Pairing IoT with Blockchain May Offer Advantages

The Internet of Things suffers from scalability and security issues, and the jury’s still out on whether blockchain can be part of the solution.

Christina Comben’s article in the Merkle.com presents a detailed look at IoT and blockchain’s futures together.

One of the issues naysayers cite is that blockchain technology requires a lot of computational horsepower, due to proof of work. While this isn’t much of a problem for a server, it’s not ideal for an IoT device that’s designed for low power and low usage.

“Overkill” is another issue cited by blockchain detractors. AWS partner Gunner Technology is a case in point. Dary Merckens of Gunner Technology said:

“We prototyped a delivery confirmation mechanism using a simple AWS IoT button and blockchain-based smart contracts. Needless to say, it was overkill for our project, and in all likelihood, similar blockchain-based IoT solutions will also be overkill. I’m urging people at this point to abandon the hype and to focus on proven technologies that do everything we need.”

But what about the companies successfully integrating their companies with blockchain and IoT?

ZEDEDA, a cloud-based solution, enables the scale required for real-time​ IoT​ applications, from self-driving cars to industrial robots. It creates the framework required for blockchain integration within IoT.

Joel Vincent, the company’s CMO, explains, “As the world becomes more cyber-physical and connected, we’re creating cloud-native edge computing that will take the principles of cloud computing, allow developers to move applications to edge systems and out of the data center, ultimately shrinking the concept of real time… to microseconds to interpret data and make a car swerve. We’re doing this with a combination of distributed computing, peer-to-peer crypto-routing, embedded virtualization, and soon blockchain and smart contracts.”

Another company, Aricent, has merged the two. A design and engineering company whose clients include IBM and Amazon, Aricent helps clients deploy blockchain tech to strengthen and protect their IoT networks, increasing revenue and profitability for software development.

The company’s head of security, Shaan Mulchandani, explains, “What we’ve done is basically created a blockchain-enabled DevOps solution.”

The technology will take time to pair well. Blockchain tech is still new, and it could be some years before mass adoption.

read more at themerkle.com