Without digital signatures there would be no accepted transactions, because nobody would trust that you own the money you want to spend. Therefore there wouldn’t be any consensus of the ledger. And we wouldn’t have blockchains. But digital signatures aren’t only the core of the blockchain infrastructure.  This marvellous cryptographic achievement has so many flavors that blockchains with different digital signature schemes have completely different properties. Why is the Monero blockchain so private? Because it uses linkable ring digital signatures schemes. Why  can companies set up a shared account on the Bitcoin blockchain and be sure no partner will steal any fund? Because they can use threshold digital signatures schemes.

Digital signatures allow the user to sign digital content and are a key ingredient of commerce, software management, fund management in a blockchain and they have major legal implications. For example, with a digital signature you can prove your identity remotely. This facilitates human interactions even in delicate world moments and allows greater trust between people. International standards, such as those developed by NIST, allow the transnationality of procedures. And all this is based on what cryptographers commonly call “key pair”: a pair of huge numbers, one secret and known only to the signer and one public available to all. The secret one allows to sign, the public one allows to verify the signature. Losing the secret key could mean losing your (digital) identity.

Are you afraid somebody can steal your key? Implement a multisignature with 8 keys: now the thief needs to steal 8 keys to steal your funds. And what if you lose one of those 8 keys? Would you be able to retrieve your funds?

If you are interested in more details on the reasons why there is no blockchain without digital signatures, watch this space for the upcoming DLT4All online classes offering a great variety of online modules, including the topic of this article

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Is the buzz warranted, however?
This is what we will explore together, over the course of these Smart Contract classes – not just a business-y, surface level presentation of them but a deep dive into the core concepts of blockchain smart contracts (what they are, how they work), into the technology of them (how they work on a technological level, how we program them, how they present a new way of approaching problems and related challenges) and finally what they mean for European Businesses . That is to say, how they can be utilised to aid production and unlock value, how they should be treated as a technological tool in business, all in the context of European Societies.

Our courses within this Learning Module are aimed towards any audience, no matter their knowledge background.
We include:

1. Core Concept classes, intended for a general audience which include
introductory classes to Smart Contracts and Ethereum,
2. Technology-oriented classes, intended for students with a background
in tech, where we study the actual programming and technology of
Smart Contracts, and
3. Business-oriented classes, intended for people with a background in
business or entrepreneurship, where we explore the “where and how”
Smart Contracts can bring forth the most value in the industry.

Our work is Open Source , it includes a lot of examples with actual code (constantly updated to the latest standards) – and is heavily referenced too, from contemporary journal papers & bibliography, to make sure you are provided with modern, actually-useful and practical knowledge on the concept of Smart Contracts.

Watch this space and join us in our classes, embark with us on a deep-dive into the world’s most talked about – but rarely understood – new technology! Blockchains & Smart Contracts are here to stay , and it is now a matter of which industry understands them well enough to leverage the most out of them.

Sincerely,
Dimitris Sfounis && George Vagenas

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Digitalization is vital in transforming our society and economy.  The pandemic this year has forced several industries to rapidly take steps towards a digital transformation, entering the era of convergence where the integration of social, business and political advances are forcing companies to enter “an unknown zone”.   As a consequence, new and emerging opportunities for organizations in all sectors to create and deliver fascinating services for their customers using the power of disruptive innovation are evolving continuously.

Blockchain technology seems to be the driving force of this convergence, and as a consequence the demand for blockchain talent grows continuously. When integrated with other technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and big data, the realization of even more compelling and dynamic applications seems to become a reality, provided we circumvent the talent challenge. In the most recent LinkedIn report, it is revealed that blockchain skills are actually the number one most in-demand skills in 2020.

Blockchains represent one of the most disruptive technological innovations of the last twenty years. With applications in industries such as financial services, energy, the supply chain sectors, tourism and energy, they are paving the way to groundbreaking research, technology development and disruptive innovation.

According to a report by openaccessgoverment.org, the importance of blockchain technology has now been recognized by many universities across the globe.  40% of the world’s top 50 universities are offering at least 1 blockchain related course.  Some universities have gone several steps beyond that by offering academic degrees such as the University of Nicosia which started offering an academic degree in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies back in 2014.  At the same time, the European Commission through H2020 and the Erasmus+ program is pushing forward such training as the DLT4ALL project – “A Knowledge Alliance for Blockchain in Academic, Entrepreneurial and Investment Training”.

DLT4ALL is addressing the lack of European entrepreneurs, students, angel-investors and incubator managers in understanding and exploiting Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies. This is done through the co-creation of a blockchain related curriculum among its eight partners in order to facilitate digital disruption based on the disintermediating power and transparency of the technology, igniting the modernization of participating HEIs’ curricula, commercial business models and early-stage investing practices within and beyond DLT4All participants.  The 9 modules on blockchain technologies that have been prepared within the framework of the project include Peer-to-peer Database Design, Encryption Techniques, Consensus Mechanisms, Digital Signatures, Smart Contracts, Privacy and Property Rights, Blockchain-based Decentralized Applications, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations along with a horizontal introductory module on blockchain to avoid overlaps within the rest of the modules.   Training begins in January 2021 through April 2021.

Stay tuned with us for further information and knowledge dissemination on blockchains!

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The challenging reconciliation between privacy and blockchain is not only due to blockchains’ native technical characteristics, but also due to some conceptual uncertainties of the European data protection law itself. Territorial and administrative authorities and compliance of data transferring/erasing/controlling, definition of personal data qualities, and data subjects’ rights in global data networks are a few significant examples of the regulation’s conceptual uncertainties.

However, and despite these tension points, blockchain presents some promising features for better future compliance with GDPR. Blockchain’s data sharing without a central authority, offers transparency and accountability of data access, a characteristic which can be augmented and efficiently automated by relevant smart contracts between data subjects inside blockchains. Such characteristics can potentially provide more control to subjects relating their personal data, allowing for easier data portability and ultimately facilitating data marketplaces across institutions.

If you are interested in more details on the reasons why the relationship between Blockchain and Privacy is on the one hand challenging, but on the other it can prove to be very beneficial, watch this space for the upcoming DLT4All online classes offering a great variety of online modules, including the topic of this article.

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