusted machine" and allows the operation of social welfare to be "under the sun". At present, Tencent's "Public Welfare Chain", Alipay Hearing Impaired Children's Charity Fund, "Heart Chain" and other projects are all successful cases of the combination of blockchain and social welfare.
government management
The application of blockchain technology in the field of government management is mainly reflected in election voting and intelligent supervision. Using the immutable characteristics of blockchain and distributed consensus verification technology, political elections can be completed efficiently and at low cost, avoiding errors caused by human operations and counting votes, and at the same time improving the transparency of the voting process and ensuring data storage. Safety.
Scan the code to watch the full version of the blockchain report
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AMiner has recently continued to launch research reports on . Data Pi will be released as an exclusive media partner:
Global Knowledge Graph Expert Distribution and Research Schools (with a list of scholars)
AI+Finance: Panoramic Report on Scholars, Industry and Trends
Global distribution of AI experts: artificial intelligence, do you really understand?
AMiner authoritatively releases Robotics talent pool
AMiner ：
Tsinghua University's AMiner academic search engine is a researcher-centered intelligence platform that provides online real-time talent and technology evaluation reports through leading semantic analysis and mining technologies.
Since the system was launched 10 years ago, it has brought together 130 million researchers and 270 million papers from around the world, and has attracted 8 million independent IP visits from more than 220 countries around the world. It is the largest academic search system other than Google Scholar. Provide reviewer recommendation and semantic information services for Elsevier, the world's largest academic journal publisher, and more than 20 important international conferences such as KDD, ICDM, and WSDM. The AMiner project won the first prize of the 2013 Chinese Society for Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology Progress Award, and the core theory part won the second prize of the 2013 Chinese Institute of Electronics Natural Science and the first prize of the 2017 Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Progress Award.
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