Drones and Blockchain - Walmart continue to get stuck in for drone communication

Source: Coindesk

They're coming to get you, swarms of them! No, not really.

Walmart have been flirting with the idea of using drones for quite sometime, especially with the exploration of using blockchain technology. A technology they have been dabbling with for quite some time. Their latest patent is the entitled 'Cloning Drones Using Blockchain'.

A method of drone-drone communications using blockchain includes: determining operational parameters of a first drone; encrypting the operational parameters of the first drone; storing the encrypted operational parameters of the first drone in a block of a blockchain; determining when a second drone is in proximity of the first drone; retrieving the encrypted operational parameters of the first drone from the block of the blockchain; decrypting the encrypted operational parameters of the first drone; retrieving the operational parameters of the first drone based on the decryption; and configuring the second drone with the operational parameters of the first drone.

This is effectively a glorified communication system between drones, or swarms of drones that may work together autonomously. Autonomousl, AI driven drones are the key to their widespread adoption to do our work in the skies. This I feel is part of that blockchain enabled journey. The benefit of blockchain technology in this patent, the patent claims, lies in data integrity:

A blockchain ledger may store any kind of information that may be stored in any other format or medium, for example, a large list of instructions of different types, navigational information, and maps. In such a way, a same software profile may be deployed across the cloned drones.

It's all about using blockchain for communication, coordination and autonomous missioning of drones. What does this mean in reality? Mind blown by blockchain *

But wait, Walmart have also filed a patent for a digital currency system too...