Author: Qingzhou
The integration of Internet of Things technology and cryptocurrency (block chain) technology carries the expectation of solving many internet legacy problems. Like data privacy, trusted computing, etc.
Since cryptocurrencies entered the vision of entrepreneurs in 2018, many companies in the Internet of Things field have also entered the field of cryptocurrencies. At the same time, many teams that are good at blockchain technology have also seen the advantages of the Internet of Things field.
This has led to the rapid integration of the two technologies into an encrypted currency network based on the Internet of Things network.
In essence, the Internet of Things is a network of machine computing and communication, which has the characteristics of many devices, a high degree of data standardization, and a large amount of data generation.
The blockchain technology has the characteristics of non-tampering, multi-party consensus, ownership of rights and interests, and incentives.
Therefore, the combination of the two is the natural direction of the development of the Internet world. Internet users need a more decentralized network structure, and cryptocurrencies need more landing applications. In the future, the encrypted Internet of Things network may form a new situation of reconstructing data production flow and returning data value to users.
This is what we expect from cryptocurrency IoT projects, can it be realized?
Today, the Baiplan team will use the design ideas of 7 IoT projects that will be active in 2021, including IOTA, IoTeX, Jasmy, Helium, Taraxa, Nodle, and MXC, to explain the development and innovation of the combination of IoT and blockchain possibility.
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Design logic of cryptocurrency IoT projects
The consensus and chain structure shaped by the blockchain is a naturally adaptive communication method between machines.
The Internet of Things creates a network that connects everything. Based on such a network, many new scenarios can be realized, such as smart driving, smart home, smart city, etc.
But the Internet of Things has a foundation, which is the need for terminals. Terminals are data acquirers, such as mobile phones, cameras, sensors, computers, smart speakers, etc. They are also data sources of the IoT network, that is, producers.
However, there are many deficiencies in data processing and management in the Internet of Things.
For example, to use the Internet of Things technology in the express delivery industry, it is necessary to make a hardware identification chip representing the express delivery for a single piece of express delivery.
This is a high-cost practice that requires a complete supply chain management solution, including data background, management system, industrial accessories, etc.
For another example, a smart speaker records the users usage data, and these usage data are not owned by the user, but owned by the platform that developed the speaker. Even if the platform provides convenience for users, the speaker platform cannot own the data and take the value of the users data as its own.
Solutions to these problems have been designed in the cryptocurrency IoT project, which can take advantage of the characteristics of cryptocurrency to return data and value to users. With this in mind we look at cryptocurrency networks.
An encrypted currency network is ultimately for the application layer to develop applications based on encrypted currency networks, and these applications require network storage and computing power, but the builders of existing networks will benefit from blockchain functions and token incentives.
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Classification of Design Features for IoT Projects
Nowadays, most cryptocurrency projects have the characteristics of layering and modularization, and the same is true for projects on the Internet of Things track.
The IoT projects IOTA, IoTeX, Jasmy, Helium, Taraxa, Nodle, and MXC selected in this article all have layered and modular designs.
Example: Jasmys IoT platform modularity
The devices selected for Internet of Things projects are also slightly different, and can be classified as follows.
Self-developed (or fixed) equipment: Jasmy, IoTeX, Helium, MXC, Taraxa
Wide access to devices: Nodle, IOTA
Example: Heliums quasi-access device
Or continue to distinguish from the function, you can also find the following features:
Mainly solve data credibility and ownership: IOTA, Jasmy, Taraxa, IoTeX
Shared transports: Helium, MXC, Nodle
In this field, the idea of self-developed equipment is mainly to improve some features. For example, the self-developed hardware provided by Jasmy is mainly the basic modules of IoT communication modules and wearable devices. These modules can integrate the functions required to build IoT systems. It will not cause too much burden and provide access licenses, that is, it will not affect normal functions.
And IoTeX is mainly to adapt to the application scenario. The joint hardware company has developed a secure cloud camera and a hardware device with a TEE module added, which has trusted computing capabilities. In this way, for example, the cloud camera can be used as a cloud camera or as a network node device and Data source device.
Because Helium, MXC, and Nodle aim to solve the problems of the communication industry, their access devices will also be standard communication modules that meet the standards of the communication industry, including routing communication modules, signal station communication modules, and wifi communication modules. Its technology uses the concept of a low power local area network. For example, Nodle uses a low-latency and low-power network composed of mobile phone Bluetooth. Both Helium and MXC build low-power LANs through communication signal stations or routers.
Example: Nodles hierarchical structure, layer0 is the IoT device layer
After the device is connected, the data acquired by the device is mainly managed through the protocol layer.
