The first-ever blockchain research laboratory is officially open for business. Born of a collaboration between Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland and Hong Kong-based Blockpass IDN, which offers shared regulatory compliance services, the facility has been established as part of a £600,000 grant.
Under a three-year partnership, the lab will receive funding for full-time research staff, five doctorate students, and a virtualized blockchain environment. Researchers will be focusing on identifying the key challenges of identity, privacy, rights, and consent for internet users, or netizens. Emphasis will be placed on building new technology for personal online data protection.
Due to the distributed nature of blockchain technology, new data infrastructures promise huge potential for advancements in digital security. The team behind the Blockpass Identity Lab (BIL) believe that such advancements may be essential for protecting personal user data from various digital threats — online hackers, scammers, and internet-based criminal activity.
Blockpass IDN, the technology company funding the project, has interest in blockchain’s capabilities for identity management. Their team hopes to identify research results and new tech that could support the development of an identity verification platform and related identity applications, all based in blockchain.
Consumer data abuse is seeing heightened levels of risk as well as higher costs — impacting business and welfare at both personal and corporate levels. Given these critical and growing concerns, the lab will pursue citizen-focused systems that revolve around personal privacy and the creation of trusted, reliable connections for people, products, and assets.
Because blockchain methods incorporate essential cryptography, they’re able to solve many of the conflicts presented by otherwise unverified or risky digital exchanges of information.
Lab director Professor Bill Buchanan states, “We aim to contribute to the building of a new world, based on blockchain. Whether it is health and well-being, or the changing of our public services, it is likely to be blockchain methods that will provide the foundation for the future.”
Blockchain research originally found its niche in the world of financial services. However, its secure nature and immediate distribution capabilities make the technology particularly appealing to the personal security sector, as well as any industry managing large and valuable quantities of data. Insurance, advertising, and even supply chain management spheres have much to gain.
The possibility of user-owned, or self-sovereign, digital identity is a very real concept with blockchain. With these systems, users would have complete control over their own data, its changes and updates, its uses, and those who can be trusted to access it.
The BIL seeks to push the limits of this aspect of the technology, including the concept of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), which would allow merchants to validate the authenticity or credentials of a user without having any access to the actual information, protecting both parties from unnecessary risk. These proofs join homomorphic encryption as the lab’s first areas of research focus.
Eventually, the Internet of Things (IoT) and concepts of device identity will join the BIL’s project lineup, along with research in the areas of digital voting, construction, and food provenance.
Learn more about Blockpass and their vision for a Connected World via their Twitter feed.
Resources:
- Blockchain Expert Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty | WIRED – YouTube
- Blockpass Identity Lab Furthers Academic Research for Real Blockchain Use-Cases – Medium
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