- Dec 25, 2013
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Inside Intel’s Blockchain
In this article, I will dig deeper into an as of yet often overlooked investment from Intel: their blockchain efforts. I hope this article will bring the reader up to speed as to what Intel is doing there.
Summary: One of ICF’s earliest customers was a bitcoin mining ASIC company, and BK has considered making chips for blockchain processing as early as 2014 potentially. Intel’s main and most important contribution is its open source Sawtooth ledger based on Proof of Elasped Time (PoET) as opposed to Proof of Work (PoW), in which the Skylake-introduced SGX (Software Guard Extensions) play a key role. Sawtooth was introduced in early 2016, which is when intel's momentum began growing. Multiple partnerships have been announced in 2017, so Intel is gaining real traction.
21 Inc
One of the earliest hints at Intel’s interest in blockchain traces back to the 2013 startup 21 Inc. As of 2015 it had received over $100M in funding (in which Qualcomm has been involved). The company plans multiple services around blockchain/bitcoin, such as machine-to-machine transactions, and there had been “exploratory” talks with Comcast. In 2015, 21 Inc released a 50Gh bitcoin ASIC built on Intel Custom Foundry’s 22nm process with an efficiency of 0.17J/Gh, which is the highest efficiency of all but one of the ASICs on https://www.bitcoinmining.com/bitcoin-mining-hardware/.
Interestingly, Intel may be planning to release blockchain chips or integrate them into their processors. Citing Coindesk (https://www.coindesk.com/21-intel-bitcoin-mining-strategy/):
Intel’s blockchain investments
At least as of early 2015, Intel had a research position open for its Special Innovation Projects Group at Intel Labs to “investigate hardware and software capabilities that advance the performance, robustness, and scalability of open, decentralized ledgers.”
Then, in early 2016, news of a proof of concept that Intel had internally developed came out.
Citing Coindesk (https://www.coindesk.com/intel-testing-blockchain-built-fantasy-sports-game/):
Intel has also been working on large-scale implementations. Intel says it doesn’t see finance as blockchain’s most important application. For more about Intel’s research efforts into blockchains (early 2016), see: https://www.coindesk.com/intel-hardware-security-blockchains/. They have also opened a development lab in Israel for blockchain projects.
In April 2016, Intel announced its Sawtooth Lake ledger platform (https://www.coindesk.com/intel-sawtooth-lake-distributed-ledger-proposal/) “as a “highly modular platform for building, deploying and running distributed ledgers,” be submitted to the open-source Hyperledger blockchain project, which was established in December.” It is based on Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET), which is more environmentally friendly than bitcoin’s proof of work, and it uses Intel’s SGX (to create enclaves in hardware) which was introduced in Skylake. In August 2017, Hyperledger demonstrated the proof of concept Sawtooth Ethereum (https://www.coindesk.com/hyperledger-blockchain-consortium-reveals-sawtooth-ethereum-tech/), which combines the two technologies.
(See here for an August 2017 interview with the VP of software about SGX/Sawtooth: https://www.coindesk.com/silicon-blockchain-intels-distributed-ledger-strategy-hardware/.)
Since then, Intel has demonstrated multiple applications/proof of concepts of its Sawtooth Lake platform, including a test by 8 R3 banks (https://www.coindesk.com/8-r3-banks-test-intel-blockchain-platform/),seafood tracking (https://www.coindesk.com/intel-demos-seafood-tracking-sawtooth-lake-blockchain/) and a digital asset marketplace (https://www.coindesk.com/intel-quietly-demos-new-digital-asset-exchange/).
In late 2016, Coindesk published a generally positive article about Intel’s PoET-based Sawtooth Lake gaining momentum, describing it as innovative. Quoting one person saying "I'm actually not very impressed with Hyperledger Fabric and I think that Sawtooth Lake deserves more attention.” (https://www.coindesk.com/intel-winning-blockchain-critics-reimagining-bitcoins-dna/)
In February 2017, Intel’s software VP published a blog detailing Intel’s blockchain efforts: https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2017/02/14/the-second-coming-of-blockchain.
