Knowledge Session: Trust in a blockchain world
Even after your studies, you will never stop learning. Our lecturers are happy to help you deepen your knowledge. In the Knowledge Sessions, six webinars for alumni, our professors share their knowledge and insights on current, interesting and diverse topics. In this Knowledge Session Prof.Eddy Vaassen takes us into the world of blochchain.
Trust is foundational to engaging in business transactions, yet maintaining it in a global economy where interactions often take place without physically meeting the other party, is expensive, time-consuming, and, in many cases, ineffective. Could a blockchain be part of the answer?
This webinar gives a bird’s eye view of the problems that need to be solved when entering into a wide variety of blockchain applications that surpass the Bitcoin. After having attended this seminar the participant will have gained a basic understanding of:
- the role of trust in a world of uncertainty and a world of certainty;
- blockchain and other distributed ledgers;
- some existing and prospective use cases of blockchain.
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Eddy Vaassen
Professor of Accountancy"A blockchain is a system that consists of distributed computers (dubbed nodes), each of which may be unreliable. An important problem that a blockchain solves is how consensus can be achieved about the validity of transactions in such a distributed system that may comprise unreliable participants. The Bitcoin is the most well-known blockchain application. Bitcoin’s consensus protocol can function as a replacement of trusted third parties by creating a peer-to-peer network that does not have a central authority. The consensus protocol solves the absence of a central authority as the main problem in a blockchain. Hence, the consensus protocol is a trust protocol that replaces a trusted third party. The Bitcoin as such may not be the main interest of most business professionals. However, a blockchain, as applied in so-called smart contracts may provide efficient and reliable solutions to a wide array of business problems, including those in the fields of accounting, auditing, controlling, supply chain management, information systems, and finance."
The Knowledge Sessions are offered free of charge by Professional Learning and the Tilburg University Fund. Inspired? Sign up for one of the next sessions or watch more webinars.
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Date of publication: 17 December 2020