Degree Type

Creative Component

Semester of Graduation

Fall 2018


Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Major Professor

Dr Doug Jacobson


Master of Science (MS)


Information Assurance


The building blocks of a commercial crypto technology solution must include confidentiality, integrity, availability, non-repudiation, must not support anonymous participants, must be compliant with existing laws and regulations and must provide users legal recourse.

Some additional concepts blockchain technology presents is similar to how object-oriented programming added the ability to combine data and code to create a single object to act upon data, blockchain solutions are able to control transaction and data logical access controls and permissions such that access rights providing confidentiality can be built into the solution. For example, data on the blockchain can be encrypted such that only those with appropriate keys (often certificates) can access transaction details, enter, modify or view data while blocking visibility or modification by others accessing the same data. This feature allows a potential group of companies to share a blockchain while also maintaining integrity and confidentiality on chosen data to only those with appropriate access to the contents within the blockchain.

There are also options in terms of whether to make a blockchain public, keep it private, or even create a hybrid. A public blockchain is one that is accessible via the world wide web or Internet. A private blockchain is one that is not public, meaning none of the nodes managing the ledger are publicly-accessible or modifiable via public access. A hybrid solution is one where both a public and private blockchain can coexist such that the public aspect may announce the existence of a transaction and include the date and time, however the transaction details, such as the transaction participants, could be sealed in a private blockchain that is kept secret from the public.


The writer believes multi-level, multi-entity supply chain solutions are well suited for application of crypto-technology adoption where governments, corporations, distributors, retailers and even users may all utilize the same core solution for information management. The envisioned solution would dramatically be different than the historically separate and duplicated data managed on disparate systems that do not communicate or synchronize information

Copyright Owner

William Kincaid

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