For example, Jasmy, IoTeX, Taraxa, and IOTA obtain the data source and carry out special encryption and circulation, or transmit it through a secure protocol, mainly to solve the problem of data credibility and ownership. For example, Jasmy uses cryptography technologies such as SKC and SG, and IoTeX uses Secure transmission protocol TruStream. IOTA and Taraxa mainly use cryptographic algorithms to package and encrypt blocks.
For Helium, MXC, Nodle and other projects that mainly realize data transmission sharing, it is to establish a lower-latency IoT network under the background of Internet wireless transmission, and use low-power LAN technology.
Users need to share the low-power network provided by connected IoT devices to help data transmission. For example, Nodle shares the Bluetooth network of mobile phones. Once other IOT devices access the Bluetooth network through the Nodle protocol, data will be transmitted through the network. , accessors profit through shared network transmission. Such low-power networks can replace communication networks, reduce costs, and utilize idle computing resources.
Helium and MXC have provided signal station equipment in certain areas of the city in advance, so that the low-power test network exists stably, and the network can be directly used for commercial realization.
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Splitting the Structure of a Cryptocurrency IoT Project
First of all, all encrypted currency networks need a peer-to-peer communication layer, and each device is connected to build an IoT network, which can also be used as a peer-to-peer communication network for encrypted currencies.
One thing that needs to be mentioned here is that if the Internet of Things network is not cloudified, that is, the computing power of the Internet of Things network cannot be used by the blockchain. The blockchain network does not run on this network, but is a separately established area. Blockchain network to run the ledger.
For example, Jasmy, the devices connected to its IoT platform are complete terminals, that is, data sources. Its blockchain network runs on the nodes of cooperative enterprises.
Lets take a look at what devices are connected to the following projects.
IOTA: Wide range of devices that can run IOTA nodes
Jasmy: Wearables, Notebooks, Enterprise PCs
IoTeX: Directional TEE devices, smart cameras and more
Nodle: mobile phone
Helium: fixed communication device
Taraxa: A directional security appliance
MXC: fixed communication equipment
Example: Secure Device Elements Accessed by Taraxa
After the hardware devices are connected, there will be two options. One is to use the data generated by these devices to generate value through the blockchain protocol, and the other is to share the computing power of these devices.
This requires the protocol layer to complete the deployment. The deployment method is as follows:
Jasmy: After the device is connected to the network, the data is encrypted to generate an account for the device on the blockchain, so that the data generated by the device can be attributed to the owner. The data collected by mobile apps and PCs are recorded through DID, and then aggregated into valuable data sets.
IoTeX: After the device is connected, a separate data set of the device and the owner is formed through DID, or the data of the device is encrypted to achieve safe transmission, so that the data can be used with confidence.
Helium: After the communication device is connected, it will become part of the low-power network sharing transmission, and share the data transmission to obtain rewards.
Nodle: After the communication device is connected, it will become part of the low-power network sharing transmission, and share the data transmission to obtain rewards.
Taraxa: After the data source device is connected, it is encrypted by cryptography technology to form data on the chain, and then circulated and available.
MXC: After the communication equipment is connected, it will become a part of the low-power network sharing transmission, and share the transmission of data to obtain rewards.
IOTA: After the device is connected to the network, through tangle technology, the data is generated and stored on the chain, and then flows.
Through these anatomy and statistics, we can infer. If it is a network that mainly solves data credibility and ownership through blockchain, its main goal will be to access more devices. Taking Jasmy as an example, it has successfully accessed data from personal PCs, corporate PCs, wearable devices, and mobile apps. These data are processed through Jasmys IoT platform and blockchain, and will continue to circulate with the rights of the data owner. Among them, Jasmy believes that only through the physical layer (chip encryption) and the integration of the distributed data management of the upper blockchain can the data problem be solved, so a dedicated hardware module will be used to solve the data problem.
Also using chip-level encryption, there are IoTex and Taraxa, which require data sources with secure hardware to run.
Example: Jasmys SG and SKC processing examples for data
In addition, if analyzed in detail, a project like Jasmy, which is the main data source problem, must take the data trading market as the ultimate goal of the project. And in comparison, the goals of other projects that can solve such problems are not the same. For example, IoTeX and Taraxa projects are positioned as trusted transmission, that is, the process of safe transmission, so in their scenario applications, it is more suitable to add Oracle. Application scenarios.
And those projects that mainly solve data transmission and sharing, the main goal is the participation and sharing of more transferees. Of course, it is also necessary to realize data security and data ownership in the network that mainly completes the transmission function, such as MXC, In addition to transmission and sharing, Nodle and others will also have data transactions. If the platform is innovative enough, it can also become an Oracle.
How to do application innovation in the encrypted currency IoT network?
Based on the technologies of these platforms, we need to analyze the innovation possibilities of the application layer.
