Use Case Spotlight: Nuclo
CASE STUDIES
October 19, 2018
We are starting a new blog series that shows use cases that will be enabled via scalable decentralized blockchain very soon. In the first blog in these series, the team at Nuclo provides the overview of their new platform as well as sheds light on one of the first use cases that involve Chilean Government and an entirely new approach to the supply chain for biomass purchasing. The initial deployment will have to support 10,000 active daily users, which requires a scalable, decentralized protocol underlying the Nuclo platform.

Intro to what Nuclo offers

The Nuclo platform (https://nuclo.io) is the first AMS (Application Management System) for blockchain applications. It requires no coding experience. It allows developers to use drag and drop components to achieve the required functionality.

Background into the initial use case and subsequent Nuclo learnings

The Nuclo team initially set out to reduce the cost of producing renewable energy by removing middlemen and ended up building the largest sales channel for biomass in Chile in 3-months. The team received an introduction to one of the largest biomass producers in southern Chile and they agreed to sell their entire inventory through Nuclo platform if they could deliver against three core features. It had to reduce the amount carbon emissions related to the burning of wet biomass, it had to reduce the cost of supply chain logistics, and it had to allow end users to purchase biomass directly from producers without middlemen intervention.

The Nuclo team spent time on ride-alongs with distributors, walking through processing camps, and talking to different stakeholders throughout Chile. The research resulted in the creation of an application called LeñaHoy. It connected all of the participants of the biomass supply chain together and established the most cost-efficient and reliable way of producing tangible products. The platform reduced the cost of producing and transporting biomass by 31% and allowed consumers to purchase clean-burning dry biomass that was certified as safe. Nuclo team learned two core lessons that drastically influenced their next steps.

Lesson one was that even though they drastically disrupted the industry they were not biomass salespeople. Lesson two was that the approach that Nuclo took for connecting supply chain participants including end consumers was industry agnostic. The team realized that they could have an impact on any fragmented supply chain so they decided to build a protocol that would enable others to enhance their own supply chains using the best practices that Nuclo team discovered.

As Nuclo conducted more research, supported more businesses, interviewed teams around the world, and documented similar experiences, the team realized that their protocol like many others would be inaccessible to the majority of the world. This led them to develop an application management software that makes Nuclo protocol and others accessible via a graphical plug and play interface.

Challenges with the current development on the blockchain

In order to build your own blockchain technology, or deploy a product that is based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) your team must have a deep understanding of smart-contracts, core consensus algorithms and launching/maintaining multi-node networks; all of which a very small percentage of the world has an actual understanding of. In addition, when looking to apply this technology to supply-chains, it requires an industry level understanding of the nuances of the said production process. As such, Nuclo team functions as the bridge between this low-level technology and the business/network creators with the real world impact.

How will the process be improved in the future

Key business leaders at an organization who has no knowledge of smart contracts nor low-level blockchain technology will be able to deploy their own blockchain-based technology. They will be able to spin up their own basic MVP or full end-to-end product.

Why blockchain is a key to Nuclo’s use case

Nuclo team truly believes this is a question up to their user base. What the team realized is that specifically blockchain technology can revolutionize a number of different industries but it needs to be applied in a way to impact real lives. Initially, Nuclo team used their system as a test case for applying blockchain technology in supply-chains with an emphasis on provenance and traceability of products. This is a very clear and readily valuable application of the blockchain (or DLT) technology give the various amounts of actors in a supply-chain and the lack of uniformity of systems. Now, Nuclo team functions more as a technical partner and continue to actively engage with organizations, institutions, and governments who find novel applications with the blockchain and Nuclo enables them to quickly deploy a prototype around traceability using their platform.

How scalability is a key to Nuclo’s use case

Given Nuclo team operates in a variety of industries, supply-chains, and end-consumer applications, it is essential to building a system that can scale and always be live for our users. Nuclo protocol has the capacity to be blockchain agnostic which adds to the scalability requirements they face.

What other important considerations are key to this use case

On top of scalability, security and high transaction throughput are considerations Nuclo team takes into account when building for their user base.

To follow our progress you can use:

Twitter — https://twitter.com/nearprotocol,
Medium — https://medium.com/nearprotocol,
Discord — https://discord.gg/kRY6AFp,
https://upscri.be/633436/