In May, Intel started a partnership with PokitDok to bring blockchain to the healthcare industry using Intel’s Sawtooth Lake. (https://itpeernetwork.intel.com/healthcare-blockchain-available/, https://cointelegraph.com/news/intel-aims-at-blockchain-integration-for-entire-healthcare-industry, https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/10/pokitdok-teams-with-intel-on-healthcare-blockchain-solution/)
In August, Intel and Microsoft announced a partnership to bring the blockchain to the enterprise, with Coco. (https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-microsoft-enterprise-blockchain-service/, https://www.enterprisetech.com/2017/08/10/intel-moves-blockchain-self-driving-cars/, https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/blockchain-microsoft-intel, https://blog.pokitdok.com/pokitdok-intel-blockchain-technology/)
In September, Intel started a partnership with Tencent aimed at blockchain for IoT, opening an R&D lab in China (https://www.coindesk.com/tencent-taps-intels-hardware-for-iot-blockchain-solution/, https://www.ethnews.com/intel-tencent-sign-letter-of-intent-for-blockchain-technology-collaboration).
In October, blockchain as a service was announced for Oracle Cloud and a collaboration to further work together. (https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-blockchain-technology-offered-service-oracle-cloud/)
Conclusion
Since its introduction of the Hyperledger Sawtooth open source platform less than two years ago, as a result of its blockchain research that started in 2014, Intel has gained considerable momentum in its blockchain efforts with multiple proof of concepts and industry collaborations to bring blockchain to healthcare, IoT and the enterprise.
The most relevant involvement for Intel is the technology’s use of its SGX instructions. How blockchain will provide substantial financial benefits to the company (in a not-indirect manner), however, is unclear to me.
Edit: Jan 30th
http://hyperledger.org/announcements/2018/01/30/hyperledger-releases-hyperledger-sawtooth-1-0
In this article, I will dig deeper into an as of yet often overlooked investment from Intel: their blockchain efforts. I hope this article will bring the reader up to speed as to what Intel is doing there.
Summary: One of ICF’s earliest customers was a bitcoin mining ASIC company, and BK has considered making chips for blockchain processing as early as 2014 potentially. Intel’s main and most important contribution is its open source Sawtooth ledger based on Proof of Elasped Time (PoET) as opposed to Proof of Work (PoW), in which the Skylake-introduced SGX (Software Guard Extensions) play a key role. Sawtooth was introduced in early 2016, which is when intel's momentum began growing. Multiple partnerships have been announced in 2017, so Intel is gaining real traction.
21 Inc
One of the earliest hints at Intel’s interest in blockchain traces back to the 2013 startup 21 Inc. As of 2015 it had received over $100M in funding (in which Qualcomm has been involved). The company plans multiple services around blockchain/bitcoin, such as machine-to-machine transactions, and there had been “exploratory” talks with Comcast. In 2015, 21 Inc released a 50Gh bitcoin ASIC built on Intel Custom Foundry’s 22nm process with an efficiency of 0.17J/Gh, which is the highest efficiency of all but one of the ASICs on https://www.bitcoinmining.com/bitcoin-mining-hardware/.
Interestingly, Intel may be planning to release blockchain chips or integrate them into their processors. Citing Coindesk (https://www.coindesk.com/21-intel-bitcoin-mining-strategy/):
“Krzanich indicated he would be instructing Intel VP and GM Doug L Davis to evaluate the potential addition of mining chips to Intel products, including desktop PCs, writing:
"I am copying Doug on this note to make an introduction … but trust me I will stay 100% engaged in this and be the godfather of it at Intel."
Intel’s apparent vote of confidence in the company was detailed in another entry.
"We are taking your suggestion very seriously and if Intel was to ubiquitously apply mining to the majority of our chips, it is a significant event and will impact the landscape," general manager of the New Business Group at Intel Corporation Jerry R Bautista remarked in an email with Pauker.”
