BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY MEETS THE INTERNET OF THINGPosted by Enrg Tech on December 19th, 2019 The Internet of Things (IoT)The Internet of Things represents one of the most disruptive technologies of the century. It has profoundly changed how we relate to the environment around us. With a network of low-cost sensors and interconnected things, we are able to collect a lot of data. This data can be used to improve efficiencies and to deliver advanced services in a wide range of application domains including smart city and health care. IoT has continued to create new opportunities and provide a competitive advantage for businesses in current and emerging markets. The challenges facing IoTThere are a couple of challenges currently facing IoT chief of which are security and privacy. IoT is centered on the generation and analysis of data over the internet. Embedded in this data is information that can be used to algorithmically construct a virtual biography of our activities that reveal lifestyle patterns and private behavior as well. First generation IoT products lack fundamental security safeguards posing a huge security risk. There are also several other features of IoT that make it susceptible to intrusion, they include
Blockchain technology and IoTThe blockchain is the main technology behind Bitcoin. It is an inflexible public record of data secured by a network of peer-to-peer participants. The blockchain is made up of blocks chained together as a ledger. There are many nodes in the peer-to-peer network and any one of them can choose to be a miner. A miner is responsible for mining blocks to Blockchain by solving the resource-intensive cryptographic puzzle, the Proof Of Work and adding a new block to Blockchain. Whenever there is an occurrence of a new transaction, it is broadcast to the entire network. Miners then receive the transaction and then verify it by validating the signatures contained within this transaction. Each miner then adds the verified transaction to its own pending block of transaction that is awaiting mining. Blockchain’s robustness stems from the fact that a single transaction is processed by multiple miners. The following features of Blockchain make it an attractive technology for addressing security and Privacy challenges facing IoT
Challenges of incorporating Block chain into IoTDespite Blockchain being very beneficial to IoT, its adoption is not straightforward. There are challenges that will first need to be addressed before this is possible,
There are currently several attempts to overcome these challenges. It’s just a matter of time before the two giant technologies are seamlessly joined together to come with a formidable IoT platform. Like it? Share it!More by this author |