A session by Interim Area Chair, Strategy & Statistics Area William J. Loschert Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship, Fordham University on the topic of 'Blockchain, Smart Contracts & IoT' at InterCon USA 2019, held at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas on 18-20 June, 2019.

1. Blockchain,
Smart Contracts
& IoT
Prepared for:
InterCon, Day 3
Thurs., June 20, 2019
2:20pm - 2:50pm
Caesars Palace
Las Vegas, NV
Benjamin M. Cole, Ph.D.
William J. Loschert Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship
Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University
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2. Some Perspective...
59% of Respondents said
“I’ve never heard of this
technology”
and....
80% admit they don’t
understand blockchain,
even if they’ve heard of it!
“Trust in Technology” Report
by HSBC...
Sample: 12,019 people from 11 countries and territories:
Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India,
Mexico, Singapore, UAE, UK, and the US.
Sources: HSBC (2017); WEF (2015)
58% of Respondents predicted
that 10% of global gross GDP
will be stored on blockchain
technology by 2027
“Technological Tipping Points”
Report by World Economic Forum
Sample: 800 executive & expert respondents to the Technological
Tipping Points survey of the World Economic Forum’s Global
Agenda Council on the Future of Software & Society
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3. Deloitte’s “Breaking
Blockchain Open” Survey
Sample: 1,053 senior executives in 7 countries (Canada, China, France, Germany, Mexico, U.K. & U.S.)
at firms with $500+ million in annual revenue in Deloitte’s (2018) “Breaking Blockchain Open” survey
53%
51%
50%
44%
40%
12%
6%
30%
Supply Chain
Internet of Things
Digital Identity
Digital Records
Digital Currency
Payments
Voting
Other/Unsure/None
Q: Which of the following blockchain use cases is your company working on?
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4. What is Blockchain?
“Technology that allows people who don’t know each other
to trust a shared record of events.”
– Bank of England
“Blockchain is like writing on a piece of paper,
then holding it up and saying,
‘Here is what I wrote. Can everyone see it?”
– Niall Dennehy, AID: Tech
“The shady database you use when
you don’t trust anyone.”
– Miko Matsumura, Pantera Capital
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5. What is Blockchain?
 Global distributed ledger of transactions
 Managed by a network of computers
(not one central computer)
 Any computer may enter or leave
the network at any time without
jeopardizing...
 Integrity of the database
 Availability of the database
 Any computer can verify the ledger by rebuilding it
from scratch
 Download the blockchain and process the audit trail
Sources: FollowMyVote.com; www.eightoneadvisory.com
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6. Blockchain Technology Stack
Modified from: Kasireddy (2017)
= “Monetary policy”
enforced by the
blockchain (e.g.,
What constitutes
consensus? How
much is paid for
work?, etc.)
= Financial incentive to
ensure rules are
followed (equivalent to
USD, EUR)
= Immutable,
decentralized ledger
of transactions
authenticated through
public key
cryptography
= Called
“decentralized
applications” or
dApps
Smart
Contracts
Smart
Contracts
Smart
Contracts
= Scripts with
conditional statements
for execution
IoT IoT
= Internet of Things
(IoT) devices
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7. Smart Contracts
 Neither “Smart” nor “Contracts” 
 Rather, Smart Contracts are mini executable
programs (computer code) that do something
when a condition is met
 When BTC price > $10,000, sell 2.5 BTC
 When hurricane rating ≥ 4, stop shipment
 When politician votes yes on H.R. 2751, make political
donation of $10 to politician and email accountant for
tax purposes
 Can be strung together to create a cascade of
contracts that execute when others execute
Source: EY (2016)
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8. Oracles
 Outside data streams can be accessed via API if
one “oraclizes” them
 National Weather Service Hurricane Announcements
 Congressional votes
 Vehicular systems (e.g., “I see the airbag has deployed”)
 Quality of the data matters if contracts are going to
execute immediately
 Can combine data sources to improve quality
 Inevitable that “reputation scores” will be assigned to
oracles to create an incentive for people to properly
upkeep them 8

9. Four Use Cases
AID: Tech Solar Coin
Grain Chain TE-FOOD
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10. AID:Tech
Prob. #1: Fraud/waste/abuse/corruption in humanitarian aid
distribution (UN Sec. Gen. Ban Ki-moon estimated 30% lost)
Prob. #2: Need for aid in the first place
Solution: Private blockchain solution (no tokens on exchanges)
 Works with UNDP, Red Cross, etc. to distribute aid
 Uses plastic cards embedded with QR codes
 Donor can select how donation should be divided
 e.g., Food: 50% | Healthcare: 30% | Transportation: 20%
 Transactions recorded on blockchain to provide transparency
 Disclosure at various levels of detail
 e.g., “Bought 1 Coke” vs. “Bought beverage”
Image Source: https://en.reset.org/blog/aidtech-distributes-
digital-identities-and-donations-help-blockchain-05092018
Data Source: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2012-07-
09/secretary-generals-closing-remarks-high-level-panel-accountability
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11. AlD:Tech already meets UNSD Goal 10.c.
URL: https://aid.technology
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDkeH-CkIbo 11

