Blockchain Databases : As the Smart Contracts which is the primary use case of , block chain platform emerge as a key interest for enterprises, one of the major concern is the performance of blockchain as a data store from enterprise perspective. There are a few attempts to inject RDBMS Like Transaction Processing capabilities and Big Data like Horizontal Scaling in to the blockchain data store while maintaining the core tenants of blockchain like immutability, peer to peer replication etc...
BigchainDB is one such database that merges traditional database characteristics with blockchain. Though the vendors for now claim that the product is nearing a production class implementation, there is already reference implementation using Azure Kubernetes Container As A Service that provides enterprise grade architecture. This product works on top of MongoDB that gives all the scalability of the underlying database.
One important aspect of BigChainDB is fundamentally geared towards the concept of Assets and subsequent manage the life cycle of Asset through its operations. A CREATE transaction can be use to register any kind of asset , along with arbitrary metadata. A TRANSFER transaction is used to transfer the asset from one owner to another owner, while the reference to the base asset is maintained. An ASSET can also have metadata which will be useful in tagging and searching of the asset.
Managing Substance Of Concern In Automobiles: As you may know a typical Automobile Original Equipment like a Car is made up of 100 or even 1000s of parts and components. Each of these components and sub components are manufactured by various suppliers. These sub components potentially could be manufactured using SOC (Substance of Concerns), which are typically dangerous chemicals and contents like Lead, Nickel. Also a manufacturing of a car involves multiple suppliers and who may produce these components in different countries. Also the supply chain of a car involves multiple parties and some times it is global in scale, such that the parts are manufactured in one country but may be used in another country. Also once a car comes out of OEM manufacturing facility, it's ownership may be transferred between multiple owners before it reaches ELV ( End of Life of Vehicles). Chemicals legislation, such as REACH, puts significant responsibility on the communication, notification and phase-out of substances of concern (SOCs) throughout the complete supply chain.
Assume that the OEM is typically responsible for keeping track of the SOC usage in a car(automobile) and needs to report on it, but if it is not maintained through a centralized record, this information may get lost once the vehicle is stored or even if one of the part manufacturer has not reported all the information, this may result in break of compliance requirements.
Blockchain To The Rescue : Considering the fact that SOC tracking requires a single version of truth common to all parties involved and also should stay through the life cycle of the Asset, a platform like Blockchain which provides a distributed database across all the stake holders while maintaining the integrity of data, naturally fits a best solution for handling the issues.
We already see recent announcements of blockchain usage in Retail Supply Chain in tracking the quality of food items like farm products. Recently major retailers like Dole, Driscoll’s, Golden State Foods, Kroger, McCormick and Company, McLane Company, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Unilever and Walmart collaborated using IBM blockchain for tracking the food safety details. In the same way the blockchain network can be used to track the SOC usage in the base components as well as assembled components and the Asset can be tracked throughout its life time, including the transfer between owners.
BigchainDB Creation of Asset : The following is a sub section of the code which can be used by BigchainDB python driver to create the initial asset, which will done by the OEM after the product is manufactured. Here is the OEM creates the Asset with its ID, and the Asset representation is just for illustrative purposes and contain just few fields to identity the vehicle and its SOC components.
oem_public='***'
oem_private='***'
bdb_root_url = 'http://localhost:9984'
bdb = BigchainDB(bdb_root_url)
car_asset = {
'data': {
'car': {
'make':'my make',
'model': 'my model',
'vin':'VIN0000001',
'type':'petrol',
'transmission':'automatic',
'cylinders':6,
'socinfo':[
{ 'name':'soc component 1', 'manufacturer':'vendor 1'},
{ 'name':'soc component 2', 'manufacturer':'vendor 2'},
{ 'name':'soc component 3', 'manufacturer':'vendor 3'}
]
},
},
}
car_asset_metadata = {
'plant': 'USA'
}
prepared_creation_tx = bdb.transactions.prepare(
operation='CREATE',
signers=oem_public,
asset=car_asset,
metadata=car_asset_metadata
)
fulfilled_creation_tx = bdb.transactions.fulfill(
prepared_creation_tx,
private_keys=oem_private
)
sent_creation_tx = bdb.transactions.send(fulfilled_creation_tx)
Once the transaction is submitted to bigchainDB it will be tagged with the OEM as the owner. When subsequently during the life cycle of the Car it may move multiple parties and all these transactions can refer to the original asset , such that the substance of concern info. will be known to every one. Finally when the car reaches the End of Life, appropriate action could be taken based on SOC handling procedures.
The above is a simplistic example, how Asset Life Cycle Management can be improved by using Blockchain technologies and how BigchainDB facilitates use cases in this direction. I am analyzing further possibilities in this direction, let me know of any other use cases that can fit this.
