On 11th of August 2018, the students of Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur got a great opportunity to enrich their knowledge and learn from Dr. Ravi Chamria, Chief Executive Officer, Sofocle Technologies, an Enterprise Blockchain Company under ‘Pratyaksh’ guest lecture series. Dr. Ravi has over 18 years of industry experience in IT consulting spanning across Fintech, InsureTech, Supply Chain and e-commerce. An executive MBA from IIM Lucknow, he is a technology enthusiast and passionate about emerging innovations like Blockchain, AI, Machine Learning and IOT to name a few. The most astonishing and motivating fact about Dr. Ravi is that he is an MBBS and shifted from Medicine to IT and today is a source of inspiration for the new generation showcasing that profound interests lead to success.
Dr. Ravi gave an immensely engaging talk on “Blockchain Technology – Efficiency for the Future”. He expertly translated the technical concepts into a more readily understandable format. He connected with the audience by giving us a glimpse of his career and how two big revolutions in technology, namely the Internet and Blockchain, transformed his career path. He stated that the “dot com bubble” of the late 1990s introduced him to IT and connected it to the Blockchain technology that is here to change the shape of the industry yet again.
He explained the concept of Blockchain and how it is used to transfer value online. He differentiated Blockchain from the online transfers stating that in those cases only information about transactions is transferred or communicated and not value. He discussed the various challenges faced in implementing Blockchain and the solutions to them. Some of the examples being, Asymmetric Cryptography for maintaining the authenticity and integrity of transfers, Consensus Protocol for updating a new transaction and the incentive structure for the users of Blockchain.
He discussed different types of Blockchain, broadly classified as Public Blockchain and Private or Permission Blockchain. He also gave insights on how Blockchain eases the process of value transfer by reducing the role of intermediaries and creating a more transparent, traceable and decentralized system. He also shared various other use cases of Blockchain and gave new dimensions to our thoughts. He explained this with examples pertaining to the fields of healthcare and the electoral system.
Dr. Ravi enthusiastically answered various questions asked by the students making it a very interactive and informative session. Towards the closure of the session, he gave us a word of caution that though the Blockchain technology has various advantages, a proper assessment of every use case is of utmost importance before implementation. The session was helpful in giving us a perspective of how technology is bringing new dimensions to business and an insight of how future may look like.