As you heard several times before, blockchain tech will change the entire IoT industry. What you haven’t heard is how this is going to occur. Here’s the response to three questions and the way blockchain is a platform for IoT solutions.
What’s a blockchain?
That blockchain is a much better alternative for IoT alternatives?
The best way to design IoT based solutions?
Note there are several fundamental problems with almost all the blockchains that you know, including BTC and Ethereum.
What is a blockchain?
A blockchain is a distributed database that’s available from anywhere, and there is no single point of failure. So, is that it? You may argue that all these things are attainable by current platforms and infrastructures.
However, the price tag is higher, and the availability of the system is lower. To understand it, let me take you through the qualities of blockchain technology.
A public ledger means everyone can join the machine. That’s the significant difference between a blockchain and other systems. Let’s explain that any blockchain that is not public, is not a blockchain. So just drop any personal blockchain without being impressed with the huge names (e,g., Hyper ledger by IBM).
Thus, it is a trail of proof! It logs every activity on the system. It doesn’t mean that you can’t upgrade a document, you may! But you have to make a new record and refer it to the old one
Distributed
If you operate with current databases such as Oracle, you know how expensive it is to distribute info. By employing blockchain for a database, the information is already distributed with no single point of failure which leads to 100% service availability with global access.
Built-In Money
Imagine in the coming years and together with the existence of driverless cars, you get for your office, your automobile goes away and functions for you during working hours, and has paid continuously per kilometer/meter/hour/moment.
In this instance, your car could also sell the current traffic information to other applications each time they use the data.
All of these are possible only with micropayments on the blockchain, (not all of them) since micropayments are too expensive on any other system.
The nature of asymmetric cryptography permits you to isolate and authenticate devices. The characteristic is a perfect tool to trigger different devices without an immediate link. More on the later.
Choosing the right one.
Selecting the most suitable one.
Now we know why we should use blockchain in IoT. The next step would be the way to evaluate a blockchain to get IoT solutions. The followings are the basic prerequisites to get a usable blockchain-based platform
- Scalability
- Interoperability
- Global Accessibility
- Low and non-Volatile Cost
- Stability
- safety
Scalability
A successful IoT solution creates a huge set of activities (transactions). As a result that will put the platform in the actual test. A blockchain that does not scale has no chance to be utilized to get an IoT alternative.
Interoperability
IoT devices vary in many ways, their OS, the application, usage, etc.. So it’s crucial to utilize a platform that works flawlessly with any apparatus despite the differences.
Global Accessibility
How silly it seems if someone tells you they have their very own web? The identical rule applies if someone tells you they have their particular IoT network. The character of an IoT alternative is to be available internationally, the title “Internet” is in the IoT after all!
Low and non-Volatile Cost
In any solution, estimating the cost is part of the procedure. To do so, you want to guarantee that the platform you’re using has a fair and steady cost. In case the cost of using the platform declines in the future, Great! But an increase in cost will kill the job easily.
Stability
As an example, you’ve set up a device to work for years, however, the protocol of the platform changes constantly. Consider it, you aren’t changing anything, but any change on the platform affects you directly.
Safety
A blockchain is protected if it meets the following requirements:
With an immutable database where no one can change or delete the information. The significant difference between a blockchain database and other databases is the immutability. This attribute makes blockchain a perfect database to store the actions of IoT devices.
It is expected to continue running later on. Among the present problems of several blockchains is that the uncertain future of those projects. This comes from things like regulations, industry models, number of users, lack of incentive in miners and investors.
Having incentivized and honest gamers. In bitcoin whitepaper, the term”honest” was composed of fifteen occasions which pretty much emphasizes the value of honesty in blockchains. So, if a minor or even a major participant isn’t fair to the stage, nothing can make that network protected.
Not all of the blockchains pass the requirements of becoming a suitable platform for IoT solutions. Today we are going to learn how to distinguish a suitable blockchain from the remainder.
How to Utilize Blockchain with IoT
A blockchain is just one distributed database (ledger) where data will not be lost or altered. The main issue is how to update this database? How can the trades on Bitcoin work?
Transactions are a way of telling the network which you would like to update the ledger. Normally, this update can be a request for activities like moving coins or adding data.
Each transaction requires a minimum of one input as the sender unless it’s a Coinbase trade and one output as the recipient.
Whenever someone asks an update about the ledger, he needs to provide the evidence for its petition that’s the signature of Unspent Transaction Outputs — UTXOs (the approach is simplified). Only the individual that has the personal keys can offer these signatures.
Together with the first version of Bitcoin, the trades also can carry data, this data can be anything that has any instructions. (Now you locate some limitations about the BTC network regarding injecting data into the ledger.)
Scenario 1:
We have apparatus A and B without an immediate connection, or via a particular server. Whenever it detects any action, it logs and encrypts the event in a transaction and sends it to the community.
If device A does not find anything in five minutes, it generates an”OK” trade and sends it to the system.
On the opposite part of the town, device B is currently monitoring the network(without a direct link to the apparatus B). Device B is ready to take some actions in accordance with the following situations:
As a result, it resets the timer to zero and does nothing.
Apparatus B detects a trade with the Condition of the warning. It will make an automatic call to the Police station with a suitable message.
The timer on Apparatus B extends five minutes with no transaction from Device A. Thus, Device B is likely to make an automatic call to the Police station with a suitable message.
Within this scenario, there is not any way to fake Device A by an adversary unless he puts his hands on the keys. Also, there’s absolutely no way to discover some other server involved with the process or some other relation between A and B.
Scenario 2:
For example, you want to feed them just in times that among them is at the lawn, and the other person is resting.
You consider it and learn how we could manage two puppies with GPS devices and food gates that take actions according to the GPS information within the trades into the community. The above instances were only examples to grasp the concept of IoT on the blockchain better.
When you look at the keywords, you can think of thousands of different chances for creating complex algorithms.
Be aware that In Bitcoin you’ll have 2^256 (the true number is a little reduced ) addresses. Each address can represent a device without requiring a public IP. By using payment channels this sum will decrease even more considering that the trades transferred between parties.
Conclusion
Most of what you hear concerning blockchain technology is merely hype but utilizing blockchain technology enhances security, transparency, and availability. Also, it lowers the expense of conducting projects.
At the moment of writing this guide, the original Bitcoin is your best candidate for IoT solutions. It has all of the components an IoT alternative requires.
In the following guide, I gave you the most pieces of the puzzle. The rest is left up to you to think of countless secure IoT solutions.
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