4. IBM Software
Page 2 Car Leasing Demo - Instructions
Contents
SECTION 1. INITIALIZING THE ASSET TRANSFER DEMO.......................................................................................... 5
SECTION 2. ASSET TRANSFER AND DISPOSAL SCENARIOS................................................................................... 7
TRANSFERRING AN ASSET TO A DEALERSHIP ....................................................................................7
2.1.1. VIEWING THE DEALERSHIP’S ASSETS.................................................................................7
2.1.2. TRANSFERRING THE ASSET ..............................................................................................9
2.1.3. VIEWING THE UPDATED SET OF MANUFACTURER’S ASSETS...............................................12
TRANSFERRING AN ASSET TO A LEASING COMPANY ........................................................................13
TRANSFERRING AN ASSET TO A LEASEE .........................................................................................15
TRANSFERRING AN ASSET TO A SCRAP MERCHANT .........................................................................17
DISPOSING OF AN ASSET ..............................................................................................................18
VIEWING TRANSACTIONS ..............................................................................................................20
2.6.1. THE REGULATOR ...........................................................................................................20
2.6.2. OTHER USERS ...............................................................................................................21
SECTION 3. VIEWING THE BLOCKCHAIN................................................................................................................... 23
7. Section 1. Initializing the Asset Transfer Demo
__1. The instructions at the car leasing demo front page. If you are unsure how to get here, see the
instructions at this link http://ibm.biz/BlockDemoApp
__2. From the Car Leasing demo front page, click ‘Admin Console’ and ‘ Create Simple Scenario’.
This will preload the blockchain with a set of transactions. (The Full Scenario works fine too; the
difference between the Simple Scenario and the Full Scenario is that in the Full Scenario more
assets are initially loaded onto the blockchain; this takes a couple of minutes longer to initialize,
however.)
Wait for the initialization to complete.
8. __3. Click ‘OK’ to close the Creating Scenario log, and then dismiss the ‘Scenario Creation complete’
by clicking the check mark.
__4. Once the initialization process is complete, return to the Car Leasing main menu.
9. Section 2. Asset Transfer and Disposal Scenarios
In the following sections, we will discover how blockchain is used to track ownership of an asset across
multiple participants in a business network. The scenario describes how blockchain is used to model the
lifecycle of vehicle ownership and control between the following participants:
1) Manufacturer to Dealership
2) Dealership to Leasing Company
3) Leasing Company to Leasee
4) Leasing Company to Scrap Merchant
The Scrap Merchant’s role in this scenario will also demonstrate how asset disposal can be represented
on the blockchain.
In this scenario each participant has entered into a business agreement with each other and all parties
are known and trusted by each other. The above process of transferring vehicles has been negotiated
and agreed with all participants. The order in which the above processes take place is strictly defined
within the demo showing that for example a Manufacturer cannot transfer directly to a Leasee by missing
out the dealership and Leasing company transfers.
These rules have been defined in the smart contract which has been written and signed by the regulator
(the DVLA).
Transferring an Asset to a Dealership
In the following section we will transfer the ownership of a vehicle from a dealership to a leasing
company (known as “Beechvale Group”) using the blockchain.
Before transferring the vehicle to the dealership we will verify which assets the target dealership currently
owns.
2.1.1. Viewing the Dealership’s Assets
In this section, we will first act as a dealership to verify which assets the Beechvale dealership owns.
__5. From the Main Menu, click “Dealership -> Lease Company”.
10. We now see the application from the point of view of Deborah, who works for the Beechvale
Group (a dealership).
__6. Click the plus sign in the “Vehicles” window to list the vehicles that are owned by this dealership
according to the blockchain.
You should see a number of vehicles displayed. (There might be more or fewer depending on
the scenario that has been set up.)
11. If you see no cars at all, this might be due to a timing issue in
the lab environment. Try waiting a few seconds and try the
previous step again. If the problem persists, ask the
instructor.
__7. Click the X to dismiss the window and ‘Home’ to return to the main menu.
2.1.2. Transferring the Asset
We will now transfer an Alfa Romeo car to the Beechvale Dealership from Alfa Romeo.
__8. From the demo main menu, click the “Manufacturer -> Dealership” link in the Transfer Asset
section.
You are now viewing the application as Martin, who works for Alfa Romeo.
12. __9. Click the + sign in the vehicles box.
This queries the blockchain for the cars that are owned by Alfa Romeo.
__10. Click the checkbox against the first car to add it to the transfer request, then click the checkmark
(tick) to save the choice.
The Alfa Romeo you selected now appears in the list of vehicles to be transferred.
__11. Click the + sign in the Dealership box.
13. __12. From the list of Dealerships, choose “Beechvale Group” then, click the checkmark to confirm
your choice):
__13. Click ‘Transfer Assets’.
This adds a transaction to the blockchain that will transfer ownership of the Alfa Romeo car to
the Beechvale Group.
The nodes in the blockchain network will now confirm the transaction; this takes a few seconds
to complete.
__14. Click OK when the transaction has been validated by the blockchain network.
__15. Dismiss the transaction confirmation message.
14. 2.1.3. Viewing the Updated Set of Manufacturer’s Assets
The manufacturer’s ability to control the asset has now been removed.
__16. Click the + sign on the Vehicles box to verify that the manufacturer can no longer see the asset
you transferred:
The manufacturer now controls one asset fewer; the transferred vehicle is no longer visible to the
manufacturer.
__17. Click the X to dismiss the window.
15. Transferring an Asset to a Leasing Company
In this section we will act as Deborah, who works for the Beechvale Group dealer. First we will verify that
the asset you transferred earlier is now available to you to transfer; you will then transfer the asset to a
leasing company.
