Are We Flying Blind With Blockchain? Posted on : May 21 - 2018

By now, pretty much everyone with an internet connection has heard of blockchain technology, though understanding it seems to be a different matter entirely.

It’s not an intangible concept that imbues magical security, veracity or value into ethereal monetary systems, as many seem to think. It’s merely a fault-tolerant list-maker and digital data transfer protocol -- a record-keeping system that functions a bit differently than those used more widely at the moment.

Various decentralized digital ledgers (blockchains) operate on a peer-to-peer basis among participants with a vested interest in whatever is being exchanged or tracked, who collectively verify and record transactions using cryptography. “Blocks” of data get added to a “chain” with a mathematical agreement, compute and storage, spread out among myriad nodes without the need for some trusted third-party authentication authority or central server.

That may not sound like much more than IT gibberish, but the notion of cryptographically secured decentralization and the inherent lack of mediators or clearinghouses has lately generated epic levels of excitement. Billions have been poured into all things blockchain, and simply associating with the technology seems to increase a company’s valuation.

Still, blockchain has been around since 2008, and you could argue that there hasn’t been anything practical done with it yet. When viewed through its cryptocurrency implementations, blockchain still suffers from obvious limitations and weaknesses, particularly resource consumption, speed, reliability and scalability.

I’ve been trying to put my finger on why blockchain technology seems to be so promising and so useless at the same time. I’ve therefore decided we could learn a lot from the evolution of the aviation industry to inform an answer. The story of airplanes and the systems that support them provide an interesting guide to blockchain.

The history of modern aviation begins with the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk in December 1903. A steep innovation curve followed and, about a decade later, a rickety seaplane made the first scheduled commercial flight for the first commercial airline. Another steep innovation curve (and a couple of world wars) ushered in international services and an association to guide global aviation. This organization morphed into the modern International Air Transport Association (IATA), convened in 1945 by 57 airlines from 31 countries. View More