One of the many use cases for which the Blockchain is sold is to ensure the authenticity of various objects: works of art, slippers, maritime products…

We will start by leaving a few minimum concepts that must be in place for us to consider it a technological solution is a Blockchain, since there is no definition supported by all actors.

• A data structure in which one of the fields is a footprint of the previous record so that if a past record is altered it would be detected when its new fingerprint (hash function) does not coincide with the old one.
• Each record includes a time stamp, if someone changed it, it would be detected with the fingerprint (hash function).
• It is a network of nodes where each one has all the complete information.

A widespread idea is to think that in a Blockchain you cannot modify the data of the past, this is not strictly true but we are not going to go into it here so we will put ourselves in the most favorable case for the Blockchain and assume that it is not past data can be changed.

A Blockchain like a database handles information from non-real objects, we cannot put eggs or tables in it, what is stored and managed is data such as the tokens that represent those objects, this “small difference” It makes it impossible to ensure that the represented object is original, as long as its associated token remains immovable.

We will explain it with an example of certification of a painting. We assume that we have bought the latest work of art on the market and that together with the painting they give us a token that assures us that I am the authentic owner of the work, this will mean that the token associated with the painting is registered in an application that uses the Blockchain and that no one can alter it, but since we have put on the crackers cap we order a counterfeit of the box and sell it to a third party, so we get rid of the counterfeit along with the token and we keep the original box. This sale will be registered in the application and in the Blockchain, associating the work and the token to the new owner. But the Blockchain cannot miraculously know if the painting is a counterfeit or not, for this an expert is required, that is, an external agent certifying the painting is authentic, and it will be necessary whenever there is a new sale of the work of art. so the certification cannot be provided by the Blockchain by itself and for this reason we have the same use of having a database, with its corresponding security and backup measures as a Blockchain with the advantage that a BBDD is much easier to use and more efficient.

We will start by leaving a few minimum concepts that must be in place for us to consider it a technological solution is a Blockchain, since there is no definition supported by all actors.

• A data structure in which one of the fields is a footprint of the previous record so that if a past record is altered it would be detected when its new footprint does not coincide with the old one.
• Each record includes a time stamp, if someone changed it, it would be detected with the fingerprint.
• It is a network of nodes where each one has all the complete information.

A widespread idea is to think that in a Blockchain you cannot modify the data of the past, this is not strictly true but we are not going to go into it here so we will put ourselves in the most favorable case for the Blockchain and assume that it is not past data can be changed.

A Blockchain like a database handles information from non-real objects, we cannot put eggs or tables in it, what is stored and managed is data such as the tokens that represent those objects, this “small difference” It makes it impossible to ensure that the represented object is original, as long as its associated token remains immovable.

We will explain it with an example of certification of a painting. We assume that we have bought the latest work of art on the market and that together with the painting they give us a token that assures us that I am the authentic owner of the work, this will mean that the token associated with the painting is registered in an application that uses the Blockchain and that no one can alter it, but since we have put on the crackers cap we order a counterfeit of the box and sell it to a third party, so we get rid of the counterfeit along with the token and we keep the original box. This sale will be registered in the application and in the Blockchain, associating the work and the token to the new owner. But the Blockchain cannot miraculously know if the painting is a counterfeit or not, for this an expert is required, that is, an external agent certifying the painting is authentic, and it will be necessary whenever there is a new sale of the work of art. so the certification cannot be provided by the Blockchain by itself and for this reason we have the same use of having a database, with its corresponding security and backup measures as a Blockchain with the advantage that a BBDD is much easier to use and more efficient.

Categories: Blockchain