Put simply, Blockduino is a board and some software to control the operations of machines and other hardware connected to it, from a smart-contract in the Ethereum blockchain. However, it has a very ambitious goal.

The goal of the Blockduino project is to change the way hardware and products are designed, manufactured and sold. It is inspired by the tenets of the circular economy, for a better world with the sustainable use of natural resources, less waste and reduced consumerism. It is self-evident to the perceptive mind that the current way of depleting natural resources to make products that are not designed to last or, in most cases, even to be repaired or refurbished, cannot be sustained in the long term.

By enabling the exchange of value provided by a product using the blockchain, smart contracts and cryptocurrency, Blockduino allows OEM, brands and individuals to generate value and rebuild capital by selling the performance of their products, not their ownership. To pay for the use and performance of a product, end-users transfer crypto currency to the product's wallet in the amount established in the associated smart contract, for the performance they desire.

The intricacies and the details behind securely implementing such a system in a public blockchain can be overwhelming and time consuming for most designers and even large product companies. By mitigating most of the hurdles to generate value from a product by selling its performance through a blockchain and a smart contract, we expect designers and companies around the world to use Blockduino to experiment and eventually embrace new business models for their products - business models that are consistent with a circular economy and a more sustainable use of natural resources and other materials in making products.

The adoption of alternative business models to ownership has enormous consequences for the way a product is designed, manufactured and maintained. Since the manufacturer or distributor owns the products in the field, it makes more sense to design products using the best possible materials, to make them last longer. There is also an incentive in providing for practical ways to repair and refurbish their products by third parties, for instance by releasing service manuals in the public domain, which will also spur a market for spare parts.

Blockduino is not an IoT platform and it does not require one. It may in fact give an opportunity to the IoT paradigm to deliver on its promises. Once there is an economic incentive in extending the lifecycle of a product and reducing its failure rate, as in a pay-per-use or prepaid business model, collecting operational data from each product in the field is essential for analyzing failures, predicting them and improving the product design.

The Blockduino SDK provides high-level functions reminiscent of the way of writing code for the Arduino board, but the Blockduino system is not compatible with Arduino in any way. In addition to operating remotely through a connection to the public Ethereum blockchain, Blockduino adopts a Trusted Execution Environment for its software. This allows for the high level of security and protection needed when dealing with a hardware wallet installed in a product in the field, and for value transactions in a public blockchain.

Blockduino is an open-source project open to external contributions and we invite anyone who shares this goal to join us and to give us suggestions.

The Blockduino Founding Team