This is the second in a series of articles looking at Atidium. Breaking it down to its bare building blocks in simple terms that we can all easily comprehend.
If you missed the first article, which introduces Atidium, you can be find it here:
Now, for this second part, I wish to explore the inner mechanics of Atidium. Digging into the details and what makes it so special and unique. And to understand how Atidium (ATD) works, we need first to understand what a “smart” contract is – as smart contracts are at the very heart of ATD and it is they that allow it to “tick”.
In it’s simplest form, a smart contract is simply a computer programme that defines an “agreement”. A blockchain based “promise” similar to a lawyer drawing up an agreement between interested parties in the real world, except this is blockchain based.
An example of a simple “contract” would be say, if I give you 100 ATD, you will give me 1 BTC. And if we both enter into this agreement then the deal is binding – or as is commonly said, “immutable”. The terms of the agreement once “agreed” are fixed. There is no way out to cheat or back out. If I send you 100 ATD I am “guaranteed” to receive 1 BTC in return. If not, then the “contract” enforces itself. This is why it is “smart”. It fulfills itself to execute the contractual obligations on both parties. This is best explained by considering the opposite. Let us say I send you 100 ATD and you do not send me 1 BTC in return. You have not fulfilled the terms of the “contract”, so my ATD do not leave my control and remain mine. In simple tems, smart contracts are promises displayed on the blockchain that say “if I do x”, then you are contractually obliged to “do y”. Faliure to fulfill these conditions result in the contract not being made. Without all obligations being fulfilled the contract is not complete and no transactions occur.
So, what does this have to do with Atidium and what they are looking to achieve? A good question, for sure and one that requires us to look at how ATD works in more detail.
Smart contracts are at the very heart of ATD. And once we realise this we go some way towards understanding what ATD are looking to achieve. For example, smart contracts allow you to decide how your resources are spent. A parent who gives their child so much money for school meals for the week can say “this money can only be spent at the school”. There may be money on the card – but it can only be spent at the school. Not the shop around the corner for sweets, but the school. Via their intelligence engine and smart contracts, you can finally delegate HOW your money is used. You can put the equivalent of $50 on your child’s card and specify that it is only spent at a certain source. Trying to spend it otherwise will be a “breach” of the contract and so null and void. Or imagine a different scenario of a business. Employees have their spending “cards” and are given certain allocations to spend on fuel or hotel rooms, for example. To try to spend the money otherwise will result in failure. The transactions will be denied. And ithey will be denied because they falls outside how you have allocated how that money will be spent within the terms of your “smart” contract. This is what Aridium brings you – “control”.
And once we realise the power of smart contracts and what they can achieve, we are some way forward in understanding what Atidium is looking to do. Giving us the “power” to create smart contracts without us having to know the technicalities of computer code. Giving us the power to create criteria where I give you a certain amount of money and it can only be spent in a certain way. And all this guaranteed and underpiined by the power of the blockchain.
For business this is “amazing”. Not just being able to say what amount of money is “spent”, but also to define how it is spent. In short, ATD are creating a simple interface that allows you to be a smart contract maestro – without realising you are a computer programmer at the same time. You define what is spent and how it is spent without any intermediary required.
To squash it down to its mechanics, ATD is simply a money allocation system based on smart contract intelligence that gives you the power of how your finances are delegated. A nice example would be a parent teaching their child the responsibilities of financial management. Perhaps saying something along the lines of “your pocket money will only be released to your account if you wash the dishes and tidy your room”. For the first time, you now have the power to not just control your budget but also delegate how it will be spent too. And believe you me, this is a revelation and something NEW. Never before have you had this power. This power to not just spend yout money, but to dictate HOW it will be spent and being able to set conditions which must be fulfilled for money to be received.
To execute a smart contract on the ATD network will be as simple as selecting from a menu of pre-defined criteria to create the contract, in much the same way that you will choose who to send money to and when you will send it. With a few simple taps you will have written your first smart contract without ever needing to know any technical computer code.
But this is not all, as Atidium also provide helpful criteria to aid us with our budget management. This is their notion of “colouring” coins. We can “colour” our funds as red or blue etc. Dictate priorities and even create a situation where when all the “red” funds are spent, the blue ones become “released”. Of course, we are not bound by these terms, as via the power of smart contracts, we can adapt our spending patterns and behaviour how we wish it to be. We learn and adapt, and with ATD we have a platform that grows with us too. A simple platform that allows us to develop and learn and make savings along the way. Simple, yet very complicated – but thankfully the simplicity of smartness is brought together in one simple application that we can all easily comprehend and understand.
In my next article I will look to explore the hidden gem within ATD that allows us to hedge against the volatilities of the crypto world. YES – the ability to hedge against crypto fluctuations and all the negativity that that kind of uncertainty currently brings.