ETH Library as one of the leading scientific libraries in the world is up to date not only concerning methodology and the library’s business processes but also with regards to technology. To be and to stay state of the art, ETH Library takes part early in new
technological developments that may affect information science, such as Blockchain. Actually, nobody really knows, if Blockchain is useful for libraries or just a hyped, very power-consuming technology for one special purpose. To maybe answer this, to deal constructively with the influence Blockchain has on information science, and to shape this development, ETH Library started several activities:
— Under the leadership of its ETH Library Lab, workshops were performed to identify and analyse possible use cases for Blockchain.
— Early this year on the initiative of the Max Planck Digital Library (MDPL), leading institutions from ten different countries, including ETH Library, have founded the global Blockchain Consortium for Science.
— This summer, ETH Library started an experiment to build a tool to validate data and to see, if this tool can usefully run on a Blockchain. The talk will give an overview of data storage and Blockchain, as well as ETH Library’s activities.
Blockchain and ETH Library – Take Part, Watch and Learn
1. ||ETH Library
10 Years DOI Desk at ETH Zurich
Blockchain and the ETH Library
take part, watch and learn
2.
3.
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Modern scripting technologies to customize the discovery experience for our
customers
Modern web frameworks to build the first identity provider for non-academic
customers in Europe
Modern data science methods to analyze and transform data e.g. for SLSP
Modern distributed data bases to build up a datalake for meta data
Modern technology’s research in the ETH Library Lab
Modern container technologies to drive microservices, but also to host a
blockchain node
13.09.19Sven Koesling 4
always on track
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Text files
Databases
Distributed Databases
Blockchain?
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how to store data
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A fraud resistant distributed database
A chain, where every link depends on its predecessor
Bulletproof: one cannot change a bit of information without making the
following chain invalid
No need for intermediates anymore (though I’d consider the blockchain itself
as an intermediate)
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A broad overview
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Search and analyze possible use cases of blockchain under Leadership of the
ETH Library Lab
Become a founding member of the bloxberg consortium
Start a first project with the following constraints
Always be aware of the customers benefit
Keep an eye on the resources
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What we do (concerning blockchain)
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Can we support science and research
with blockchain technologies?
And if so, how?
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Our question
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International consortium of actually 50 members
permissioned, public blockchain
Proof of Authority No mining! (resources)
Goal: deliver a trusted research infrastructure, empowering researchers with
robust, autonomous services that transcend institutional boundaries
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bloxberg
read the bloxberg whitepaper
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Explorer: See, who‘s on the network
Voting: on chain voting for new candidates
Certifying documents on „keeper“
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Actually three dApps
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Processes worked out
System architecture roughly designed
Actually in negotiations with a developer team
Start with a distributed database
Prototype: Do we meet the requirements?
Test on blockchain
Advantages / disadvantages
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Early development
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Power consumption – first impression
distributed DB (in production)
bloxberg
Seal of Trust
?
17. ||ETH Library
10 Years DOI Desk at ETH Zurich
Sven Koesling
sven.Koesling@library.ethz.ch
Thank you for your attention