Slock.it: The “Lockchain” technology (Blockchain + IoT)

Article I wrote for Coicheck.jp

Anyone that has bought some DAO or even heard about it has also heard about Slock.it! For those who haven’t, here’s what you’ve been missing:
Slock.it UG is a German Blockchain + IoT company. Founded by Simon Jentzsch, Christoph Jentzsch, Stephan Tual, the Slock.it team has showed us a few glimbses of their product: the Slock!

Slock.it is a basically a blockchain powered lock that will work on top of the Ethereum Network. The concept behind this practical idea is to bring the blockchain to the real physical world
The Slock.it team wants to remove the middleman and bring full autonomy to businesses like house and vehicle renting. They also want to empower people by allowing them to profit from any item or asset that can be secured with a lock.

The premise
The Slock.it team has an interesting way of looking at technology in the future. Most of us envision the evolution of technology on the path to virtual realities: Where human beings enter the realm of technology (i.e.: Oculus Rift). The Slock.it team, however, invisioned a future where technology enters the physical world. By creating a real life object that uses blockchain technology in order to interact with human beings, Slock.it has successfully brought the virtual blockchain to the real world!

Slock.it & The DAO
The DAO code was written and tested by the Slock.it team and their product is one of the possible proposals that will be presented to The DAO.
If the Slock.it proposal is accepted by The DAO holders it will reward The DAO holders with ether from the people that use the Slock. Since the Slock.it will run on the Ethereum Network, people will need to send Ether to the Slock’s wallet adress, through the blockchain, in order to unlock whichever slock they plan to use. This Ether will then be split and shared equaly among DAO holders according to the amount of DAO tokens they own.

There is no Slock.it proposal yet as fixing security issues related to voting and splitting seems to be a priority to The DAO. The security proposal created by the curators has seen the highest number of votes with a 4,47% (out of 20% needed) so far. We may have to wait a bit before seeing the official Slock.it proposal up for voting, but the team seems to be working day and night to make it happen!

Hopefully, a balance will be found between profit and security and we will soon see some new ideas and projects come to life in order reward our new found DAOism. Slock.it seems to be the logical first step to many holders, since The Slock.it team is familiar with The DAO code and it’s inner-workings and the first Slock prototypes are already in the hands of developers!
Check out the Slock.it website for more details: https://slock.it/
So, what do you think? Will Slock.it be the next uber and airbnb? Will it just be another drop in the technology ocean? Let us know what you think in the comment section below!

-António Madeira 08/06/16