we all know that old adage where there’s
smoke there’s fire next logical question
is what’s burning I’m a volunteer
firefighter as well as a computer geek
so I get to ask this question a lot what
I’m going to talk about this smoke or
cloud is this massive social media
network that exists in the internet
these many engines of industry from
Microsoft to Google Apple to Facebook
every photo posting app chat Twitter and
more combined they make the social media
cloud each getting a little piece of
your life
thoughts events and details those pieces
that you give it are the fuel that makes
the cloud run what it’s burning is you
in this instance you are both the
consumer and the consumed your data is
aggregated by those free services that
you signed up for the information is
then sold to various interests who
create ads that are targeted back at you
be they commercial political or whatever
the idea of unplugging from the cloud is
akin to moving into the forest in a log
cabin and becoming a hermit fanciful
talk for the most part unrealistic in
our modern world because of the cloud
you are known traceable a commodity to
be bought and sold so what do you do
about it what can you do before we get
to that let me tell you a bit of the
past back in the early days of the
internet it held such promise no
government control free speech even if
most of it was drivel nothing could stop
us from making everything available to
everyone
ideas and information flowed like water
it was a social revolution driven by
technology to level the playing field
every player the same size didn’t matter
your race color looks money religion
nothing
you are anonymous we were all equally
anonymous and then we let it slip away
we got distracted by chat an emerging
social media like AOL and then we
started getting news and ads online
search engines went from these simple
listings to complex mind-reading
algorithms that know more about me than
I do then we got regulations
restrictions covert monitoring we had to
login give information details we being
anonymous and that’s when we lost
everything the cloud was this internet
storage thing I could put stuff in and
it magically stayed there I could copy
files from my phone to my computer just
like that all they wanted they we
promised us order they promised a
simplicity and they demanded our silent
obedient consent we clicked that allow
button and agree to whatever was in
those Terms of Service and then it got
smarter we could talk to it we could ask
for things like music and directions all
sorts of stuff ride-sharing movies news
and you know what most of it was free we
had to pay for some stuff but most of it
was free well it looked free where are
you what are you doing when do you do it
how often and with whom every one of you
with location turns out in your phone
told something out there where you are
and who you’re with a little bit of
number crunching and you can be
associated with the people around you
push it a little further and driving
patterns emerge you stop at a daycare
every morning it can infer that you have
children
Apple pay tells me what you drink at
Starbucks airmiles gets information on
everything you buy and even without
location turned on every Wi-Fi cell
tower and call you make
they know who they know photos data
where and when stored in every picture
facial recognition isn’t science fiction
you can get it as a service to tag all
your friends on Facebook all that
information is stored sold and traded
amongst advertising and marketing
companies and in return you are fed a
constant stream of ads news and
information tailor fit to your
predilections prejudices and
vulnerabilities Apple and Google aren’t
selling you phones as much as they’re
selling you to other companies maybe
you’re good with this my phone is my
friend maybe you have a great
relationship with your parents or your
friends parents Apple Google Microsoft
how about your friend’s parents France
your friend’s parents bosses can compel
them to tell any secrets that they might
know and there’s the burglar that broke
into your friend’s parents friend’s
house and got ahold of those pictures
you thought you deleted remember that
checkbox right by the allow button and
let’s not forget Amazon LinkedIn and a
thousand other well hundred other social
in networking programs we let access our
data including that cool app that told
me what kind of cat I am they’d ask for
permissions about something Pinterest a
tumblr to Twitter put it all together
and perhaps your virtual Fanny is in the
digital wind okay not scaring you you’re
big people you got the point I should
change some passwords
maybe closed a few accounts you don’t
really need I mean honestly
do you need to know which Hogwarts
character you are while giving your
friends information to a digital
Voldemort okay
it’s alright don’t worry about it you
can have a second chance
welcome to blockchain maybe you’ve heard
a few of these terms
Bitcoin etherium cryptocurrency
we’re all pretty vague there’s these
coins you buy and they skyrocket or
parlament in value you bought yourself a