"I am copying Doug on this note to make an introduction … but trust me I will stay 100% engaged in this and be the godfather of it at Intel."
Intel’s apparent vote of confidence in the company was detailed in another entry.
"We are taking your suggestion very seriously and if Intel was to ubiquitously apply mining to the majority of our chips, it is a significant event and will impact the landscape," general manager of the New Business Group at Intel Corporation Jerry R Bautista remarked in an email with Pauker.”
Intel’s blockchain investments
At least as of early 2015, Intel had a research position open for its Special Innovation Projects Group at Intel Labs to “investigate hardware and software capabilities that advance the performance, robustness, and scalability of open, decentralized ledgers.”
Then, in early 2016, news of a proof of concept that Intel had internally developed came out.
Citing Coindesk (https://www.coindesk.com/intel-testing-blockchain-built-fantasy-sports-game/):
“The concept was presented earlier this month by Intel during a closed-door meeting for the Hyperledger Project, the Linux Foundation-led open-source blockchain initiative that includes 30 members from major tech institutions, international banks and industry startups.
An Intel representative said during that meeting that the game is currently open to anyone at the Santa Clara-based company for participation, remarking that the company sees the trial as a way to test the strength of its internal blockchain technology.
The representative explained:
"We’re actually taking that marketplace out and we’re running an internal trial … which is a football exchange, but it will be an NCAA basketball pool kind of game where you exchange shares of teams. Our expectation is that it’s going to give us expectations of real workloads running in the wild in consumer applications."
Notably, the representative said it’s blockchain is not yet "production quality" and that it is currently being optimized for performance.”
"We at Intel are concerned about usages where, not necessarily cryptocurrency kinds of things, but open market and consumer applications," said the rep.
Intel said it experimented with a number of consensus algorithms and variations on features within these designs, and that the company’s researchers have focused on scripting languages, transaction rule-making and APIs.
As for the status of Intel’s blockchain tech, the current implementation is said to be written in Python, a choice made due to the firm’s desire to focus on extensibility and modularity.
An Intel representative said during that meeting that the game is currently open to anyone at the Santa Clara-based company for participation, remarking that the company sees the trial as a way to test the strength of its internal blockchain technology.
The representative explained:
"We’re actually taking that marketplace out and we’re running an internal trial … which is a football exchange, but it will be an NCAA basketball pool kind of game where you exchange shares of teams. Our expectation is that it’s going to give us expectations of real workloads running in the wild in consumer applications."
Notably, the representative said it’s blockchain is not yet "production quality" and that it is currently being optimized for performance.”
"We at Intel are concerned about usages where, not necessarily cryptocurrency kinds of things, but open market and consumer applications," said the rep.
Intel said it experimented with a number of consensus algorithms and variations on features within these designs, and that the company’s researchers have focused on scripting languages, transaction rule-making and APIs.
As for the status of Intel’s blockchain tech, the current implementation is said to be written in Python, a choice made due to the firm’s desire to focus on extensibility and modularity.
Intel has also been working on large-scale implementations. Intel says it doesn’t see finance as blockchain’s most important application. For more about Intel’s research efforts into blockchains (early 2016), see: https://www.coindesk.com/intel-hardware-security-blockchains/. They have also opened a development lab in Israel for blockchain projects.
In April 2016, Intel announced its Sawtooth Lake ledger platform (https://www.coindesk.com/intel-sawtooth-lake-distributed-ledger-proposal/) “as a “highly modular platform for building, deploying and running distributed ledgers,” be submitted to the open-source Hyperledger blockchain project, which was established in December.” It is based on Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET), which is more environmentally friendly than bitcoin’s proof of work, and it uses Intel’s SGX (to create enclaves in hardware) which was introduced in Skylake. In August 2017, Hyperledger demonstrated the proof of concept Sawtooth Ethereum (https://www.coindesk.com/hyperledger-blockchain-consortium-reveals-sawtooth-ethereum-tech/), which combines the two technologies.
(See here for an August 2017 interview with the VP of software about SGX/Sawtooth: https://www.coindesk.com/silicon-blockchain-intels-distributed-ledger-strategy-hardware/.)
