as we move into this world of
connectivity and networks a new
technology paradigm is emerging it's
called the Internet of Things or IOT for
shorts the technology paradigm of the
Industrial Age was one of machines
standalone mechanized systems there were
physical in nature mono-functional and
mechanized it is a world of
non-responsive isolated technologies
each of which the end-user has to manage
separately the technology paradigm of
the Information Age is one of services
it's a world where individual component
technologies are instrumented and
connected into large networks devices
that can communicate peer-to-peer adapt
and self organize around the end-users
needs so as to deliver a seamless
service one of the best illustrations of
this is the smart city where different
systems no longer exist in silos but are
interconnected and organized around the
end users needs through information
networks the Internet of Things is a
journey that we're just beginning on
over the course the next decades
billions of devices will come online the
amount of data the Internet has to
handle will grow massively as vast
networks of devices and machines
continuously communicate with each other
to coordinate production processes for
transport and logistics for construction
climate control etc this require an IT
infrastructure that goes far beyond the
existing capacities of the Internet in
terms of dealing with massive amounts of
secure data secure communications
transactions and automated micro
exchanges of value between systems and
devices on the edges of networks this is
part of what the next evolution in the
internet will have to deal with a world
of upwards of 20 billion devices
constantly streaming data and making
secure micro exchanges between each
other peer to peer but simply this world
of a fully fledged IOT infrastructure to
our economies will be an almost
unimaginably complex system we can think
about the issues here along three
dimensions
firstly the bottlenecks created by
existing cloud-based IOT systems
secondly issues surrounding the security
risks of centralized systems and thirdly
enabling automated dynamic resource
allocation between machines at present
IOT systems are often dependent upon a
centralized architecture where
information is sent from the device to a
proprietary cloud where the data's
processed using analytics and then sent
back to those tiny IOT devices to
coordinate them as with all centralized
systems this only scales so far in a
world of complex networks you have to
have much more processing and
coordination happening out on the edges
of the network with coordination taking
place peer-to-peer so is to reduce the
bottlenecks and centralize security
vulnerabilities in order to scale you
need to be able to make the decisions
locally process the data locally and
also be able to share resources locally
between devices on demands likewise
security is of course a huge issue with
the Internet of Things more and more
we're connecting our critical
infrastructure up to IOT networks a good
example the new developments of the
smart grids or urban transport
coordination systems the blockchain is
promising for IOT security for the same
reasons it works for cryptocurrencies it
provides assurance the data's legitimate
and the process through which data is
put into the databases well to find a
decentralized approach to IOT networks
could solve many current issues adopting
a standardized peer-to-peer
communications model to process the
hundreds of billions of transactions
between devices will significantly
reduce the costs associated with
installing and maintaining large
centralized data centers and will reduce
the computation and storage needed
across the billions of devices that will
form this global IOT network likewise it
will prevent failure in any single node
in the network from shutting down the
whole system blockchain IOT solutions
could enable secure trustless messaging
between devices on IHC networks
in this model the blockchain will treat
message exchanges between devices
similar to financial transactions in a
Bitcoin network insuring their validity
just as the money economy allows for
better faster and more efficient
allocation of resources on a human scale
blockchain networks could provide a
robust and decentralized system for
handling these same issues on the micro
level of individual devices and machines
the Internet of Things is going to need
micro payment systems where devices can
pay automatically on demand based on the
resources they consume this won't work
with high transaction fees or having to
wait for centralized third parties to
authenticate the transactions we really
want to make it possible for one machine
that has excess capacity or excess
resources like for example computational
capacity storage or electricity to be
able to sell that to another machine
that means it on demands thus enabling
an efficient load balancing system one
example that is often given of this is
autonomous vehicles automatically
negotiating highway passage say for
example one vehicle that's in a hurry
paying out the cars to let it pass first
coordinating air delivery drones is
another potential use case for
device-to-device micro payments where
drones may pay a solar recharging
station belonging to someone else to get
charged up with the lectures D the
Internet of Things is all about networks
of technology that deliver services
where any device that can contribute the
overall functioning of the network will
be able to automatically plug into that
network offering its capacities and
receiving tokens in exchange this kind
of computing environments means a form
of permissionless innovation layer where
anyone can start participating and
contributing to any network whether
that's providing a 3d printer with in a
manufacturing network a bicycle in a
transport network or a room in an
accommodation network a connected device
will be able to provide services and
receive payments for work done
that are automatically credited the
owners wallets or even the wallet of the
device this will create all sorts of
security privacy and financial issues
that the blockchain is well-suited to
enable as data can reside with the end
device and made available only when and
as neend it force avoiding centralized
security issues one example of this is
the dev Network which stands for
decentralized autonomous vehicles dab is
a blockchain platform currently under
developments that allows anyone to buy
or sell autonomous transport services in
a decentralized markets this platform
integrates into any autonomous vehicles
enabling those vehicles to discover
communicate and transact with one
another using the digital token called
dev people can earn dev tokens by
providing transport services a
self-driving car could give rides to
passengers were not needed by its owner
or drone could help with part of a
delivery service distribute technologies
like the blockchain are the missing link
to settle the scalability privacy and
reliability concerns in the Internet of
Things but of course the blockchain
infrastructure of the prison could never
scale to the demand that is needed new
more efficient blockchain networks will
have to evolve one of the most promising
projects in this respect is iota which
aims to be the distributed network
protocol enabling this machine economy
the main innovation behind iota is what
they call the tangle a new distributed
ledger design which is scalable
lightweight and makes it possible to
transfer value without any fees the
tangle ledger is able to settle
transactions with zero fees so devices
can trade very small amounts of
resources on demands as well as store
data from sensors without verified on
ledger
while the whole world has adopted the
so-called sharing economy in areas like
driving and accomodation iota enables a
whole new realm where anything with the
chip in it could be leased in real time
most of the technologies and devices we
own remain idle for the vast majority of
the
time that we possess ownership Adam but
through blockchain IOT networks a lot of
things like appliances tools drones a
bicycles edger or resources such as
computer storage computational power
Wi-Fi bandwidth etc could be easily
leased out a function in any service
network