If you’re not already familiar with blockchain, there’s a good chance that you soon will be. The emergence of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is based on blockchain technology, a distributed public database that can maintain a growing list of transaction records, while still being protected against tampering and revision. The world’s leading banks have already invested in it and there are now some suggesting that it could be a key factor in unlocking the potential of an ‘Internet of Things’.
One of the most commonly cited concerns relating to the Internet of Things (IoT) is security. According to Cisco, 50 billion devices will be online within the next five years and considering the highly publicised online services data breaches that frequently happen in today’s market, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that users are apprehensive.
Blockchain might be the technological innovation that can solve that issue. Information Age reports that IBM and Samsung have already started the development of “Autonomous Decentralised Peer-To-Peer Telemetry (ADEPT), an IoT system that used blockchain at its core. In theory, it should make the system both reliable and secure, while a distributed database eliminates the danger of single points of failure.
Of course, there are still significant barriers to overcome. Blockchain technology is distributed, which means that rather than relying on a few very large servers, it is powered by a very large network of servers. Maintaining balance in that ecosystem is a challenge, it also consumes significant electricity. It has been estimated that the Bitcoin network consumes 210MW of electricity, the equivalent of 173,000 US households’ daily.
The future for blockchain has not yet been fully determined. However, there is a growing potential among leading businesses and banks that the technology will have an important role to play in the future of the global economy.
Source: Could blockchain power the Internet of Things?
Lead image licensed under CC: credit Flickr user Norlando Pobre
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