Uses of Blockchain technology in IoT Solutions

As you heard many times before, blockchain technology is going to change the whole IoT industry. What you have not heard is how this is going to happen. Here is the answer to three questions and how blockchain is a platform for IoT solutions.

1. What is a blockchain?
2. Which blockchain is a better choice for IoT solutions?
3. How to design IoT based solutions?

Be aware there are numerous basic issues with virtually all those blockchains that you understand, such as BTC and Ethereum.

What is a blockchain

A blockchain is a distributed database that is accessible from anywhere, and there is no single point of failure. So, is that it? You might argue that all these things are achievable by current platforms and infrastructures.

However, the price tag is higher, and also the access to this system is reduced. To understand it, allow me to take you through the qualities of blockchain technology.

A Public ledger

A public ledger means everybody can join the machine. That’s the significant distinction between a blockchain along with other systems.

Let us explain that any blockchain that’s not public, isn’t a blockchain. So simply drop any personal blockchain without being amazed with the huge names (e,g., Hyper ledger from IBM).
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Immutable

An immutable database or ledger documents everything. Thus, it’s a trail of proof! It logs every activity onto the system. It does not mean that you can’t upgrade a document, you may! However, you have to make a new document and refer it to the older one.

Distributed

If you operate with current databases such as Oracle, you realize how expensive it’s to distribute information. By employing blockchain for a database, the information is dispersed without a single point of failure that results in 100% service availability with international accessibility.

Built-In Money

Paying out of a device into another device in the kind of micropayments opens many opportunities for IoT options.

Envision in the forthcoming years and together with the occurrence of driverless automobiles, you get for your office, your automobile goes off and functions for you during working hours, and has compensated consistently per kilometer/meter/hour/minute.

In this case, your car may also sell the present traffic information to other programs each time they use the information.

All these are possible only with micropayments on the blockchain, (maybe not all them) since micropayments are too costly on every other system.

Cryptography

The character of asymmetric cryptography permits you to isolate and authenticate apparatus. The characteristic is the ideal instrument to activate different devices without an immediate link. More about the later.

Now we know why we should use blockchain in IoT. The next step would be how to evaluate a blockchain for IoT solutions.

The followings are the basic requirements for a usable blockchain-based platform

1. Scalability
2. Interoperability
3. Global Accessibility
4. Low and non-Volatile Cost
5. Stability
6. security

Scalability

A prosperous IoT solution creates a huge set of activities (transactions). Because of this that will place the stage in actual test. A blockchain that does not scale doesn’t have any opportunity to be utilized to get an IoT alternative.

Interoperability

IoT devices change in several ways, their OS, the program, utilization, etc.. So it’s crucial to utilize a platform which works flawlessly with any apparatus regardless of the differences.

Global Accessibility

How silly it seems if somebody tells you they have their very own web? The identical rule applies if a person tells you they’ve their particular IoT network. The character of an IoT alternative would be to be available worldwide, the title”Internet” is at the IoT after all!
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Low and non-Volatile Cost

In any way, estimating the price tag is part of this procedure. To do so, you want to guarantee that the platform you’re using has a just and stable price. In case the expense of employing the platform declines later on, Great! However an increase in price will kill the job easily.

Stability

Last but not least is your equilibrium. As an example, you’ve set up a device to operate for a long time, however the protocol of this system varies continuously. Consider it, you’re not changing anything, but any shift on the stage changes you directly.

Imagine using an FTP server at which the FTP protocol changes every six weeks, just how painful that could be.

Security

A blockchain is secure if it meets the following requirements:

1. Having an immutable database where nobody can alter or delete the data. The major difference between a blockchain database and other databases is the immutability. This feature makes blockchain a perfect database to store activities of IoT devices.
2. It is expected to continue running in the future. One of the existing problems of many blockchains is the uncertain future of these projects. This comes from things like regulations, business models, number of users, lack of incentive in miners and investors.
3. Having incentivized and honest players. In bitcoin whitepaper, the word “honest” was written fifteen times which pretty much emphasizes the importance of honesty in blockchains. So, if a miner or a major player isn’t honest to the platform, nothing can make that network secure.

Not all of the blockchains pass the prerequisites of becoming a suitable platform for IoT solutions. Today we’re going to understand how to differentiate a suitable blockchain in the remainder.

How to Use Blockchain with IoT

A blockchain is a single distributed database (ledger) where data won’t be altered or lost. Now the main question is how to update this database? How do the transactions on Bitcoin work?

Transactions are a way of telling the network that you want to update the ledger. Generally, this update can be a request for actions like moving coins or inserting data.

Each transaction requires a minumum of one input signal as the sender unless it’s a Coinbase trade and one output signal as the receiver.

Whenever someone asks an upgrade about the ledger, he wants to supply the evidence because of 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.

Provided that the private key(s) are secure and not jeopardized, nobody may upgrade the ledger on behalf of the sender (whoever owns UTXOs).

Together with the first version of Bitcoin, the trades can also transmit data, this information can be anything that has any directions. (Now you find some constraints about the BTC network seeing injecting data to the ledger.)
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Scenario One:

We’ve got apparatus A and B without an immediate connection, or via a particular server. Item A is a motion detection device. Whenever it finds any action, it logs and encrypts case in a trade and sends it into the community.

If device A does not find anything in five seconds, it generates an”OK” trade and sends it into the community.

On the opposite region of the town, device B is currently tracking the system (without a immediate link to the apparatus B). Device B is ready to take some action in accordance with the following scenarios:

• Device B captures a transaction with the address of Device A as the sender, including the status of “OK.” As a result, it resets the timer to zero and does nothing.
• Device B detects a transaction with the status of the warning. It will make an automatic call to the Police station with a proper message.
• The timer on Device B passes five minutes with no transaction from Device A. Accordingly, Device B will make an automatic call to the Police station with a proper message.

Within this scenario, there’s not any way to fake Apparatus A via an adversary unless he puts his hands on the keys. Additionally, there’s absolutely no method to discover some other server involved with the procedure or some other connection between A and B.

Scenario Two:

Another very simple example is having two puppies in the yard and feeding them one by one. As an instance, you would like to feed them just in times that among these is at the lawn, and another person is resting.

You consider it and learn how we can handle two puppies using GPS devices and meals gates which take actions in line with the GPS information within the trades into the community.

The above mentioned instances were just cases to grasp the idea of IoT about the blockchain better.

When you consider the keywords, you can imagine thousands of different chances for creating complicated calculations.

Be aware that In Bitcoin you’ll have 2^256 (the true number is a little reduced ) addresses. Each speech can signify a device without needing a public IP.

The transactions cost less than $0.002. By employing payment stations this sum will reduce even more considering that the trades moved between parties.
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Conclusion

Most of what you hear about blockchain technology is just hype but using blockchain technology improves security, transparency, and availability. Also, it lowers the cost of running projects.

At the moment of writing this article, the original Bitcoin is the best candidate for IoT solutions. It has all the elements an IoT solution requires.