Since then, Intel has demonstrated multiple applications/proof of concepts of its Sawtooth Lake platform, including a test by 8 R3 banks (https://www.coindesk.com/8-r3-banks-test-intel-blockchain-platform/),seafood tracking (https://www.coindesk.com/intel-demos-seafood-tracking-sawtooth-lake-blockchain/) and a digital asset marketplace (https://www.coindesk.com/intel-quietly-demos-new-digital-asset-exchange/).
In late 2016, Coindesk published a generally positive article about Intel’s PoET-based Sawtooth Lake gaining momentum, describing it as innovative. Quoting one person saying "I'm actually not very impressed with Hyperledger Fabric and I think that Sawtooth Lake deserves more attention.” (https://www.coindesk.com/intel-winning-blockchain-critics-reimagining-bitcoins-dna/)
One of the reasons Allen thinks so positively about Intel's contribution is that it provides a variety of options and consensus algorithms, which he believes allow users to build a private blockchain to meets their needs.
"Sawtooth as a proof-of-concept demonstrates that you can have multiple consensus algorithms," said Allen. "There's no reason Sawtooth couldn't do PoW or proof-of-stake."
Allen mentioned that the working group has been discussing how to create the best architecture for allowing users to choose from a variety of consensus algorithms.
That's where PoET comes in, as it’s one of the unique blockchain offerings that Sawtooth Lake makes available. Allen described it as a simulation of PoW that might be best used as an alternative for private blockchains.
"Sawtooth as a proof-of-concept demonstrates that you can have multiple consensus algorithms," said Allen. "There's no reason Sawtooth couldn't do PoW or proof-of-stake."
Allen mentioned that the working group has been discussing how to create the best architecture for allowing users to choose from a variety of consensus algorithms.
That's where PoET comes in, as it’s one of the unique blockchain offerings that Sawtooth Lake makes available. Allen described it as a simulation of PoW that might be best used as an alternative for private blockchains.
In February 2017, Intel’s software VP published a blog detailing Intel’s blockchain efforts: https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2017/02/14/the-second-coming-of-blockchain.
In May, Intel started a partnership with PokitDok to bring blockchain to the healthcare industry using Intel’s Sawtooth Lake. (https://itpeernetwork.intel.com/healthcare-blockchain-available/, https://cointelegraph.com/news/intel-aims-at-blockchain-integration-for-entire-healthcare-industry, https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/10/pokitdok-teams-with-intel-on-healthcare-blockchain-solution/)
In August, Intel and Microsoft announced a partnership to bring the blockchain to the enterprise, with Coco. (https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-microsoft-enterprise-blockchain-service/, https://www.enterprisetech.com/2017/08/10/intel-moves-blockchain-self-driving-cars/, https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/blockchain-microsoft-intel, https://blog.pokitdok.com/pokitdok-intel-blockchain-technology/)
In September, Intel started a partnership with Tencent aimed at blockchain for IoT, opening an R&D lab in China (https://www.coindesk.com/tencent-taps-intels-hardware-for-iot-blockchain-solution/, https://www.ethnews.com/intel-tencent-sign-letter-of-intent-for-blockchain-technology-collaboration).
In October, blockchain as a service was announced for Oracle Cloud and a collaboration to further work together. (https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-blockchain-technology-offered-service-oracle-cloud/)
Conclusion
Since its introduction of the Hyperledger Sawtooth open source platform less than two years ago, as a result of its blockchain research that started in 2014, Intel has gained considerable momentum in its blockchain efforts with multiple proof of concepts and industry collaborations to bring blockchain to healthcare, IoT and the enterprise.
The most relevant involvement for Intel is the technology’s use of its SGX instructions. How blockchain will provide substantial financial benefits to the company (in a not-indirect manner), however, is unclear to me.
Edit: Jan 30th
http://hyperledger.org/announcements/2018/01/30/hyperledger-releases-hyperledger-sawtooth-1-0
Last edited:
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