IBM has filed a new patent application that outlines a way for developers to catalog coding updates. IBM’s technology to track developers’ code and milestones, is designed using a blockchain-type network.
IBM’s patient application titled “Blockchain For Program Code Credit and Programmer Contribution in a Collective” was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on July 5. The company claims to have created a technology using “a secure and robust approach to track and to append information related to collaborative coding for the purpose of credit, reward, and dispute resolution, and for other purposes.”
To put it in simpler words, IBM’s idea is to use a distributed network (like blockchain ledger) to track accomplishment of coders as they collaborate on a project together. The application will be used for tracking the contribution of an individual coder. It can also be used to properly credit design elements to specific programmers.
Programmers work in a collaborative environment to produce any software product. This new approach will help in measuring the programmer’s contribution towards a project. The principle that underlays the proposed patent is a chain that chronicles the order transactions and parameters on blockchain blocks.
In an official note released to the media, IBM explained, “Code transactions and parameters associated with a stakeholder are compiled into a chain of programmer transaction blockchain blocks. The chain can be considered a chronicle of a piece of software, …and the code "status" path through its recent history or complete history can be tracked, along with its various programmers, though the lifetime and versions of the code, various history parameters, etc.”
The company further added, “Once the new block has been calculated, it can be appended to the stakeholder's application software history blockchain, as described above. The block may be updated in response to many triggers, such as, when a programmer selects a button on a graphical user interface (GUI) on a computer display showing a code editor to add code, when a unit test has been completed, when a code integration is completed, when an assigned work item is closed, and so forth.”
IBM believes that the introduction of this technology will help software development firms to bring-in the transparency and ensure effective collaborative between mid-to-large sized teams.