Skip to content
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Help
  • Careers
  • Contact
New Signature
  • About
      • Company

        Cognizant Microsoft Business Group is dedicated to changing the way businesses innovate, transform and run based on a unique cloud operating model. You will now be redirected to our new microsite to learn more.

        View Company

      • Awards

        As a company, we are regularly recognized within the IT industry as well as the communities we serve.

        View All Awards
      • News

        Read the most up-to-date corporate announcements, Microsoft technology updates, innovative business solutions and learn more about how the Cognizant Microsoft Business Group can take your business even farther.

        View News

      • Partners

        New Signature works with a number of outstanding technology companies to deliver the best experiences to our customers.

        View Partners
      • Leadership

        Cognizant Microsoft Business Group’s executive team is comprised of innovative leaders with proven experience and deep industry expertise. You will now be redirected to our new microsite to learn more.

        View Leadership

      • Industries

        Our solutions are tailored to empower organizations across a wide range
        of industries.

        View Industry Experience
    Close
  • Solutions
      • Intelligent Enterprise
        Solutions

        Going Digital
        Unleash cloud capability, deliver change and compete at speed with a Microsoft digital operating model, enabling you to work more efficiently as you transform your IT environment. Learn More

      • Featured Solution

        Secure Cloud
        In a world of constant threat, ensuring that your underlying cloud platform is protected is the first step on your organization’s journey towards a secure, compliant operating environment. Learn More
      • Intelligent Workplace
        Solutions

      • Secure Workplace

        Work Anywhere

        Endpoint Health

        Identity Health

        Teamwork Support



        VIEW WORKPLACE SOLUTIONS
      • Intelligent Cloud
        Solutions

      • App Factory

        Azure Accelerator

        Azure Launchpad

        Azure Launchpad for DevOps

        Application Health

        Platform Health

        VIEW ClOUD SOLUTIONS
    Close
  • Services
      • Begin your journey towards becoming a digital business with GO, our unique end-to-end framework based on the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework.

        GO DIGITAL OPERATING MODEL
      • Intelligent Enterprise

      • Consulting

        We go beyond just technology to help your organization understand how digital can help you uniquely differentiate and better serve your employees and customers.

        VIEW ENTERPRISE SERVICES
      • Intelligent Workplace

        • Identity

          Identity is your new first-line-of-defense. It’s vital to your users and clients that your identity platform is properly configured and secured.

          Endpoint

          Whether your devices are on-premises or remote, personal or business-owned, we can ensure they are properly managed and protected.

          Teamwork

          Today’s workforce is collaborating than ever before.  We can empower your current teams with tomorrow’s progressive technologies.

          VIEW WORKPLACE SERVICES
        • Intelligent Cloud

          • Platform

            The cloud is no longer some future-state. It’s the here and now. Adopting a cloud-first platform is one of the best ways to maintain a future-proofed competitive advantage.

            Applications

            We build cloud-native apps and modernize legacy systems with the power of Azure to give your organization a competitive edge.

            Data

            We can help your organization create secure, scalable data platforms to deliver simpler and more sophisticated insights to your business.

            VIEW CLOUD SERVICES
        Close
      • Client Stories
          • Case Studies

            Browse a comprehensive list of companies who have created successful partnerships and experienced transformative solutions with New Signature.

            View All Case Studies

          • Featured Case Study TalkTalk Modern Workplace

            New Signature worked with TalkTalk to define a new Modern Workplace solution based on Microsoft 365, which kept the user firmly at the center of the transformation.
            View Case Study

          • Testimonials

            We love transforming our customers businesses, take a look at what they have to say about New Signature.

            View Testimonials

          • Featured Testimonial Davis Construction

            With New Signature’s help, Davis was able to take a progressive step forward by migrating their private branch exchange (PBX) phone system to a Voice of Internet Protocol (VoIP) system.
            View Testimonial

        Close
      • Explore
          • Guides & Ebooks

            Dive deeper into education with your team by leveraging our expert-developed guides and eBooks.

            View All Guides & Ebooks

          • Infographics

            Rich with statistics and information, our infographics are great tools for quick but insightful learning.

            View All Infographics
          • Podcast: Office Explorers

            Join Kat and Rob monthly as they chat with New Signature experts and explore the world of O365.

            Listen to Podcasts

          • Videos

            Visit our videos stream to access recorded webinars, service information and to learn more about us.

            WATCH ALL VIDEOS
          • Flyers

            Searching for information about our services? Our flyers are a great takeaway for all those details.

            VIEW ALL FLYERS

          • Featured Stream

            Learn more about the tooling and expertise required to unlock productivity and mobilize your teams.

            MODERN WORKPLACE
        Close
        Close
      Blog

      Blockchains, Governance and the Implementation of Trust

      New Signature / Blog / Blockchains, Governance and the Implementation of Trust
      April 3, 2018May 25, 2018| New Signature
      • Facebook
      • Twitter
      • LinkedIn
      • Print

      Blockchain technology can be used to assist business relationships between two or more parties, without them having to rely on 3rd-party infrastructure to enforce a contract or provide a framework of trust.  Such technology could diminish the need for lawyers, realtors and other professionals who provide the connective tissue in business and social relationships.

      It is tempting to extend the argument further and suggest that blockchain enables relationships between parties without any need for governance or trust, but this is simply not true.

      Let’s take the case of trust first: industrial mechanics worked fine on paper, but in actual implementations, equipment broke down, compounded by human error.  Likewise, with blockchain or any technology that aims to provide security, identity or trust-based services, in theory it may be outstanding, but what protects you and your business is the implementation.  You still need trust in the system, if only to the extent that you must trust the implementation of blockchain you are using.  In fact, you need to have some trust in the other parties too.  The immutability of records in a blockchain ledger is one of its selling points; however, under some implementations, previous ledger entries can be changed later if enough of the participants (or “nodes”) agree to the change.  So, consider — who are those other participants, and what would happen if 51% of them got together and decided to rewrite history?

