Re: I just added use case documents to github repo

On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 9:34 AM, Erik Anderson (BLOOMBERG/ 731 LEX) <
eanderson20@bloomberg.net> wrote:

> Rick,
>
> > Blockchains are useful for things that are not completely dependent on
> finance.
>
> Like what? Then please contribute, document the use cases before we get
> together.
>
> I am starting with prose because I think it's difficult to come to
consensus on a list of bullet points. Hopefully from this we can get a
concise statement from which obvious use cases or user stories can emerge.

The assumption I am starting with is that using a blockchain as a backend
is desirable compared to existing systems because blockchains provide
greater safety, security and auditability to users.

Various people have their various reasons for attempting to differentiate
blockchains from existing fault tolerant database technology. I would like
to side-step that particular quagmire by saying the web app model has
become the dominate model for people to interact with computing services
and within that model we can think of a blockchain as a system which can
augment (and potentially replace) centralized backend services with
decentralized ones, Data Management, Authorization and Authentication
immediately come to mind. This might seem overly board but considering
people release new database products on a fairly regular basis, I think
work at this level should be tractable for a group this size.

Given the above preamble, the 'use cases' I would like to discuss are
generally, "How can browsers and blockchains be used together to create
decentralized applications?" Secondarily, I am interested in how existing
Linked Data standards can be used to improve how blockchains interact with
each other and the existing backend services.

There are two distinct classes of users who I think are worth considering,
those creating decentralized applications and those using them.

At this stage I think we should figure out what needs to be exposed to
browsers and users to make it easy for front-end developers to provide a
safe, secure and auditable experience for their users.


-Rick