“It’s really important to look at blockchain technologies separately because they all bring different benefits…and they can be implemented separately.”
In this talk, presented at our 2018 Digital Transformation Summit, Hanna Halaburda from the Bank of Canada untangles three elements commonly grouped together under the umbrella term, blockchain technologies: encryption/cryptography, “smart contracts,” and distributed ledgers.
Hanna defines “blockchain” as the distributed ledger piece and argues that most of the anticipated benefits of so called blockchain technologies do not really come from elements unique to blockchain, but instead are a product of encryption/cryptography and “smart contracts.” She encourages us to look at these elements separately and only implement what you need — which may amount to “blockchain” without the blockchain.