New blockchain protocol could improve government and corporate procurement

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

A new blockchain tool developed by a researcher at the University of Waterloo and a collaborator at Airbus in Germany could make procurement of goods and services safer and more impartial.

The tool, a blockchain auction protocol that allows for more safe and secure bidding on contracts with companies, so that the online auction is more difficult to hack or manipulate than conventional methods.

“The goal is to have something which is traceable, cannot be tampered with in any way, and is confidential except for absolutely necessary information that needs to be revealed,” said Florian Kerschbaum, a computer science professor and director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at the University of Waterloo. “While blockchain can provide a strong audit trail, it is slow and generally shares too much information.”

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