OCP

2018 was a stimulating, demanding year for CBoxx bringing consultancy and research on new projects around blockchain technology, financial regulation, decentralised identity, data standards, integrations and legacy system migrations at scale. It’s hard to draw a common theme from all this but perhaps the general concept of exploring new frontiers comes closest. You can read about a few of these projects below:

• Formalising Self Sovereign Identity for Pillar Project
• A Stablecoin Strategy for Pillar Project
• Automating Pension Valuations with the Origo Integration Hub
• Platform Migration Management for Time4Advice and St. James’s Place

The rush of excitement over the potential for blockchain technology seems to have gone past the hype cycle now, severely dampened by the “Crypto Winter” of 2018 and the growing attention of financial regulators. Much of the CBoxx work in Q2 2018 was centred around research into crypto-regulation and it’s clear that this is the right direction because it will bring trust, confidence and protection into this field.

CBoxx is a company that is driven by the desire to make things work, not wild speculation. As the sharks and chancers are driven out of this field, it leaves the serious practitioners to concentrate on solving the problems that sensibly must be addressed by the blockchain industry. For example, the January 2019 “Constantinople” hard fork upgrade for the Ethereum global decentralised network is fully focussed on improving the utility, cost and usability of the network that will keep Ethereum on the road to ‘proof of stake’ consensus that promises to bring true mass adoption.

This McKinsey article provides a realistic summing up of the blockchain field today (with thanks to David Taylor of OCP for sharing). CBoxx originally pinpointed Identity as an exciting use case for blockchain and McKinsey have the same view. So it’s very exciting to have been involved with the foundation of the Frontiers In Blockchain peer-reviewed journal that launched in Q3 2018. Our specific Research Topic within the journal will be focussed on how to make Self Sovereign Identity happen…

Frontiers In Blockchain | Blockchain for Good

Self-Sovereign Identity gives people control over their personal information, including the mechanisms to grant, revoke and apply constraints to their consent for others to use it. The open standards and technical infrastructure for these ecosystems are now materialising due to the pervasiveness of the internet, mobile devices, the emergence of viable decentralised networks and the intellectual capital of the identity community.

However, there remain serious challenges for generating the change needed for society to willingly trust and transition to this approach. Therefore, our Research Topic on Frontiers In will aim to generate a rich resource for identity practitioners, researchers, technologists, potential adopters and many more to explore, understand, advance and enrich this subject. Many leading lights in this community are already signed up to contribute to the journal and peer review the contributions of others.

At the beginning of 2019 it’s tough to predict where CBoxx  will end up, but Self Sovereign Identity feels like the right place to start …