Interview: Meet BOWLER project!

BOWLER project is here to allow everyone, even non blockchain experts, to quickly package and deliver proven and trustworthy smart contracts in general, and NFT’s in particular. Find out all about it in this interview with team member Sandra Potten.

How did you hear about ONTOCHAIN and what drove you to apply?

We heard about ONTOCHAIN through our project partner Astrakode which is also an innovative start-up with deep knowledge and expertise in the field and we directly got interested in this great initiative.

Tell us a bit about the story behind your team. What drives you and what brought you together?

The D-Visor team is brought together by a shared passion for innovation, creating impact and festivals. Together with D-Visors clients we are eager to adopt technologies in general and blockchain in particular. We all see blockchain as a key lever to improve our operational excellence: thus, not only for D-Visor but also, and more importantly, for its clients.

And this fits all fits perfectly with our project partner Astrakode and its platform AstraKode Blockchain (AKB).  AKB is a blockchain oriented platform that aims to provide low-code environments for blockchain network creation/setup/deployment and smart contracts development.

We believe that Astrakode’s extensive expertise in model driven oriented approach, software development and blockchain technologies together with D-Visor’s competences in processing architecture and ontology alignment in the area of real-world/meta-verse festivals, could bring relevant contributions to the objective defined by the call.

Can you briefly explain your project and its contribution to the ONTOCHAIN software ecosystem?

BOWLER revolves around low code IDE that enables non blockchain experts to quickly package and deliver proven and trustworthy smart contracts in general, and NFT’s in particular. In this way, BOWLER will provide the ONTOCHAIN software ecosystem with a jumping board to embark on smart contract development, deployment and delivery in a fast, reliable and transparent manner, without the need for deep knowledge on how the contracts exactly work, how they can be crafted and deployed in multi-cloud environments.

This fits with D-Visors clients (notably festivals) desire to embrace NFT as an addition to the pallet of services and products (e.g., for souvenirs and ticketing), opening new opportunities for them to quickly deliver new NFT’s and experiment with which NFT works best for their own business demands. Indeed, Astrakode plays a pivotal role in this proposition through an extension to their current product, which is believed to be of high value for other ONTOCHAIN partners alike.

How did you come up with this idea? What’s unique about it? And what will be the end user benefits?

BOWLER is the first of its kind to harness the power of smart contract driven NFT’s and opening up this market for non-blockchain experts. The end users include all the consortium partners of ONTOCHAIN interested in low code development, and quick delivery of new products, possibly fuelled by an internal marketplace including the ONTOCHAIN tokens.

You are contributing to ONTOCHAIN’s mission of delivering a new software ecosystem for trusted, traceable & transparent ontological knowledge. How is ONTOCHAIN contributing to your own ambitions?

ONTOCHAIN helps D-Visor to lift its ambition in outreach to the pan European level and exploiting the latest actionable insights in the blockchain landscape. Indeed, our clients have a rising distrust against AI- and blockchain, whilst at the same time a deep and longing desire to reap its benefits.  Key ingredients to market trustworthy contracts through the low-code IDE of BOWLER include ONTOCHAIN’s ontologies, mechanisms and marketplaces.

How do you assess the experience of working with other teams in the co-creation of the ONTOCHAIN ecosystem? What type of synergies do you want to explore?

Our experience in collaborating with other ONTOCHAIN teams has been truly rewarding. Of course, it took a while to get to know the other projects, and their technological offerings, but after the initial on-boarding, our project has benefited not only from the other technologies, but also, from new collaborations with new people and teams. This has led to a cross-fertilization of ideas, concept and techniques. This has shaped our vison on what BOWLER should be in terms of functionality, positioning and business strategy.

What are your expectations regarding the new software ecosystem that ONTOCHAIN will deliver and its contribution to the NGI priority areas?

BOWLER fits seamlessly in NGI’s vision promoting trustworthy blockchains with increased level of transparency, traceability, explainability whilst avoiding common pitfalls like inequality and bias in human collective intelligence.