hundred dollars worth of Bitcoin on New
Year’s Day 2012
you got about 16 points that’s worth
over $100,000 today sad part is you
missed that boat now there’s hundreds of
coins and most of them are going to sync
with you and your money on board
consider yourself warned we are in a
dot-com like Age 4 blockchain so do your
research before investing long ago we
traded goods for goods the value of any
goods we’re determined by the individual
if you were cold fur was worth more than
a chicken if you had enough to eat then
we switch to tokens shells medals coins
jams paper and finally plastic that
moves ones and zeroes around in it where
it gets a bit tricky
it’s cryptocurrency is a bit of a
misnomer it’s not currency it’s stock
remember that not currency stock a coin
represents a tiny share of a blockchain
and block chains do things and the coin
can be used to purchase a company
services now these companies have
designers developers products and
management teams just like real
companies because some of them are real
companies what makes them difference is
the making of the stock mining is you
doing work for the company in getting
paid stock for your work helping them
build their blockchain not selling your
personal data now the reason it’s not
linked to you is something called a
public and private key think of a public
key as an address and a private key as
proof of ownership you can have as many
keys as you
right and none of them are you any more
than your underwear is you changing them
regularly keys and underwear keeps
now here’s where it gets tricky what is
a block shape a block chain is a method
of maintaining consensus on a
decentralized distributed network
everybody participating has a copy of a
ledger but with no central authority how
do you keep them all in sync picture in
your mind a room full of people
everybody’s got a ledger in order to add
a new line to the ledger
they’ve got a whole math problem if you
really complex math problem that
honestly just requires a heck of a lot
of guessing the first person to find a
solution shouts it out and everybody
checks their ledger if it’s true they
add it to their copy of the ledger along
with whatever data is being recorded the
person that found the solution they get
a reward a coin and then all the miners
rush to solve the next line in the
ledger now as to what data can be
recorded in the blockchain well it can
be anything really records pictures
financial transactions you pay for the
storage in the blockchain with a bit of
your coin or stock as a transaction fee
now I should mention there are two kinds
of block chains a public blockchain and
a private blockchain the light side the
dark side in a public blockchain anyone
could can participate you can see the
data it’s transparent and open and can
be audited in a private blockchain those
miners are employees the servers are
private and the data is hidden we are
about to see a flood of private
blockchains like hash graph designed to
keep you right where you are knowing who
you are
we’ve got banks working on their own
block chains as well as government and
big business who have so benefited from
your free data in a public decentralized
blockchain you aren’t trackable in any
conventional sense the point is they
can’t link what you do to who you are
remember that key is an underwear thing
it’s one of the reasons government so
dislike cryptocurrency you can’t follow
the anything in a maze of a thousand
privately owned computers so great
public blockchain but what does it do
for you all right why would you need a
bank if you could access your value
anywhere there are block chains like
salt which will loan you currency which
you pay back with interest to the
investors that put up the capital Vera
coin offers fast transaction time and
stability others are suited to little
transactions like Doge etherium and
others support building code in the
blockchain that runs it’s called a smart
contract since it runs on every minor
downtime is almost impossible now with a
smart contract you and I can make a bet
on is it going to snow on Christmas Day
we agree on a simple piece of code and
put our money down what to check when if
true who gets the coins if false what
happens once it’s written in the
blockchain the contract can’t be broken
nobody can cheat we can see all the
books apply this to wills investments
home sales the whole sudden you don’t
need notaries or escrow lawyers or the
like this is called a trustless
transaction in that you don’t have to
trust anyone to hold the money and you
can see all the books
the financial applications are nearly
endless anything that you would want to
keep records or transparency on and this
helps keep the corporation’s
honest if you can see the book really
how much of a fast one can they pull
soon you’ll be able to scan the QR code
on a product and Grocery self and be
able to find out if it has ever come
into contact with allergens if it’s
kosher vegan Fairtrade every step from
the farm to the Shelf recorded in as
much detail as anyone wants to enter
