Blockchain and IoT: How trusted and distributed data is empowering IoT

When people hear the word “blockchain,” they typically associate it with cryptocurrency. Those are the digital coins or tokens you likely hear about on a near-daily basis, such as Bitcoin, Etherium, and yes, even the new Dogecoin.
 

Those digital tokens and coins are simple applications that use blockchain for transaction history. When you sell, buy, or trade such digital currencies, a public record is added to a digital ledger, which records the transaction.
 

And at its most primary level, that’s what blockchain technology is, a database of stored information. But that database is different from all others because it’s completely distributed. There’s no principal database server. Instead, the data is replicated as a peer-to-peer chain, list, or transactional block across the internet.
Also, according to a recent Gartner study, blockchain technology will be adding $3.1 trillion in business value by 2030.
 

What is the Internet of Things?

IoT, Internet of Things, is a network of physical devices, home appliances, vehicles, and other items embedded with electronics, software, actuators, sensors, and connectivity that facilitates these objects to connect and transfer data with each other. Each “object” is uniquely identifiable through an embedded computing system but can interoperate with the existing Internet structure.

A few examples of IoT applications include smart home devices like the Amazon Echo, Wearables like fitness trackers and Smartwatches, Patient tracking in healthcare, self-driving cars, and thousands of connected devices in agriculture, manufacturing, and asset tracking that help industries operate more efficiently.

Also Read:- How IoT May Impact Your Mobile App Development

Blockchain Intensifies the Capabilities of IoT

IoT devices in the market are growing exponentially, yet they often lack the authentication standards to keep data secured. This possesses an issue for data-heavy industries like healthcare and logistics, which rely on scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure.

Blockchain helps fulfill this security need by-

(1) Defining the process that injects new data into the network, and 

(2) Providing assurances that the data is authentic

The way data flows from sensors to installed processors can change the way critical infrastructure is managed, so the process needs to be well-defined, and adding blockchain solves this issue. The result is a more reliable, scalable, and secure IoT infrastructure.

Perhaps the most crucial benefit of the blockchain in IoT is securing data from being jeopardized. As more IoT devices are added to an ecosystem, it also increases the vulnerable entry points. 

In a traditional IoT system, a security leak or breach could obstruct the supply chain and the community as a whole. By computing blockchain technology, it helps isolate these attacks, making IoT more secure against wide-scale data compromises. 

Using blockchain solves many common security and assurance challenges within the IoT system place:

• Blockchain is used to track and log sensor data measurements while preventing illegal duplication of malicious data.
• IoT device authentication, identification, and data transfer are n seamless within a distributed ledger architecture.
• IoT devices can exchange data through a trusted and secure blockchain rather than a third-party governing entity.
• IoT devices are protected from data tamper due to blockchain’s indigenous cryptographic methods.
• Immediate deployment and operation costs of IoT devices are reduced through blockchain since there is no intermediary.
• IoT devices are instantly addressable within the blockchain, implementing a history of connected devices and their data for troubleshooting and analytics purposes.

In addition to security benefits, blockchain also improves cost-efficiency in a system. Blockchain technology enables device autonomy and removes technical bottlenecks and inefficiencies without needing much or no human intervention.

The applications of blockchain in IoT are limitless. 

They disrupt existing processes across various industries, including the financial sector, shipping, trading, healthcare, manufacturing, automotive, industrial, agricultural, and building automation.
 

Conclusion

Without a doubt, IoT and Blockchain represent the most significant technological disruption since the integration of computing and transaction processing systems. The applications of the two technologies would be so impactful to our society that it would be hard to imagine a future without IoT and Blockchain being heavily integrated into our daily lives. 
 

Oodles Technologies provides resilient blockchain app development solutions that improve security, increase scalability, and establish trusted and transparent processes.
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