12. SolarCoin
Prob.: Externalities (pollution, military intervention, etc.)
not priced into carbon-based energy sources,
slowing adoption of competing zero-carbon sources
Solution: Confirmed solar power production earns
SolarCoins [SLR], which can be sold on
exchanges to supplement revenue.
 People can “support” solar power by ensuring SolarCoins
have market value by purchasing them on exchanges.
URL: https://solarcoin.org/en/node/6
Pricing Data: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/solarcoin/
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13. SolarCoin
Ex: Solar Panel Array Running on a Raspberry Pi System...
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjMX_zZFFyE
1 MWh Generated  1 Solar Coin [SLR] Received
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14. Grain Chain
Prob.: Fraud in agriculture markets
 Stealing farmers’ grain at grain elevators
 Replacing farmers’ grain with lower quality grain
 Delays in payments to farmers from buyers
Solution: IoT Devices + Smart Contracts + Tokens
 Instruments made from off-the-shelf parts
 Smart contracts loaded with conditions & [Grainpay] tokens
 If grain meets conditions (as measured by instrument), grain
ownership transferred immediately to buyer and payment made
to farmer in Grainpay tokens (backed by USD).
 Successful pilot in Northern Mexico & Southern Texas
URL: https://www.grainchain.io
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNfE828ptng
Stolen grain sold
on black market
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15. TE-FOOD
Prob.: Food safety (illness for 1 in 10 people + deaths for
400K, often children) + Overuse of antibiotics
Solution: Farm-to-table food traceability system using
RFIDs and mobile apps
 Food traceability solutions market $15.1 billion by 2021
 TE-FOOD’s current traceability volume:
 12,000 pigs/day + 200,000 chickens/day + 2.5 million eggs/day
 3,100 farms + 3,400 livestock agents + 70 slaughterhouses + 35 food
producers + 30 wholesalers + 190 wholesale distributors + 2,600 retailers
 6,000 business customers serving 30 million people
URL: https://te-food.com/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qot-VCUgpng 15

16. TE-FOOD - Upstream
 Upstream
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17. TE-FOOD - Downstream
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18. Summary
AID:Tech SolarCoin Grain Chain TE-FOOD
Token Client-specific
Utility token
(e.g.: 1 Token =
1 Immunization)
Reward token
(1 MWh =
1 Token)
Third-party
Currency token
backed by USD
Utility token
that firms pay for
use of ledger
Reward token
for customers
using app
Available on
Exchanges?
No* Yes Not yet Yes
Smart
Contract?
No** No*** Yes Yes
Extras QR code
embedded
plastic card
Raspberry Pi +
ElectriCChain
Data-logger
Measurement
instrument from
off-the-shelf
parts
QR codes
Mobile App
* Launching Transparency as a Service Token (TAAST) to raise money to scale platform
** Not explicit before announcement of TAAST proposal
*** Rootstock approach achieves smaller energy footprint. If SolarCoin ran at same scale as Bitcoin (30m-50m users),
energy footprint of only $250k-$500k (up to 10,000x improvement over Bitcoin ($3b-$5b) or Ethereum ($1.5b)).
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19. Thanks!
bmcole@fordham.edu
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20. References
 Deloitte (2018) “Breaking Blockchain Open: Deloitte’s 2018 global blockchain survey,” Sept:
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/financial-services/us-fsi-2018-global-blockchain-
survey-report.pdf
 HSBC (2017) “Trust in Technology Report,” HSBC: http://www.hsbc.com/news-and-insight/media-
resources/media-releases/2017/~/media/hsbc-com/newsroomassets/2017/pdfs/170609-updated-trust-in-
technology-final-report.pdf
 Kasireddy, P. (2017) “Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Tokens, ICOs: Why should anyone care?” Hackernoon, July
5: https://hackernoon.com/bitcoin-ethereum-blockchain-tokens-icos-why-should-anyone-care-890b868cec06
 WEF (2015) “Deep Shift: Technology Tipping Points and Societal Impact.” Global Agenda Council on the Future of
Software & Society, World Economic Forum Sept.:
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GAC15_Technological_Tipping_Points_report_15.pdf
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