Blockchain and Societal impact

In Conversation about Microservices with Dr. Dilip Krishnaswamy

In this edition of Hard Fork @ Genesis DevCon, we spoke to an exceptional individual who is highly-reputed in the tech circles - Dr. Dilip Krishnaswamy — VP (New Tech R&D), Reliance Industries.

Getting to know Dr Dilip Krishnaswamy

Dr Krishnaswamy is an expert in computer science who has a formidable skill set in being an inventor and an intrapreneur. He has contributed to the growth of technology enterprises like Qualcomm, IBM, Intel, and more.

He is keenly interested in developing and applying new and emerging technologies to practical problems. His current areas of interest include — Distributed Information Processing, Machine Learning/Deep Learning/AI, Blockchain Technology, 5G Networks, Edge Services, Network Slicing, MicroServices-based systems, Autonomous Systems, Parallel Processing, and Quantum Algorithms for Optimization.

To know more about him, check out his profiles here: Google Sites | LinkedIn

Salient points of our Conversation

Reliance Jio’s foray into Blockchain is significant

The entry of Reliance Jio in the blockchain realm is a very empowering one. It will help embolden other enterprises to adopt and implement blockchain. With respect to this, Dr Krishnaswamy shared what he is working on at Reliance Jio.

He expressed that the future of infrastructure is going to be virtualised and it is going to be distributed as well, reaching to the edge. This will be a transformation because of the advancements made in an area called network functions virtualisation.

He stated that there is a growing trend towards dis-aggregation to create a number of microservices. In this respect, Jio is building a number of micro-services based on programmable infrastructure. ‎Micro-services can be applied laterally across various applications that involve data.

He added that blockchain is a futuristic technology overall programmable, virtualised deployment of applications and services in India. Eventually, the task lies in identifying the use cases that actually lie in making a difference to the citizens of India.

A playing field where we are looking towards extracting the data and use it for a win-win kind of service that will reach the public.

Blockchain can be used for social change

Given that blockchain technology comes with several aspects that will enable the creation of accountability and security through decentralised networks, tamper-proof records and traceability.

Dr Krishnaswamy stated that ‎peer-to-peer networks can impact the way citizen data is used. A group of individuals can become part of a private network and control the way data is used. He believes that it can re-invent the way we work with several industry verticals to provide efficient solutions.

• In academic systems, blockchain can progress digitise certificate management and ensuring a tamper-proof environment.
• Similarly, this can be applied with employment history as well. ‎The employment history of labourers, when stored on blockchains, can lead to robust databases that can trace the productivity of workers and incentivise them with better job opportunities.
• In Elderly health care, IoT and blockchain can help come up with better service solutions. With this tech duo, there is a scope for expanding smart living capabilities. Elderly citizens who need constant care can be continuously monitored. In cases of emergency, there can be automated triggers that can call an Ambulance. This, of course, can be enabled by the data derived from IoT devices.
• In certain cases, patient health records can also be transferred between hospitals to maintain records and refer to the medical history of the patient. In a sense, with blockchain and IoT combined, we can achieve an end-to-end solution for services involving elderly health care.

With the availability of communication and information technology, there is a lot of available information now that wasn’t used in the past to achieve specific objectives. However, now, we can use it in real-time dynamically to make better decisions for the benefit of society.

The use of public data for the use of public good with Blockchain.

Blockchains have the potential to become formidable databases given the immutability of information. This can enable the creation of blockchain solutions and products that can change and effect a better quality of life in society.

• Dr Krishnaswamy stated that it is important to note that, the collection of data happens from different sources.
• In this case, Data fusion is a concept that will help implement the tech.
• Besides the data collection aspect, there is also the need to derive insights from the data; you can fuse these insights to get a certain value.
• Once this is achieved, you can be sure to create better, meaningful decision-making processes.

Stable coins have the potential to shape the future.

Stable coins, compared to their crypto counterparts, can help build a more meaningful system that has the potential to unify all parts of the society. Given that without understanding the logistics and the semantics of trading, holding, or buying cryptocurrencies, people will surely lose their investments. From a large-scale perspective, stable coins can positively affect the way cryptocurrencies are adopted and used. The usage of stable coins also enables traceability to make sure that regulations are met.

The adoption of stable coins can unify people from all walks of life as adopters of cryptocurrency and bring about mass adoption.

Enabling education in blockchain and other emerging technologies

Dr Krishnaswamy believes that education is imperative to progressively scale blockchain initiatives in India. An initial introduction to the blockchain can be incorporated into the current curriculum under distributed systems or networking courses. ‎Students should be allowed to specialize in one of the emerging technologies in the final year, and we need to make sure that we offer advanced courses. These courses could be protocol-agnostic.

‎Moreover, these seem to be some interesting times to learn more about emerging technologies. From a multi-disciplinary perspective, there is a lot that goes into enabling devices to perform functions and derive data from the same. A drone, for example, is a culmination of several technologies like blockchain, ML, and AI. With that said, we can be sure that we will hardly see blockchain used in isolation.

When educations can enable future generations with the means to learn more about blockchain and other emerging technologies, we can be sure to see some ground-breaking innovations that could change the way we live.

In this stage of digital transformation, where we have achieved so much, we are still only on the tip of the iceberg. There is room for so much more innovation and progress.

Future and growth of public blockchains in India

Dr. Krishnaswamy believes there is scope for growth and innovation in the public chain space. Given the number of use cases for blockchain technology, the general public will be interacting with government agencies through platforms that have blockchain in the mix.

However, all of this depends on the interpretation of what a public blockchain is. This is because the way lay people can participate in blockchains needn’t be the same as how the nodes on the Bitcoin blockchain interact.

For example:

In the case of elections, people could be interacting with their mobile devices to vote. The information can then be stored in a private area like an ARM TrustZone or an Intel(R) Secure Guard Extensions (SGX) enclaves. Based on this we can arrive at decision-making based on public preferences, and this data will be disseminated in a transparent and anonymous manner.

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