blockchain literature review

RM Group Project Name: Blockchain Technology Security & Assurance

Group Project’s Quick Facts

• Group Project Manager: Dr. Shaun Aghili • Group Project open to MISSM and MISAM students • Group Project’s current capacity: 20 students • Sign up methodology: Mostly on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to group project manager’s final

approval. Please note that priority may be given to MISAM students, as needed.

• Sign up Process: Students will need to sign up for the blockchain group project during the Fall 2020 semester ISSM 538 (RM I) course.

What is Blockchain Technology?

Blockchain is a technology popularized in 2008 by an anonymous individual who used the pseudo-name

Satoshi Nakamoto. To this day, no one knows who he really is, although there has been a good deal of speculation

about the true identity of this individual. Be that as it may, Blockchain technology was -and remains- the

underlying network structure behind Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.

Blockchain technology stores transactional records, known as “blocks” in databases, in form of “chains,” in a

network connected through peer-to-peer nodes. Typically, this storage medium is referred to as a decentralized,

immutable, distributed digital ledger. Many IT industry experts and leaders believe that blockchain technology,

although still in its infancy, is a disruptive technology poised to change the face of business and IT by the end of

this decade.

To learn more about blockchain technology, please watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSo_EIwHSd4

Who should sign up for the blockchain group project?

• Students who are genuinely interested in gaining expertise in blockchain security and auditing; • MISSM students with a good understanding of basic cryptographic tools and techniques such as

symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, hashing functions, digital certificates, and cryptographic attacks

interested in implementing suitable and secure public or permissioned blockchains;

• MISAM students interested in gaining blockchain auditing knowledge and skills; • Students with good analytical skills and attention to details; • MISSM and MISAM students with good technical, programming and/or English writing skills.

What are the Blockchain Group Project deliverables?

By the time, students reach the RM III stage of this group project, they should be able to implement a

basic (yet suitable and secure) blockchain for a specific business use, based on the knowledge they have acquired

in the blockchain RM II seminar.

In addition, in RM III, students will assist Dr. Aghili with the task of writing several blockchain-related chapters for

an blockchain-related book manuscript All group project members will be recognized for their contribution toward

the development of this manuscript, if the manuscript is published.

For more information about a similar, published project that involved several MISAM students in 2007-2019, check

out this link:

https://www.amazon.ca/Fraud-Auditing-Using-CAATT-

Organizational/dp/0367145618/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1587745566&sr=8-1