unalterable and verifiable and if
there’s a recall the updated blockchain
will let you know the moment you rescan
the item
all you need is a barcode reader which
is built into your phone a public
blockchain or private one that the
government issued not unlike our social
insurance number now and we could vote
on any issue with no potential fraud
indisputable results that you can verify
yourself and yet those votes remain
secret one of the beauties of blockchain
is it is well-suited to democratic
control because all stock is voting
stock hoping you’re starting to see a
larger picture form inventory financial
management historical genealogy anything
you would want to keep records and
traceability on and being you anyone can
have as many keys as they like and
change them as often as they wish we are
once again anonymous and back to the
birth of the internet so what’s the
catch the catch is us making the same
mistake with blockchain that we made
with the cloud imagine corporations and
governments convincing us that their
private blockchains were the way to go
block chains that aren’t open are not
transparent that you cannot see and you
cannot audit when the ledgers are held
in private hands we get cambridge
analytic
a private blockchain key is just another
login they know who you are here have an
ad would you like some news would you
like to find out what kind of catch you
are they’ll probably be an allowing the
Terms of Service just for good measure a
public blockchain key is anyone or
no-one you don’t have to prove who you
are just that you have the codes to use
that key and when you’re done throw away
the keys and get some new ones and
return to being unknown the difference
is subtle it is the difference between
democracy and dictatorship they’re both
forms of government they might even both
have elections but at their core they
are diametrically opposed 20 years ago
we almost had it and we gave up
something we never valued we were all
anonymous equally unknown to the world
accepted those closest to us and when we
gave it up we had no idea its value I
think we do now blockchain is coming it
is our second chance for the Internet
and it needs our help it needs us to be
a bit wiser now that we know what’s down
this road if you want your privacy back
we all have to make a conscious choice
for openness transparency public
blockchains maybe not agree to their
terms of service
maybe not allow it’s time we were all
anonymous again you can either help me
fight the fire or get burned
[Applause] you
smoke there’s fire next logical question
is what’s burning I’m a volunteer
firefighter as well as a computer geek
so I get to ask this question a lot what
I’m going to talk about this smoke or
cloud is this massive social media
network that exists in the internet
these many engines of industry from
Microsoft to Google Apple to Facebook
every photo posting app chat Twitter and
more combined they make the social media
cloud each getting a little piece of
your life
thoughts events and details those pieces
that you give it are the fuel that makes
the cloud run what it’s burning is you
in this instance you are both the
consumer and the consumed your data is
aggregated by those free services that
you signed up for the information is
then sold to various interests who
create ads that are targeted back at you
be they commercial political or whatever
the idea of unplugging from the cloud is
akin to moving into the forest in a log
cabin and becoming a hermit fanciful
talk for the most part unrealistic in
our modern world because of the cloud
you are known traceable a commodity to
be bought and sold so what do you do
about it what can you do before we get
to that let me tell you a bit of the
past back in the early days of the
internet it held such promise no
government control free speech even if
most of it was drivel nothing could stop
us from making everything available to
everyone
ideas and information flowed like water
it was a social revolution driven by
technology to level the playing field
every player the same size didn’t matter
your race color looks money religion
nothing
you are anonymous we were all equally
anonymous and then we let it slip away
we got distracted by chat an emerging
social media like AOL and then we
started getting news and ads online
search engines went from these simple
listings to complex mind-reading
algorithms that know more about me than
I do then we got regulations
restrictions covert monitoring we had to
login give information details we being
anonymous and that’s when we lost
everything the cloud was this internet
storage thing I could put stuff in and
it magically stayed there I could copy
files from my phone to my computer just
like that all they wanted they we
promised us order they promised a
simplicity and they demanded our silent
obedient consent we clicked that allow
button and agree to whatever was in
those Terms of Service and then it got
smarter we could talk to it we could ask
for things like music and directions all
sorts of stuff ride-sharing movies news
