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DOES THE ENGINEERING WORLD NEED TO CARE ABOUT NFTS AND BLOCKCHAIN?

Jonathan Girroir, Tech Soft 3D
July 24, 2022 11:10 AM
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If the first question out of people’s mouths about either blockchain or NFTs is
“What exactly are they?” the second question inevitably is “Is this something
that I actually need to care about?”

If you’re an artist who makes a living selling art, the answer might be yes. But
if you’re in the engineering world, the potential benefits are far less clear.

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ON THE RECORD

A quick primer on these buzzy technologies is helpful here. Most people have
heard of blockchain, a distributed-ledger technology that famously serves as the
underpinning for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which first appeared on the
scene in 2008. The blockchain is able to record transactions and create an
immutable record without the participation of any kind of centralized authority
like a bank or government agency.

Blockchain also underpins nonfungible tokens – NFTs. Right now, NFTs are
primarily used to show ownership of a particular object or digital file.
Oftentimes, this is a 2D graphic, but it can be almost anything – a music file,
a piece of writing, a video or even a 3D file.

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If you’re an artist, you can see where this might be useful: You can put your
art up for sale, and a collector can purchase an NFT that says that they are the
official owner of that piece of artwork. (In theory, anyway – more on this in a
bit.)

So, how might this apply to the engineering software space?

‘I DID THAT’

Unlike the individuals in the art world, people in the engineering world don’t
generally create 2D files and 3D files just for the purpose of artistic
expression and then try to sell them. They’re creating these assets because they
intend to do something with those files, like designing and manufacturing an
actual real-world object.

So, strike one: not much utility to be found for NFTs and blockchain on that
particular front. But maybe there’s some other application in the engineering
space, perhaps around intellectual property and documentation of the product
development process?

Picture a manufacturer that is designing an innovative new bicycle. One engineer
is in charge of the bike frame. As they go through the development process, each
time they make a new CAD file, they check it into the blockchain so that their
work on this new product is documented on the blockchain. Years down the line,
if they need to prove their work on this product for some reason, a permanent,
publicly available record is there for all to see, and the engineer can say “I
did that.”

It sounds like a nifty use case. But alas, here is where the “theoretical”
benefits of blockchain quickly run into some buzzsaws.

NOT SO FAST…

For starters, while there are a small handful of companies making technology
that does this type of thing, they are few and far between. In terms of the
innovation-adoption curve, this field is really still in its infancy – which is
surprising since the underlying tech has been around for almost 15 years.

That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of enthusiastic voices out there
around the potential of blockchain and NFTs in the engineering world – but not
all of them have saintly motives. If someone has purchased a boatload of Bitcoin
or NFTs for purely speculative reasons, they’re likely to champion anything
having to do with blockchain and its potential because it indirectly benefits
the investments they’ve already made.

Then there’s the matter of blockchain’s environmental impact. Even the newer,
more evolved blockchain protocols like Ethereum still consume gargantuan amounts
of energy [subscription required] as they record and validate transactions
across a distributed and decentralized ledger. With the “proof of stake”
mechanism for validating entries, this energy usage is less of a problem,
although it has other issues. The bottom line, however, is that, on a
fast-warming planet [subscription required] staring down a climate emergency,
blockchain is a hard technology to embrace unless transactions can be made
radically more efficient.

All of this is to say nothing of the fact that much of what blockchain could
enable the engineering space to do is already possible to do – and much more
easily accomplished – via existing methods. Want to show proof of prior work on
a product? Any time you check your CAD file into some kind of CAD or PLM system,
there’s an audit trail of who accessed, created or modified the file. Need an
indisputable patent? There’s a patent office that decides those types of things.

While it might be nice to get an “official” NFT saying that the work in a CAD
file is officially yours, that NFT doesn’t mean you own it in any legal sense.
It’s just a digital signature that means something in “the world of blockchain”
but doesn’t necessarily mean something legally.

Fact is, most of the things that you can do with the blockchain, you can easily
do without the blockchain by using a centralized database. The only thing you’re
losing is the decentralization, which – frankly – may not be enough of an
incentive for people to cast their lot with this new way of doing things, given
all its potential downsides and inefficiencies.

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL?

Clearly, the case for blockchain and NFTs is not a slam dunk in the engineering
space. But – there’s always a “but” with new, emerging technologies – if you
squint hard enough, you can see the inklings of its potential in several
intriguing areas. One of these is smart contracts, which are essentially
self-executing contracts embedded on the blockchain.

These contracts contain a set of customizable instructions that allow for the
execution of specific actions if certain conditions are met. For example, you
could create a smart contract that follows a digital asset – like an NFT or some
other file – and executes instructions around payment, distribution rights,
running rights or other factors.

In this way, smart contracts go significantly beyond what we see in traditional
PLM systems. Additionally, they offer the potential to cut out an entire layer
of middlemen, which – in a world of ever more makers and creators – actually has
significant value.

Another intriguing area for blockchains and NFTs centers around the digital
virtual worlds being built to create the so-called metaverse. Blockchains and
NFTs are central to the way in which ownership is assigned and in which content
is populated into this space. Creating NFTs and putting them on the blockchain
is core to the creation of this virtual infrastructure.

This could naturally lead to a need to get engineering assets into these virtual
worlds, whether bringing data in for review or pushing it out at the end of the
product development life cycle when a digital asset is delivered. It may not be
commonplace at the moment, but over time, it will be worth monitoring what the
demand for engineering data is in these virtual worlds.

MAINTAIN A HEALTHY DOSE OF SKEPTICISM FOR NOW

Blockchain and NFTs have demonstrated that they have some interesting
applications for artists or for people who simply want to have some fun with
speculative assets. When it comes to engineering software, there are some
possible applications around smart contracts and populating the metaverse – but
on the whole, the jury is still out.

There’s not a lot of serious engineering work being done right now with
blockchain and NFTs – and there may be good reasons for that. At this point,
it’s primarily a solution in search of a problem, and it’s not clear that its
usage will become any more compelling or viable in the future, absent some
large, fundamental changes. For those in the engineering world wondering “Is
this something I need to care about?” The answer is: not at the moment. For now,
a watchful but skeptical eye on this evolving area will suffice.

Jonathan Girroir is senior manager of technical marketing at Tech Soft 3D.

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