Web3 Use Case - Decentralized Blogging

The Problem

For the 99.99% of the blogs out there, hosting on web 2.0 works. There is no need to have your blogs on a decentralized hosting platform.

No one is going to take your blog down. But for the 0.01% of the blogs out there, a hosting provider or even the government will want to take your blog down for public consumption.

Why?

There are some legitimate reasons. You could be committing a crime with the content on your blog. And they should be taken down, especially if it involves violence.

But often, it could be because they don’t like your content and are in a position in power where they can take down your content.

It could be something uncontroversial like health and nutrition related. A person could blog about the benefits of supplementing with Vitamin D. Nutrition scientists have increased the recommended dosage of Vitamin D over the years. The dosage recommended now would have been considered dangerous years ago.

I doubt the authorities would take your blog down for advocating high Vitamin D usage, but you never know who will be in power today, tomorrow, or in the far future.

The Solution

Web 3.0 solves this. Instead of hosting your blog centrally on a server, the blog can use decentralized hosting. This is where the blog is hosted on many servers. If someone tries to shut down one of the servers hosting your blog, there are 99 other servers hosting your content.

So if they shut down 90 of the servers, ten servers are hosting your blog.

And some of those servers are being hosted in someone’s garage in various countries around the world where it’s not so easy to shut down.

As long as one server is out hosting your content, you will still be able to serve your blog to others.

When someone updates their decentralized blog, it uses peer-to-peer technology to update the content on all the servers hosting their blog. So the blog content is the same on all the servers.

This allows the blog to be served up from any server when a person tries to access the blog on a browser.

The Problem

The father and mother of a family die, leaving two kids, one home, and a mixture of stocks and cash in the bank.

The father and mother made a will, but there is a dispute about whether the executioner follows the will. What if the executioner is not following the will, withholding the money in the bank, and preventing the surviving family members from their share of the inheritance?

What if the executioner is one of the kids, and they feel that the will is invalid and they are not getting their fair share? That person may improperly change or falsify the will, so it goes in their favor.

So there can be a lot of issues that arise depending on the executioner.

Could Web3 and smart contracts solve or alleviate this issue?

The Solution

To simplify the problem, we will just deal with the will involving the stocks and cash in the bank.

1. So the family hires a developer to create a smart contract will.
2. In the smart contract, upon the death of the father and mother, the stocks and money will be split 50/50 between the two kids.
3. The Smart Contract will connect to the local county database via API to check if the death certificates for the father and mother exist.
   1. The code can check the local county database for the death certificate daily or weekly.
4. If the death certificate exists for both parents, then it will connect to the Bank via APIs and transfer the ownership of the stocks and cash to the kids.

And that is how smart contracts can be used to replace an executor of a family will.

The Problem

Your son or daughter wants a new e-bike or something rather expensive. As a parent, you don’t want to spoil your kids with costly gifts they may or may not use.

But kids persist and will keep begging, persuading you to buy them that gift.

So you make a deal with your kid that if they get straight A’s, you will buy them an e-bike.

From the kid’s perspective - you get straight A’s, and your parents still don’t buy you that e-bike. They say the e-bike is too dangerous, which they may have a point, but they did break their word.

And the parents will say that we didn’t have a formal contract and we're just joking or saying it so you would concentrate on your grades.

The parents and kids could have made a contract, but who will enforce that? The parents can just disregard the agreement.

The Solution

That is where the smart contract could solve this problem.

A smart contract is code that runs on the blockchain - a decentralized, lightweight database where entries into that database can’t be edited or deleted.

A developer or a no-code program can be used to create a smart contract.

So how would this work?

1. Imagine there is a no-code website that creates smart contracts designed to look up your kid’s grades at school
2. You would go onto this smart contract website
3. Create a smart contract with the following details
   1. Checks to see if your kid got straight A’s from the school’s report card website
      1. The school report card website can provide an API that you can use in the smart contract
      2. Or, if there is no API, you can enter the username/password for the report card website, and the smart contract will scrape the webpage for your kid’s grades
   2. If the kid did get straight A’s, then trigger a purchase of the e-bike using funds from the parent’s bank account or credit card
      1. The bank account or credit card number will be encrypted in the smart contract so no other party can steal it
         1. Cryptocurrencies can be used too
            1. The smart contract will have the address and amount of the cryptocurrencies needed to purchase the e-bike.
   3. The smart contract would run the day after the school’s report card is published.

Running the smart contract:

1. The day after the school’s report card is published, the smart contract will run
2. It will use the API or username/password to login into the school’s report card website
3. Check your kid’s grades
4. If your kid got straight A’s, it would use the credit card number to purchase the e-bike from the e-bike’s website.
5. The e-bike gets delivered to your door for your kid to use

I see smart contracts having a lot of value for little things like motivating your kids to get good grades.

Web3 Use Cases - Vehicle History Reports

The Problem

When buying a used car, it’s essential to know its history.

Was it involved in a car accident?

Did the current and previous owners maintain the car?

The current owner that is selling the car wants the car sold. They may hide information about the vehicle if that hurts it getting sold.

The car could have been in an accident. The owner may have taken some shortcuts to repair the vehicle. Maybe they use aftermarket parts instead of parts for the car manufacturer to fix the car?

There could be deferred maintenance on the car.

The prospective buyer thinks they may be getting a nice car at a reasonable price, but if you add in the deferred maintenance, shortcut repairs, and possibly not knowing the vehicle was in an accident. This can add up to more money later on. The buyer may be forced to get another car because the used car they just bought became a money pit.

Many buyers of used cars use CarFax to get their vehicle history. The history that CarFax provides would be previous accidents and car title history. But that history could be wrong.

