The "Grand Challenges" of Curation and Preservation

I'm preparing for a meeting next week at the MIT Library on the "Grand Challenges" of digital curation and preservation. MIT, and in particular their library and press, have a commendable tradition of openness, so I've decided to post my input rather than submit it privately. My version of the challenges is below the fold.

Techno-hype part 2.5

Last November I wrote Techno-hype part 2 on cryptocurrencies and blockchains, reviewing David Gerard's excellent book Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts. A lot has happened since, so its time for an update. Below the fold, I look at three examples of how far these technologies are from being "ready for prime time":

• The Lightning Network, which is supposed to allow Bitcoin to scale to billions of transactions.
• IOTA, which is supposed to be a blockchain capable of supporting the Internet of Things.
• Ethereum, which is supposed to be the infrastructure for "smart contracts".

Archival Media: Not a Good Business

Thinking more about DNA's Niche in the Storage Market led me to focus on some problems with the market for archival media in general, not just DNA. The details are below the fold.

"Nobody cared about security"

There's a common meme that ascribes the parlous state of security on the Internet to the fact that in the ARPAnet days "nobody cared about security". It is true that in the early days of the ARPAnet security wasn't an important issue; everybody involved knew everybody else face-to-face. But it isn't true that the decisions taken in those early days hampered the deployment of security as the Internet took the shape we know today in the late 80s and early 90s. In fact the design decisions taken in the ARPAnet days made the deployment of security easier. The main reason for today's security nightmares is quite different.

I know because I was there, and to a small extent involved. Follow me below the fold for the explanation.

Brief Talk at Video Game Preservation Workshop

I was asked to give a brief talk to the Video Game Preservation Workshop: Setting the Stage for Multi-Partner Projects at the Stanford Library, discussing the technical and legal aspects of cooperation on preserving software via emulation. Below the fold is an edited text of the talk with links to the sources.

Notes from FAST18

I attended the technical sessions of Usenix's File And Storage Technology conference this week. Below the fold, notes on the papers that caught my attention.

Do You Need A Blockchain?

David Gerard's Do you need a Blockchain? Probably less than Wüst and Gervais think you do reviews an interesting paper, Do you need a Blockchain? by Karl Wüst and Arthur Gervais of ETH Zurich. Their abstract says:

In this article we critically analyze whether a blockchain is indeed the appropriate technical solution for a particular application scenario. We differentiate between permissionless (e.g., Bitcoin/Ethereum) and permissioned (e.g. Hyperledger/Corda) blockchains and contrast their properties to those of a centrally managed database.

Gerard is, for him, pretty enthusiastic about the paper:

This paper is worth your time. They explain the jargon at length, and discuss many commonly-advocated blockchain use cases — it’s a useful survey of the area — even as the authors are huge Bitcoin and blockchain advocates, and somewhat more optimistic for applying blockchains than is really warranted.

Below the fold, I look at both the paper and Gerard's review.