The advancement of new technology has taken a huge leap in the last few decades. It is bringing a drastic change in each step of human life that is capable of performing intelligent tasks. We are witnessing the dawn of a new era of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain technology. 

What is IoT?

IoT will increase the ubiquity of the Internet by integrating every object for interaction via embedded systems. It leads to a highly distributed network of devices communicating with human beings as well as other devices.

The IoT is in the sensors that make people live in smart cities and smart houses. But now there is a catch, as the tech giants are integrating it with totally different technology, Blockchain. Although Blockchain gained popularity through its application in Bitcoins; soon we are going to see the application of Blockchain technology in many other industries. 

Soon it will become a necessary part of our daily routine. The internet of things and blockchain are disruptive technologies that have received huge attention from industry, academic and financial technologies. 

How Blockchain will increase the credibility of IoT?

There is a risk of sensitive information leakage in the centralized IoT system because the centralized servers can access the plain text data from the IoT devices. There is an extensive interest in applying the blockchain in the IoT system to provide user privacy using a decentralised data storage model.

Blockchain technology is a unique database for digital transactions. Every block contains a record of new transactions. When the block is full, it is added to a chain of other block of transactions; hence the name “blockchain”. 

This information is publicly viewable on an explorer. Each transaction is approved or rejected by a network of computers (called miners). The blockchain is considered immutable (meaning unchanging) because, in order to alter a block, all previous blocks would have to also be altered.

Now the question is, how are we ever going to see this totally different technology with Internet of Things. 

IoT with Blockchain: The Future

So basically, IoT devices are distributed systems that connect various smart devices also called nodes. These nodes interact with each other, which means they share information. Here enters Blockchain, because it empowers IoT devices to create a distributed ledger of information. 

Though all smart devices have knowledge of all operations happening across the house and can perform various tasks; no single smart device holds all the information. This virtually makes the IoT network a very robust, secure and efficient system.

Here are two major shifts that blockchain will bring to IoT (Internet of Things): 

• A database of all sets of activities ever performed by every user; user-wise and appliance-wise. It will be in the form of an immutable blockchain network.

• There will be a universal protocol working as a backbone at the back-end of every home automation solution.

Simply put, these above points basically stand for ‘common protocols’ leading to ‘better security’. Right now, the home automation industry has no universal protocol to follow. The main reason for this is the plethora of technologies and communication protocols available that give the same kind of end-user experience.

The maintenance cost becomes very high due to parallel usage of different automation technologies. Also, seamless communication isn’t possible right now between two different kinds of automation solutions. Therefore, to solve these problems, we can introduce blockchain technology here.

We are optimistic about the integration of blockchain in the IoT ecosystem. However, we will still have to see how the trend spans out. 

So, what do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.