Fitness collars for dogs, connected rectal thermometers, even smart toasters; there are some of the regular things that are connected to the web to constitute the Internet of Things (IoT). However, if you want to look at it in a broader sense, though the Internet of Things includes everything we connect to the web, the term has over time been used in describing things that interact with each other.
First, What is IoT?
The Internet of Things is basically comprised of devices – from wearables to smartphones and even simple sensors – that have some form of connectivity.
Using automated systems to combine these connected devices, it becomes possible to collate data, analyze it, and develop executable actions, all of which is aimed at assisting individuals with specific tasks or to acquire knowledge from different processes.
With cloud-based architecture and platforms, there’s now a medium for connecting the virtual world to the real world. These platforms can assist companies in managing the security and connectivity of IoT devices. Also, these companies can develop and run IoT applications, guarantee IoT interoperability, link devices to their backend systems, and collect device data.
Now, this is where the Blockchain technology and decentralization come in!
Introducing Blockchain to IoT
With a homogenous peer-to-peer interaction model in processing the tons of transactions between devices, there becomes a reduction in the costs of maintaining and installing huge centralized data centers. Plus, it will also be able to distribute storage, and computation needs to the hundreds of billions of devices that make up the IoT network.
This functionality can prevent the entire network from the collapse just because of the failure of a single node in the network.
The idea of blockchain is also directly integrated into IoT networks to fix the issue of scalability. Hence, billions of devices can share the same network without requiring extra or external resources.
Decentralized IoT also provides a standard where everyone gets equal benefits and stakes. As a result, it addresses the problem of conflict of right between numerous merchants. And on top of that, it also helps in unlocking Merchant-to-Merchant communication which previous models were lacking, and it allows for the introduction of innovative and modern use cases of the IoT.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.