nLocktime contracts in supply chains and services: The Bitcoin Masterclasses #4 with Dr. Craig Wright

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We’ve heard a lot about how the BSV blockchain can make supply chains more reliable and efficient. In this latest session of The Bitcoin Masterclasses, Dr. Craig Wright describes ways to automate these processes and work their results into payment contracts. IoT, big data, hardware, and mass information storage are getting cheaper and more disposable—we’ll need best practices to take advantage of all this.

Using automated blockchain processes to keep track of everything

“Let’s start by thinking about different types of food products,” Dr. Wright says. “How many people want to buy six-month-old milk?” Consumable products usually have use-by dates, and not just food but also medicines, construction materials, electronics, and services like insurance. An IoT sensor on such products could reduce the nLocktime payment amount as a certain item ages or if its temperature rises above a set level. Some buyers may pay a premium for newer items; some don’t mind paying a bit lower for something less fresh. We already see these choices in supermarkets.

These data can be recorded and verified at every stage of the supply chain, and contract conditions can be updated using nLocktime and nSequence. The advantage of using blockchain here is that the information is open for all to share (with access controls) and would use compatible data formats to enable different parties to use it.

“All of the failures, all the successes, are stored on-chain.” The quality and efficiency of services can be monitored and audited. There can be discounts and/or penalties according to any condition relevant to the situation. Remember that only completed processes and transactions are recorded on-chain, so there’s no need to constantly make separate transactions for every minor event.

Dr. Wright also called for those looking to develop blockchain-based solutions to spend time in the industries they’re targeting for practical experience of their needs. This is good advice for anyone working in technology, and it may involve hanging out in factories and warehouses for a long time.

Broadening the discussion about Big Data

There’s a question about Smart Cities and service delivery, leading to a wider discussion about privacy, “surveillance capitalism” in general, and who needs to know what. If this is your primary concern about the Big Data world (it’s definitely a valid concern), then we recommend you look further into how BSV can handle built-in access controls, allowing information to simultaneously become more accessible to different parties while also remaining restricted where necessary.

Dr. Wright points out that it’s often more important to record who is accessing information and when than it is to restrict or encrypt it too much. “There’s no accountability. It’s all about secrecy,” he says, saying this destroys trust in society.

A breakout session at the end of the presentation requests the audience to brainstorm use cases for different industries and question what information should be accessible. The suggestions often reflect the particular concerns of those in the technology industry (e.g., electric cars, agri-business, environmental safeguards). This suggests opportunities for those not working directly in technology to get involved in these discussions and to broaden the scope of ideas a little. Other more original examples, like witness protection schemes, also pop up.

These Bitcoin Masterclasses reports are broad summaries of the discussions, but we urge everyone to watch the actual videos to appreciate the details. There are always use cases, idea prompts, and concerns you might not have considered yet. All these need to be examined and discussed further, even before anything is built or perhaps, especially before anything is built.

If you want to see the rest of the event or any other past The Bitcoin Masterclasses series, they’re all available on the CoinGeek YouTube channel.

Watch: The Bitcoin Masterclasses #4 Day 1 with Craig Wright about nLocktime and Delayed Transactions