There could be data errors. Not all accidents get reported, or not all accidents get recorded by CarFax.

So how can we solve this problem?

The Solution

1. Imagine a web 3 application that will store a car’s VIN # (or a unique ID) on the blockchain. It will also record any repairs or accidents that occurred with that car.
2. There are multiple ways the repair data can be recorded onto the blockchain.
3. One can be a web app that the repair technician can record what repairs are being done for the car.
4. Another way is to have APIs for common auto repair software that will auto record all repairs being done to a car onto the blockchain.
5. If a car gets into an accident, the driver reports the accident to their insurance. The insurance company’s software will record the accident. Their software will also integrate with the blockchain to document the accident.
6. When prospective buyer decides to buy a used car, they can go on a web app and enter the VIN #.
7. The web app will search for the VIN # on the blockchain and return all repairs and accidents that may have occurred for that used car.

Issues

Now the issues can be similar to CarFax, where not all the data is getting to the blockchain. The blockchain itself cannot solve that problem. It requires the insurance and repair shop’s software to update the blockchain.

But the developers and maintainers of this CarFax blockchain can work with the Insurers and auto repair shops to integrate their software into the blockchain.

Not a perfect solution, but this is a step to prevent data errors and have more accurate data on the car’s repair and accident history.

Also, this solution can be an easy way for car owner’s to track the repairs and maintenance they have done on their car. And auto mechanics look to see what recent repairs have been done on the vehicle they are servicing.

1. Imagine a smart contract generator that is geared towards home improvement.
2. The contractor goes on a website and creates a smart contract.
3. The smart contract will consist of the following
   1. Details of the home improvement
      1. The types of tiles used for the bathroom
         1. Along with more information on the tiles used
            1. Manufacturer
            2. Style, size, the color of tiles
         2. Where Which room will use the tiles
         3. How many tiles
      2. How long will the work take
      3. What days will they be working
      4. Which days will the contractor come on-site to check on the work
      5. The cost
         1. Payment intervals based on the specific conditions
         2. Bank APIs
            1. The contractor and the homeowner have to mark each home improvement task complete for the payment to go from the homeowner to the contractor.
            2. One possibility is to use a 3rd party to check off the completions
               1. This will probably be an added cost to the homeowner, but it could be worth it to make sure that the work that was agreed upon would only get paid if the work is done as specified in the smart contract

Web3 Use Cases - Farm to Table

The Problem

How do you know the food you eat is from a local organic farm? Sure, the label on the bag of organic spinach says it is organic and came from a farm in the same state you live in. But is that label correct? Could the company that put that spinach in that bag be lying? The spinach could have come from an out-of-state farm, and the spinach is not organic. It was grown conventionally like most spinach, but someone along the way decided to just slap an organic label on it and charge the customer twice as much.

Ouch! The same goes with maybe the Alaskan salmon that you bought. Did it come from Alaska? Is it wild? Or is it farmed off the coast of the Atlantic?

Can you trust the labels on the food packaging? If the label says, it must be true. Or is it? Could there be a way to verify that your food is organic? Or, at the very least, you could see where the spinach originated from and what stops it made along the way before it got to your table? Similar to how you can see where a UPS package originated from and the multiple stops it took before it got to your door.

That is where Web3 and the blockchain can come in.

The Solution

First, we need a farm-to-table blockchain that farmers, distribution companies, and grocery stores would use to record the time and place where the food was picked, processed, packaged, transported, stored, and bought.

Imagine the customer buying organic spinach at the grocery store could scan a QR code or barcode using their phone and see where the spinach originated from, how it was grown, when it was picked and bagged, and when it arrived at the grocery store.

Sure the input data on the blockchain could be incorrect, but at least you are getting a level of transparency that you didn’t get before.

So how would this work?

1. Assuming a farm-to-table blockchain has been built, all the players - farmers, food processing and packaging companies, food distributors, and grocery stores- have agreed to use this blockchain.
2. The farmer picks the organic spinach that is ready to be sent for processing and packaging. The farmer uses an app on their phone to log how much spinach was harvested. The app will record the amount, time, and date, along with the farmers’ information - the farm’s name, organic certification, if it had one, and possibly the name of the farmer that picked the spinach.
3. The food processing and packaging company goes to the farm to pick up the organic spinach. The person from the processing/packaging company uses their phone to log the receiving of the spinach. The app on the phone will log this onto the blockchain.
4. Each time the spinach gets transferred to a location, the person receiving the spinach would log the transaction on their phone, then record that transaction on the blockchain.
5. The packaging company would bag the spinach and put a QR code on the bag of spinach. The QR code will refer to an ID already created on the blockchain.
6. The food distributor will pick up the bags of spinach and scan the QR code as they load them into their truck. This will record the date/time and distributor onto the blockchain.
7. When it arrives at the grocery store, the grocers will scan the bags of spinach to record the date and time of receiving the spinach.
8. The customer can scan the QR code on the bag of spinach using their phone. The customer can see which farm the spinach came from, the date and time, and which farmer picked the spinach. The customer can see if the farm itself is certified organic. The customer can also see all the stops the spinach took up when it got to the grocery store.

Now the customer knows that this spinach came from an organic farm in the same state they live in.

Having the blockchain can also help when food poisoning outbreaks occur from a specific batch of spinach. When an outbreak occurs to a particular bunch, that can be recorded on the blockchain. A customer can get notified on the phone that the bag of spinach they bought has been contaminated.

There are some potential issues with data input, the person logging the information into the blockchain could be incorrect, but at least it leaves a trail. And that trail is on the blockchain, where the data can’t be edited or deleted. If someone finds out later that there is misinformation, we can find the source of the error and prevent that from happening again.