Multichain: A platform where anyone can create a private chain

Recently, many securities companies have issued blockchain research reports intensively. However, Bai Shuo, former CTO of Shanghai Stock Exchange, clearly stated that the current blockchain concept stocks in the capital market are actually pseudo-concepts. Instead of making meaningless arguments on concepts, it is better to take a look at some overseas blockchain teams. This time, we would like to introduce to you the multichain created by Dr. Gideon Greenspan, a serial entrepreneur from the UK. He created Multichain, which claims to be a blockchain platform that allows anyone to create a private chain (permission chain). They joined Microsoft's blockchain as a service platform in February 2016.

I noticed your PhD title. Could you please introduce yourself and your team?

I am Dr. Gideon Greenspan, a serial entrepreneur. I received my PhD in Computer Science from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and my Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge. For more information, please visit my LinkedIn profile.
Our team consists of 5 people. Another co-founder, Michael Rozantsev, holds a PhD in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Weizmann Institute of Science. Multichain is a product of Coin Sciences Ltd. Our company is registered in the UK and has its office in Tel Aviv, Israel. A detailed introduction to the team.

Is Coin Sciences Ltd a DAO?

No, we are a traditional company. We are based in the UK.

So what is the company's business model?

Our sources of income are:
1. Consulting services. Provide consulting services such as lectures and courses to customers.
2. After-sales service. Provide paid after-sales service to customers.
3. Professional Edition. The Professional Edition is still under development and will be released in the near future. The Professional Edition is a paid service.

Can you introduce the development of Multichain?

When we founded the company in 2014, we saw the potential of blockchain technology and began to explore it.
Our first product was coinspark. If you know colored coins, contract coins or MasterCard coins, it is easy to understand. We also use the OP_RETURN function to transmit encrypted data, including information and assets, through transactions. About 9 months later, we observed that the number of Bitcoin users continued to decline, and large companies were not optimistic about its prospects. Therefore, we started to develop the Multichain project in January 2015 and released the Alpha version in June of that year.

What are the characteristics of Multichain?

1. All parameters can be fully customized. Multichain is a private chain, and transactions and mining must be permitted by the controller.
2. Quick deployment. You can generate your own blockchain in 2 steps and connect to other blockchains in 3 steps.
3. Native support of assets. This is different from colored coins.
4. Compatible with Bitcoin.
Simply put, Multichain is a software platform on which anyone can create and deploy private chains (permission chains).

Other blockchain applications generally come with a currency. Are there multichain coins?

There is no multi-chain currency. We believe that blockchain is not a network for transferring value. But users can use multi-chain to create their own currency.

Can you reveal the number of users?

Multichain currently has nearly 10,000 downloads.

Are there any application cases?

D+H, a Canadian fintech company, achieved $800 million in revenue in 2014. They integrated our multi-chain technology into their global Payplus solution. Specific report link.

I noticed that some banks are currently using your multichain. Are banks your target customers?

In fact, according to user feedback, blockchain is not suitable for the banking industry.

This is a bit inconsistent with my understanding, can you explain it?

Banks have indeed established the R3 Alliance to explore blockchain technology. However, there is a problem here. If banks share a blockchain, each bank will become a node on the chain, which will lead to an embarrassing situation. The operations between banks will become transparent and have no privacy, which is what banks do not want to see. At present, banks use Multichain for some experimental research, and may also consider applying blockchain within the enterprise. The financial industry is interested in blockchain, and is more considering its application in interbank business rather than considering it as a clearing system.

So that’s how it is. What other application scenarios are there for multi-chains?

We think there are three directions to consider:
1. Valuables. Some high-value commodities, such as jewelry, medicines, antiques, etc., use the characteristics of blockchain data that cannot be tampered with to issue digital certificates for valuables.
2. If several companies with closely related businesses want to record transactions between them, blockchain can be a good intermediary.
3. Lightweight financial systems. Some financial institutions that want to record non-confidential information or where privacy is not important can also use blockchain because setting up and deploying blockchain services is fast and inexpensive.

What does it mean for Multichain to become Microsoft’s blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) partner?

It allows users to more conveniently use the Multichain service that has been deployed in the cloud. However, even without going through Microsoft, it is very simple to install Multichain on any Linux 64-bit system.

How do you view the future development of blockchain?

We believe that blockchain is actually a new type of database, where write permissions are shared by a group of people who do not need to trust each other. Compared with traditional SQL or NoSQL databases, the biggest difference is that there is no administrator who controls the overall situation.
In addition, from the perspective of information security, blockchain has its advantages, but it also inevitably has its disadvantages. Blockchain is not omnipotent. In another blog post of mine, I also advised everyone not to blindly launch some blockchain projects.

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Text: Miner

Editor: Miner

Source: http://www.8btc.com/multichain-interview (8btc Information)