and you know what most of it was free we
had to pay for some stuff but most of it
was free well it looked free where are
you what are you doing when do you do it
how often and with whom every one of you
with location turns out in your phone
told something out there where you are
and who you’re with a little bit of
number crunching and you can be
associated with the people around you
push it a little further and driving
patterns emerge you stop at a daycare
every morning it can infer that you have
children
Apple pay tells me what you drink at
Starbucks airmiles gets information on
everything you buy and even without
location turned on every Wi-Fi cell
tower and call you make
they know who they know photos data
where and when stored in every picture
facial recognition isn’t science fiction
you can get it as a service to tag all
your friends on Facebook all that
information is stored sold and traded
amongst advertising and marketing
companies and in return you are fed a
constant stream of ads news and
information tailor fit to your
predilections prejudices and
vulnerabilities Apple and Google aren’t
selling you phones as much as they’re
selling you to other companies maybe
you’re good with this my phone is my
friend maybe you have a great
relationship with your parents or your
friends parents Apple Google Microsoft
how about your friend’s parents France
your friend’s parents bosses can compel
them to tell any secrets that they might
know and there’s the burglar that broke
into your friend’s parents friend’s
house and got ahold of those pictures
you thought you deleted remember that
checkbox right by the allow button and
let’s not forget Amazon LinkedIn and a
thousand other well hundred other social
in networking programs we let access our
data including that cool app that told
me what kind of cat I am they’d ask for
permissions about something Pinterest a
tumblr to Twitter put it all together
and perhaps your virtual Fanny is in the
digital wind okay not scaring you you’re
big people you got the point I should
change some passwords
maybe closed a few accounts you don’t
really need I mean honestly
do you need to know which Hogwarts
character you are while giving your
friends information to a digital
Voldemort okay
it’s alright don’t worry about it you
can have a second chance
welcome to blockchain maybe you’ve heard
a few of these terms
Bitcoin etherium cryptocurrency
we’re all pretty vague there’s these
coins you buy and they skyrocket or
parlament in value you bought yourself a
hundred dollars worth of Bitcoin on New
Year’s Day 2012
you got about 16 points that’s worth
over $100,000 today sad part is you
missed that boat now there’s hundreds of
coins and most of them are going to sync
with you and your money on board
consider yourself warned we are in a
dot-com like Age 4 blockchain so do your
research before investing long ago we
traded goods for goods the value of any
goods we’re determined by the individual
if you were cold fur was worth more than
a chicken if you had enough to eat then
we switch to tokens shells medals coins
jams paper and finally plastic that
moves ones and zeroes around in it where
it gets a bit tricky
it’s cryptocurrency is a bit of a
misnomer it’s not currency it’s stock
remember that not currency stock a coin
represents a tiny share of a blockchain
and block chains do things and the coin
can be used to purchase a company
services now these companies have
designers developers products and
management teams just like real
companies because some of them are real
companies what makes them difference is
the making of the stock mining is you
doing work for the company in getting
paid stock for your work helping them
build their blockchain not selling your
personal data now the reason it’s not
linked to you is something called a
public and private key think of a public
key as an address and a private key as
proof of ownership you can have as many
keys as you
right and none of them are you any more
than your underwear is you changing them
regularly keys and underwear keeps
now here’s where it gets tricky what is
a block shape a block chain is a method
of maintaining consensus on a
decentralized distributed network
everybody participating has a copy of a
ledger but with no central authority how
do you keep them all in sync picture in
your mind a room full of people
everybody’s got a ledger in order to add
a new line to the ledger
they’ve got a whole math problem if you
really complex math problem that
honestly just requires a heck of a lot
of guessing the first person to find a
solution shouts it out and everybody
checks their ledger if it’s true they
add it to their copy of the ledger along
with whatever data is being recorded the
person that found the solution they get
a reward a coin and then all the miners
rush to solve the next line in the
ledger now as to what data can be
recorded in the blockchain well it can
be anything really records pictures
financial transactions you pay for the
storage in the blockchain with a bit of
your coin or stock as a transaction fee