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ToCs attempt
ToC is most closely related to ordinary users. One is that the data belongs to the user, and the other is that the user can use it conveniently. The division of data ownership is to return the data originally collected by the platform in the Internet age to the user who generated the data. Most projects that return ownership of data back to users use DIDs to connect all data.
However, under the background of Internet of Things devices, there are two ideas for data, one is divided by people, and the other is divided by machines.
Among all the projects, Jasmy’s description of division is relatively detailed. It first uses SKC technology to establish DID for users, and then provides individuals with lockable storage cabinets (personal data cabinets) to store personal data in a distributed storage system. .
In this way, individual users can not only keep and manage important personal data in this storage cabinet, but also freely decide the scope and period of providing personal information when personal data is connected to the enterprise.
This personal data cabinet is a distributed storage service based on a P2P network. Its main function is to save files in the distributed storage system through content addressing, and the hash value of the file is recorded in the blockchain. On, bind with DID.
For devices connected to the Internet of Things, if the DI created by SKC is used to register the Internet of Things device in the network through SG technology, this is the detailed division of device data.
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Possibility of ToB
The field of Internet of Things is more likely to shape ToBs business.
For some of the services implemented by Jasmy above, the service beneficiaries are C-end users, but the business needs must be B-end users. Therefore, the business shaping of the project is still ToB.
Beyond the revamp of data ownership, there are 3 bigger opportunities. They are Oracle, Trusted Cloud Computing Platform, and CDN.
Oracle needs to be based on a trusted execution process, and the data it transmits is credible. Because the data delivered by Oracle often has important value, such as prices, indexes, weather, etc. And Oracle is used frequently, which will be a profitable business with long-term value. The extensive data sources of the Internet of Things can be used as data sources, and the blockchain can also complete the communication between these machines very well.
For example, IoTex, Taraxa, and Nodle can all be used as Oracles.
Example: Nodles Oracle model
The main purpose of establishing a trusted cloud computing platform is to share the computing resources of access devices. Some IoT devices have some idle resources, such as smart home terminals. After cloudification, shared computing resources such as edge computing can be used to seek benefits. The scale of this project is large and the design is complex, but after a long period of service volume is formed, the benefits will be considerable.
IOTA may form such a structure, but IOTAs business is slightly limited, and it mainly provides directional services to various vertical industries.
The last one is the CDN network. This model refers to many devices that need to be updated and communicated in real time in the local area network, such as the lock of shared bicycles and the response of smart device terminals. Most communication processes require low-latency immediacy.
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Talk about the update possibility of access equipment
The progress of the encrypted currency IoT project, in addition to the progress of encrypted currency technology, the update of connected IoT devices also plays a big role.
In IoT devices, the most important part is the chip. Because the chip is the main part of the calculation, it will provide the computing resources required by the encrypted currency network and even the data source. As we mentioned above, IoTex has developed TEE chip modules through cooperation with hardware companies, and through TEE, it is possible to protect data transmission or execute smart contracts.
In addition, there are two large-scale equipment updates, one is MXC and Helium to achieve low-power LAN equipment. Because these devices are standard communication devices, their updates are in line with communication standards and updates required by the communication industry.
The other category is the update of commercial smart devices. These smart devices appear in the lives of users. For example, Jasmy is based on the background of the Sony team. In the future, access devices will not be limited to PCs, smart phones, smart wearable devices, and families. Routers, WiFi, smart car keys, smart door locks and even smart chips embedded in the human body.
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Economic Incentives You Cannot Skip for IoT Projects
At the end of the article, we need to discuss a very important issue, the necessary design of cryptocurrency IoT projects: token incentives. The goal is to allow more devices to access the network to provide data, more users to provide data to the network, and more supporters to help build IoT networks and blockchain networks.
These token incentives will solve the supply part of the demand and supply, and then the supply will gradually generate demand. This is also a new mining model that the cryptocurrency Internet of Things project can provide, access to the Internet of Things devices, and share data to obtain income , or access equipment, share resources to obtain income.
The income will be cashed in the form of tokens or other forms, most likely through token incentives, and finally converted into cash in the secondary market, and the price of each token on the exchange will also become a factor for users to use the platform .
The 7 kinds of tokens in today’s article: IOTA, IoTeX, Jasmy, Helium, Taraxa, Nodle, MXC, of which IOTA is the longest token on the line, ranking 25th in market value, followed by IoTeX, MXC, MXC has developed For some mining service providers, among these currencies, Jasmy and Helium are newly launched currencies. According to the official disclosure, Jasmy is likely to be the first local token launched by a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange after compliance. And Taraxa and Nodle are still not online yet.
The appreciation of tokens after listing is the biggest driving force in token incentives, and it will also be a good start for the ecological construction of a cryptocurrency IoT project. This track is far from mature and saturated, and enough expectations can be given.
