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Ben Beckmann works as the lead scientist in the complex systems engineering lab at GE Global Research in Niskayuna, New York. In 2012, he made a seemingly inconsequential wager: He bet one of his colleagues that the electronic currency bitcoin would fail.
Bitcoins started trading for pennies after the currency launched in 2009. Today, you can buy one bitcoin for $2,200. Beckmann lost the bet and took his colleague for a nice meal. “If we had taken the $100 we spent on dinner and invested it in bitcoins at the start, we would be millionaires,” Beckmann laughs.
Losing the bet pushed Beckman to take a closer look at the code behind bitcoin. He discovered that the real magic that made it work was a public digital ledger called blockchain that keeps a chronological record of all bitcoin transactions. But the currency is just one blockchain application. The technology could be used for tracking trade, contracts, and even renewable energy.
Like the Internet, the blockchain is potentially unlimited in size. It’s also secure because it doesn’t need a central clearinghouse that could be hacked. Instead, the record of all transactions is distributed and duplicated across computers in the particular blockchain network. “Today, blockchain is where the internet was in the 1990s,” Beckmann says. “I believe it has the same potential.”
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Top and above: “Today, blockchain is where the internet was in the 1990s,” Beckmann says. “I believe it has the same potential.” Images credit: Getty Images.
Beckmann is now finding ways for GE to apply blockchain to industry. He started by building blockchains for additive manufacturing applications like 3D-printing and renewables. For example, maintenance workers could use blockchain to make sure that a 3D printed turbine blade has the same geometry as the part it is replacing. In the energy space, it could allow an owner of solar panels to sell extra energy at the best price instantaneously. Factory owners could use it to track inventory and reduce costs.
The marriage of the Industrial Internet and blockchain could have a huge economic impact globally. GE forecasted that connected machines and the Industrial Internet can add $10 to $15 trillion to the global economy over the next two decades. With blockchain in the mix, Beckmann believes machines could order their own replacement parts through the technology.
Beckmann is also looking for a better way to move the millions of dollars that are exchanged daily between GE business units. “The bank receives a fee for every transaction,” he says. “If we can remove the bank and establish a trust mechanism instead, that will save us a lot of money.” Harkening back to what got him interested in blockchain in the first place, Beckmann says he’s thinking of calling the application GE Coin.