now I should mention there are two kinds
of block chains a public blockchain and
a private blockchain the light side the
dark side in a public blockchain anyone
could can participate you can see the
data it’s transparent and open and can
be audited in a private blockchain those
miners are employees the servers are
private and the data is hidden we are
about to see a flood of private
blockchains like hash graph designed to
keep you right where you are knowing who
you are
we’ve got banks working on their own
block chains as well as government and
big business who have so benefited from
your free data in a public decentralized
blockchain you aren’t trackable in any
conventional sense the point is they
can’t link what you do to who you are
remember that key is an underwear thing
it’s one of the reasons government so
dislike cryptocurrency you can’t follow
the anything in a maze of a thousand
privately owned computers so great
public blockchain but what does it do
for you all right why would you need a
bank if you could access your value
anywhere there are block chains like
salt which will loan you currency which
you pay back with interest to the
investors that put up the capital Vera
coin offers fast transaction time and
stability others are suited to little
transactions like Doge etherium and
others support building code in the
blockchain that runs it’s called a smart
contract since it runs on every minor
downtime is almost impossible now with a
smart contract you and I can make a bet
on is it going to snow on Christmas Day
we agree on a simple piece of code and
put our money down what to check when if
true who gets the coins if false what
happens once it’s written in the
blockchain the contract can’t be broken
nobody can cheat we can see all the
books apply this to wills investments
home sales the whole sudden you don’t
need notaries or escrow lawyers or the
like this is called a trustless
transaction in that you don’t have to
trust anyone to hold the money and you
can see all the books
the financial applications are nearly
endless anything that you would want to
keep records or transparency on and this
helps keep the corporation’s
honest if you can see the book really
how much of a fast one can they pull
soon you’ll be able to scan the QR code
on a product and Grocery self and be
able to find out if it has ever come
into contact with allergens if it’s
kosher vegan Fairtrade every step from
the farm to the Shelf recorded in as
much detail as anyone wants to enter
unalterable and verifiable and if
there’s a recall the updated blockchain
will let you know the moment you rescan
the item
all you need is a barcode reader which
is built into your phone a public
blockchain or private one that the
government issued not unlike our social
insurance number now and we could vote
on any issue with no potential fraud
indisputable results that you can verify
yourself and yet those votes remain
secret one of the beauties of blockchain
is it is well-suited to democratic
control because all stock is voting
stock hoping you’re starting to see a
larger picture form inventory financial
management historical genealogy anything
you would want to keep records and
traceability on and being you anyone can
have as many keys as they like and
change them as often as they wish we are
once again anonymous and back to the
birth of the internet so what’s the
catch the catch is us making the same
mistake with blockchain that we made
with the cloud imagine corporations and
governments convincing us that their
private blockchains were the way to go
block chains that aren’t open are not
transparent that you cannot see and you
cannot audit when the ledgers are held
in private hands we get cambridge
analytic
a private blockchain key is just another
login they know who you are here have an
ad would you like some news would you
like to find out what kind of catch you
are they’ll probably be an allowing the
Terms of Service just for good measure a
public blockchain key is anyone or
no-one you don’t have to prove who you
are just that you have the codes to use
that key and when you’re done throw away
the keys and get some new ones and
return to being unknown the difference
is subtle it is the difference between
democracy and dictatorship they’re both
forms of government they might even both
have elections but at their core they
are diametrically opposed 20 years ago
we almost had it and we gave up
something we never valued we were all
anonymous equally unknown to the world
accepted those closest to us and when we
gave it up we had no idea its value I
think we do now blockchain is coming it
is our second chance for the Internet
and it needs our help it needs us to be
a bit wiser now that we know what’s down
this road if you want your privacy back
we all have to make a conscious choice
for openness transparency public
blockchains maybe not agree to their
terms of service
maybe not allow it’s time we were all
anonymous again you can either help me
fight the fire or get burned
[Applause] you
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