Enablers of New Business Models: Solid Data Pods, NFTs, Smart/Logical Contracts

Solid, per the Solid Project website, is a specification and a web decentralization project led by Tim Berners-Lee that lets people store their data securely in decentralized data stores connected to the internet called PODS (Personal Online Datastores). Pods are like secure personal web servers for your data. Any kind of information can be stored in a Solid Pod, including XBRL, RDF, PDF, HTML, XLSX.  You control access to the data in your PODS.  You decide what data to share and with whom.  You can revoke access to your information at any time.  Applications use standard, open, interoperable data formats and protocols to interact with the data in your PODS. These capabilities decouple data from applications so that data is organized around individuals rather than one single piece of software. Here is some information about the Solid Project:

Solid is an enabling technology and standard for new business models.

An NFT (non-fungible token) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain, and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. Understanding NFTs is easier when you look at the characteristics of an NFT which are:

  • Non-interoperable: NFTs are unique and unlike fungible tokens which are all the same basically and any one is just as good as any other; NFTs are not interchangeable.
  • Indivisible: NFTs cannot be divided into smaller denominations. 
  • Indestructible: NFTs are stored on the blockchain and can never be destroyed. 
  • Verifiable: Because NFTs exist on a blockchain they can be traced back to the original creator.

NFTs are scarce, you know where they came from, and they have some sort of useful quality or utility of some sort.  Here is information that will help you understand NFTs:

NFTs are also an enabling technology for new business models, new ways to monetize your knowledge.

A Smart Contract is a computer program that is stored in a digital ledger (e.g. in a blockchain). A smart contract is digital. A smart contract is a program whose execution is autonomous and transparent; its execution cannot be reverted and it is not possible to modify the history of the program. One smart contract can interact with other smart contracts. Smart contracts can be functional programs, declarative programs, logic programs, or other types of programs.

A Logical Contract is a logical representation of a legal document that is close to natural, human language, but is also executable by computer. Logical contracts can be used to monitor contract compliance, enforce compliance, issue warnings and remedial actions, explore logical consequences of hypothetical scenarios, and query and update the Ethereum blockchain.

Smart contracts and logical contracts are also an enabling technology for new business models.

I don't completely understand the relationship between PODS, NFTs, Smart Contracts, and Logical Contracts.  But all of these just seem like incredibly useful tools.

Think of a financial reporting scheme (prototype financial reporting scheme, PROOF) as a POD or an NFT.  Accountants can enhance the financial reporting scheme with additional knowledge using their PODs or NFTs.  Those PODs/NFTs can drive functionality within software applications such as expert systems for creating financial reports.  Accountants can monetize their knowledge to contributing to machine readable information that makes an expert system work or work better. A virtuous cycle is created.

Additional Information:


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