How Blockchain can be used for Censorship Resistance and Voting Rights

In this episode of Silicon Valley Insider, Keith Koo’s guest is Douglas Horn, Chief Architect of Telos a decentralized blockchain network and founder of Goodblock a blockchain development company. Throughout the show Keith and Douglas explain how Telos is an example of a decentralized blockchain network which means that there is no single organization or person that “owns” the blockchain. This is an important distinction because there is growing concern over the term “blockchain” and how the technology is being used since it is known for it’s “immutable” properties. An example of a centralized service would something like Google or Facebook where the company owns the platform and the entire user experience. In a decentralized environment, there is no single control and so the concern over a centralized organization doing things (like censorship) is mitigated. Keith and Douglas also go into detail about how decentralized blockchains are censorship-resistant and how they can be used for secure voting (although both agree that this technology will not be implemented in time for the upcoming USA elections). On this week’s Cyber-Tip, Keith talks about the U.S Treasury’s warning to all banks (via FINCEN) that cybercrime related to the pandemic continues to rise and what banks, organizations and individuals need to do keep safe. On “The Pivot” – Keith and Douglas discuss how blockchain technology can be used to strengthen privacy vs. concerns that the technology can be used to breakdown privacy. Douglas gives several examples including how contract tracing can be done anonymously using Telos.