One current issue is that the Asset attributes which is maintained as Json is static from the time of creation, however during the maintenance of a car a new component may be added and the SOC list could be updated. It looks like there are attempts to make updates to the Asset content using a ORM Driver, but further details needs to be obtained on this.
BigchainDB is one such database that merges traditional database characteristics with blockchain. Though the vendors for now claim that the product is nearing a production class implementation, there is already reference implementation using Azure Kubernetes Container As A Service that provides enterprise grade architecture. This product works on top of MongoDB that gives all the scalability of the underlying database.
One important aspect of BigChainDB is fundamentally geared towards the concept of Assets and subsequent manage the life cycle of Asset through its operations. A CREATE transaction can be use to register any kind of asset , along with arbitrary metadata. A TRANSFER transaction is used to transfer the asset from one owner to another owner, while the reference to the base asset is maintained. An ASSET can also have metadata which will be useful in tagging and searching of the asset.
Managing Substance Of Concern In Automobiles: As you may know a typical Automobile Original Equipment like a Car is made up of 100 or even 1000s of parts and components. Each of these components and sub components are manufactured by various suppliers. These sub components potentially could be manufactured using SOC (Substance of Concerns), which are typically dangerous chemicals and contents like Lead, Nickel. Also a manufacturing of a car involves multiple suppliers and who may produce these components in different countries. Also the supply chain of a car involves multiple parties and some times it is global in scale, such that the parts are manufactured in one country but may be used in another country. Also once a car comes out of OEM manufacturing facility, it's ownership may be transferred between multiple owners before it reaches ELV ( End of Life of Vehicles). Chemicals legislation, such as REACH, puts significant responsibility on the communication, notification and phase-out of substances of concern (SOCs) throughout the complete supply chain.
Assume that the OEM is typically responsible for keeping track of the SOC usage in a car(automobile) and needs to report on it, but if it is not maintained through a centralized record, this information may get lost once the vehicle is stored or even if one of the part manufacturer has not reported all the information, this may result in break of compliance requirements.
Blockchain To The Rescue : Considering the fact that SOC tracking requires a single version of truth common to all parties involved and also should stay through the life cycle of the Asset, a platform like Blockchain which provides a distributed database across all the stake holders while maintaining the integrity of data, naturally fits a best solution for handling the issues.
We already see recent announcements of blockchain usage in Retail Supply Chain in tracking the quality of food items like farm products. Recently major retailers like Dole, Driscoll’s, Golden State Foods, Kroger, McCormick and Company, McLane Company, Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Unilever and Walmart collaborated using IBM blockchain for tracking the food safety details. In the same way the blockchain network can be used to track the SOC usage in the base components as well as assembled components and the Asset can be tracked throughout its life time, including the transfer between owners.
BigchainDB Creation of Asset : The following is a sub section of the code which can be used by BigchainDB python driver to create the initial asset, which will done by the OEM after the product is manufactured. Here is the OEM creates the Asset with its ID, and the Asset representation is just for illustrative purposes and contain just few fields to identity the vehicle and its SOC components.
oem_public='***'
oem_private='***'
bdb_root_url = 'http://localhost:9984'
bdb = BigchainDB(bdb_root_url)
car_asset = {
'data': {
'car': {
'make':'my make',
'model': 'my model',
'vin':'VIN0000001',
'type':'petrol',
'transmission':'automatic',
'cylinders':6,
'socinfo':[
{ 'name':'soc component 1', 'manufacturer':'vendor 1'},
{ 'name':'soc component 2', 'manufacturer':'vendor 2'},
{ 'name':'soc component 3', 'manufacturer':'vendor 3'}
]
},
},
}
car_asset_metadata = {
'plant': 'USA'
}
prepared_creation_tx = bdb.transactions.prepare(
operation='CREATE',
signers=oem_public,
asset=car_asset,
metadata=car_asset_metadata
)
fulfilled_creation_tx = bdb.transactions.fulfill(
prepared_creation_tx,
private_keys=oem_private
)
sent_creation_tx = bdb.transactions.send(fulfilled_creation_tx)
Once the transaction is submitted to bigchainDB it will be tagged with the OEM as the owner. When subsequently during the life cycle of the Car it may move multiple parties and all these transactions can refer to the original asset , such that the substance of concern info. will be known to every one. Finally when the car reaches the End of Life, appropriate action could be taken based on SOC handling procedures.
The above is a simplistic example, how Asset Life Cycle Management can be improved by using Blockchain technologies and how BigchainDB facilitates use cases in this direction. I am analyzing further possibilities in this direction, let me know of any other use cases that can fit this.
One current issue is that the Asset attributes which is maintained as Json is static from the time of creation, however during the maintenance of a car a new component may be added and the SOC list could be updated. It looks like there are attempts to make updates to the Asset content using a ORM Driver, but further details needs to be obtained on this.
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