It seems everyone is talking about Blockchain and how it’s revolutionizing value exchange. Indeed, digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum depend on it. Using secure and distributed computing to maintain shared transaction records (ledgers) Blockchain networks help people coordinate their exchanges in a trusted framework without the tiresome and often lengthy back-and-forth in traditional exchange methods.

Smart Contracts lie at the heart of the Blockchain idea. They hold the rules for processing transactions. Normally, you would code Smart Contracts so they automatically handle each transaction according to the agreed rules.

But there is a better way to do this — to make Smart Contracts smarter.

In their recent article, Make your blockchain smart contracts smarter with business rules, Stephane Mery and Dan Selman demonstrate how to implement the business logic of a Smart Contract using business rules, and show how IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM) and Blockchain are natural partners.

The ODM-Blockchain partnership has several advantages:

• When you’re working with a relatively new technology like Blockchain it’s a good idea to use proven and strong technologies like ODM’s rule engine where you can.
• It puts the rules for value exchanges directly into the hands of the specialists who define them — the accountants, the auditors, the lawyers, the analysts, and so on — rather than burying it in the codebase of the Blockchain application.
• The specialists can use Decision Center as a platform for collaboratively governing their rules — often agreeing on the rules is half the battle!
• Extracting the business rules and executing them in ODM’s enterprise-class rule engine means you can respond more quickly to change: you update the rule, test it, and deploy the updated decision service — all without touching the code of the Smart Contract. From the code’s point of the view, it’s still calling the same decision; but now transactions are processed according to the updated rules.

So, if you’re thinking about implementing a Blockchain application, read this article. It might just get you to the forefront of the Blockchain revolution!