      Second, let’s consider governance: what is the purpose of your blockchain, and how do you keep it on track?  Anyone who has set up a public forum such as a message board or accepted comments on their blog knows that some participants might find alternative uses for the technology.  And this isn’t just a technology issue.  If you have a noticeboard in a coffee shop, then some notices pinned to the board may not be what you had hoped for.  These matters are made worse when members of the forum are anonymous, and some blockchain implementations do allow for pseudo-anonymity – you may know the ID number of a participant but not their real name.  For a real-world example, the blockchain that underpins Bitcoin has had wedding photos inserted into it.  That scenario probably didn’t come up in the original Bitcoin design plans, but there you have it; some die-hard romantics have sealed their place in history.  The photos are now part of the Bitcoin ledger – to remove them would involve recalculating over a year’s worth of transactions.  We should also consider what the legal implications might be if the inserted photos had been copyrighted material – how would we remove it?

      Blockchains don’t have to be open to the public like the Bitcoin blockchain.  You could create a private blockchain solution within your organization to track documents and contracts with suppliers, for example.  You would then be in charge and could limit access to the blockchain and define who can edit it, and who can only read data from it.  When Maersk, the international shipping company, ran trials using blockchain to track goods, they found that it was necessary to involve the other businesses as much as possible in order to generate confidence and trust in the blockchain solution.  So, in terms of governance and control, there can be a tension between making the system transparent and distributed to engender support and trust for the new technology, and needing to protect confidential business data, or perhaps to only sharing it with a subset of those involved in the project.  You’ll find more information on industrial trials here.

      There is exciting work going on in this field with new technology and new alliances.  As the technology matures and evolves, further questions of governance may come to the surface.  For example, if blockchain is going to allow people to take control of managing their own digital identity, then how do we educate people to make the choices that are in their own best interests?  If such a solution is not effortless then it may prove to be a great technology that is not widely adopted, as for example was the case in the 1990’s with creation of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) to encrypt emails.

      So going forward, we should consider the following:

      • Are we confident in our trust of the implementation of blockchain that we decide to deploy?
      • We should expect that people will find ways to use it that had not been intended or conceived of.
      • The immutability of a blockchain ledger can have costs as well as benefits, depending on the use case.
      • There might be tension between making the system transparent and distributed to engender trust, and keeping some business data confidential.

       

      Categories
      Tips and Tricks
      Contact New Signature

      Blog Posts

      • Don’t Fall into the DevSecOps Trap
      • Microsoft 365 Defender – Unleash the NinjaCat in you
      • Security Focused Development with GitHub
      • Be Cyber Smart with Tips from Our Experts

      Events

      Thu 28

      Power Platform Series: Drive Organizational Productivity with Power Virtual Agents

      January 28 @ 10:00 am - 10:45 am EST
      Feb 16

      Cognizant’s Experience Lab for Continuous Testing with Azure

      February 16 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST

      View More

      New Signature
      New Signature HQ
      901 K Street NW, Suite 450
      Washington, DC 20001
      Phone: 202-452-5923
      New Signature Canada HQ
      7th Floor, 5140 Yonge Street
      Toronto, ON M2N 7J8
      Phone: 416-971-4267
      New Signature UK HQ
      57 Bermondsey Street
      London SE1 3XJ
      Phone: +44 (0) 845-402-1752

      About

      • Company
      • Awards
      • News
      • Leadership
      • Partners
      • Industries

      Solutions

      • Intelligent Enterprise Solutions
      • Intelligent Workplace Solutions
      • Intelligent Cloud Solutions

      Services

      • GO
      • Intelligent Enterprise
      • Intelligent Workplace
      • Intelligent Cloud

      Client Stories

      • Client Stories
      • Testimonials

      Explore

      • Guides & Ebooks
      • Podcasts
      • Flyers
      • Infographics
      • Videos
      Copyright © 2021 New Signature
      • Blog
      • Events
      • Careers
      • Help
      • Anti Slavery
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
      • About
        • Company
        • Awards
        • News
        • Leadership
        • Partners
        • Industries
      • Services
        • GO
        • Intelligent Enterprise
        • Intelligent Workplace
        • Intelligent Cloud
      • Client Stories
        • Case Studies
        • Testimonials
      • Technologies
      • Explore
        • Guides & Ebooks
        • Infographics
        • Podcast: Office Explorers
        • Videos
        • Flyers
      • Blog
      • Events
      • Careers
      • Contact
      • Search
      Cookie Settings
      New Signature uses "Required Cookies" to run our website, "Functional Cookies" used by third parties to personalise marketing, including social media features.

      Change your preferences by clicking the “Cookie Settings” link at the bottom of every page. Learn more about cookies in our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy. By clicking the “Accept Cookies” button below, you consent to our use of cookies.

      Please note that “Required Cookies” will be set regardless of your consent.
      Cookie SettingsAccept Cookies
      Privacy & Cookies Policy
      Performance

      Performance Cookies provide Content Delivery Network assets that deliver faster site content delivery capabilities.

      Required

      These cookies are required mainly in order to deliver Multilanguage site capabilities.

      Functional

      Functional Cookies allow us to provided advanced media capabilities including videos, surveys and other multimedia capabilities.

      Disabling Functional cookies will block the playing of videos and other multimedia site components.

      Targeting

      Targeting Cookies are used to capture user information in order for New Signature to deliver better user experiences.

      Save & Accept