In the previous section we transferred the ownership of a vehicle from the Alfa Romeo manufacturer to
the dealership “Beechvale Group”. The vehicle will now appear in the list of vehicles Beechvale Group
are able to control.
__18. From the main menu, click “Dealership -> Lease Company”.
You are now experiencing the application as Deborah again.
__19. Click the + icon in the “Vehicles” box to show the list of vehicles that the dealer can see.
__20. Select the Alfa Romeo car and click the check mark (tick).
16. __21. In the Lease Company window click the plus sign to select “LeaseCan”. Click the check mark to
confirm.
__22. Click the Transfer Assets button and wait for the transaction to be validated.
__23. Click OK and then dismiss the Transaction complete window.
__24. Click the + icon in the “Vehicles” box to verify that Deborah no longer has visibility of the car she
just transferred. Click X to close the window.
17. __25. Return to the main menu.
Transferring an Asset to a Leasee
In this section, we will act as a representative of the lease company. First, we will verify that the asset
you transferred earlier is now available to you acting as the lease company to transfer; we will then
transfer the asset to a leasee.
In the previous section, we transferred the ownership of a vehicle from the dealership “Beechvale Group”
to the lease company “LeaseCan”. The vehicle will now appear in the list of vehicles LeaseCan is able to
control.
__26. From the main menu, click “Lease Company -> Leasee”.
__27. Use the two panels to prepare a transfer of the Alfa Romeo car to Joe Payne.
18. __28. Click the Transfer Assets button and wait for the transaction to be validated. Dismiss the
confirmation prompts.
19. Transferring an Asset to a Scrap Merchant
In this section we will act as the leasee, who in this greatly simplified scenario has the authority to send
the vehicle to a scrap merchant. First, we will verify that the asset you transferred earlier is now available
to us acting as the leasee; we will then transfer the asset to a scrap merchant.
In the previous section, we transferred the ownership of a vehicle from the lease company “LeaseCan” to
Joe Payne. The vehicle will now appear in the list of vehicles Joe is able to control.
__29. From the main menu, click “Leasee -> Scrap Merchant”.
__30. Transfer the car to the Cray Bros (London) Ltd.
__31. When the transaction has been validated, return to the main menu.
20. Disposing of an Asset
In this section, we will act as the scrap merchant and dispose of the asset. First, we will verify that the
asset you transferred earlier is now available to you acting as the scrap merchant. We will then dispose
of the asset.
In the previous section, we transferred the ownership of an Alfa Romeo car from “Joe Payne” to the
scrap merchant. The vehicle will now appear in the list of vehicles that the scrap merchant is able to
control.
__32. From the main menu, click “Scrap Merchant -> Scrap”.
__33. Use the + sign to prepare the asset for scrapping and click “Scrap Assets” when ready. Note that
there is no destination panel for this operation.
__34. Dismiss the confirmation dialogs once the asset has been scrapped.
__35. Verify that the asset can no longer be viewed by the scrap merchant.
__36. Return to the main menu.
Once the asset has been transferred it is not removed from the blockchain; it has merely been
marked as “scrapped”. In the next section we will demonstrate that the asset can still be viewed
in the transaction logs.
22. Viewing Transactions
The regulator view has unrestricted access to all activities on the Blockchain. In this section we will act
as the Regulator and view all asset transfer and disposal activity. We will then act as another user who
has a more restricted view of the transactions.
2.6.1. The Regulator
__37. From the main menu, click “Regulator View”.
__38. From the main menu, click “Regulator View”.
You will see the activity in chronological order, with the most recent activity at the top of the list of
transactions.
__39. In the “Search by V5C ID…” box, start typing the vehicle identifier of the Alfa Romeo you have
been working with. In the example here this is HB0556295 but your ID might be different.
23. This will filter the view so that only the transactions for this car are shown.
__40. View the complete set of transactions again by using the backspace key to delete the characters
you just entered.
2.6.2. Other users
Other users can only see part of the lifecycle of the vehicle. They are able to see what happened to the
vehicle prior to their ownership and whilst they owned it but cannot see what happened to the vehicle
after they transferred it.
__41. Click the three lines in the top right corner of the Regulator view to see the set of transactions
through the eyes of another user. In the dropdown that appears hover over “Lease Companies”
then click “Lease Can”.
The view now changes to show all transactions that:
(a) relate to cars currently owned by LeaseCan, or
(b) relate to cars once owned by LeaseCan, up to the point that they were transferred away.
__42. Start typing the identifier of the Alfa Romeo once more (HB0556295 in the example, but again
your ID will vary).
24. Note how the transactions shown against this car are restricted to the ones up to the point that
LeaseCan transferred the car to Joe Payne.
__43. Return to the main menu.
25. Section 3. Viewing the Blockchain
In this final section of the lab, we will introduce one of the key data structures that makes up the
blockchain. The follow-on lab (“Blockchain Explored”) will cover this topic in more detail.
__44. From the main menu, click ‘Live Stats’.
__45. Wait for the screen to be populated. (The blockchain is being queried, and this will take longer
the more transactions there are.)
__46. Review the various pieces of information being shown.
Last Block: The block number of the last committed block (higher numbers are more recent)
Created: How long ago since the last block was committed
Transactions in Last Block: The number of transactions in the last block; in this demo, this is usually one.
Avg Block Time: The average time between each block being committed
Block Time: A graph showing how much time was between each block
Transactions Per Block - Graph: How many transactions were in each block (again, this is usually one)
Blockchain Explorer: Allows you to look at a specific block’s details in the blockchain.
26. __47. Click a block in the Blockchain Explorer pane to see more information about it.