The IoT Explosion and Blockchain Discussed on CoinGeek Roundtable Episode 6

by Arthur · May 1, 2023

It seems that the world is in the middle of an explosion – a metaphorical explosion, of course, which was the main topic of discussion in the last part of the CoinGeek Roundtable. In the show’s sixth episode, Becky Liggero and industry experts tackled the ongoing Internet of Things (IoT) boom and what it meant for the future.

The expert panel

Joining Liggero for the lively discussion were three leaders in IoT and blockchain technology. First was Sebastian Grabowski from Orange Business Services, an expert not only in IoT, but in smart cities and advanced enterprise architectures.

Part of the panel was also Stephan Nilsson, CEO and co-founder of UNISOT. Nilsson’s company is aimed at building supply chain solutions and focuses on supply chain traceability and sustainability.

Alessio Pagani rounds off the panel. He is the Research Director of nChain, a blockchain research and development powerhouse with thousands of patents to its name.

“It’s a market that’s exploding”

In its simplest sense, IoT refers to pieces of technology or “things” that can communicate and exchange data via the Internet. This includes an almost incomprehensible amount of hardware worldwide, even now, as the industry is still relatively young.

Asked what we can expect to see in five or ten years, Pagani compared the industry’s movement to an explosion.

“All the devices are expanding and this is a market that is exploding,” he said, adding that there will be an expected 30 to 40 billion IoT devices by 2025. “This number is doubling like almost every two years. This is something we don’t can ignore, and this is a market we need to move to Web3.”

Grabowski believes that estimate may even be on the low end since there is a tendency for smart devices to be lumped together and considered as just one system.

“I think it’s hard to even estimate how much it is at the moment and how much it’s going to be in the very near future. Billions. Trillions,” Grabowski explained.

And when blockchain and IPv6 are added to the mix, Nilsson believes there’s even more incentive to put IoT devices in even more places, driving the estimates up.

IoT, blockchain and supply chain

One question from the audience during the live stream was about blockchain and how it can help with the security and privacy of IoT devices.

Pagani, representing a company whose bread and butter is blockchain, explained that they typically define security using the CIA triad of confidentiality, integrity and availability.

“Blockchain already covers, by default, availability and integrity of data because it is an immutable ledger and transparent ledger,” he said. He then went on to explain that although confidentiality is a bit more complicated, there are some cryptographic techniques that allow data to be stored and encrypted.

Another viewer asked how IoT can be used in the supply chain. Nilsson replied that there are definitely many initiatives dealing with various blockchains, IoT and supply chains. But with the multitude of options available, getting things to work is not an easy task.

“The problem I see there is that most companies are trying to use private blockchains,” Nilsson said, explaining that these aren’t really blockchains, but rather replicated databases. “It doesn’t work. So that’s the difference here, you have to connect a supply chain. You have to use a public blockchain.”

“A Really, Really Big Revolution”

Of course, when people talk about blockchain, talk of payment is usually not far behind. However, not all blockchains are created equal, and certainly not all are capable of handling what many are calling the future of payments: micropayments.

On their own, IoT devices can neither receive nor send payments. But add blockchain to the mix and you enable new aspects of these devices that weren’t possible otherwise. An example given by Pagani is installing a large device in a location where millions of people may need the information the device contains.

“Everybody pays a cent of a cent, so it’s nothing for you, but for the company that supplies these units, it’s a new business model,” Pagani said. “Of course, to do that, you need a blockchain like BSV that allows micropayments. It’s very convenient, it’s cheap, it’s fast, and this is like a technique to create new business cases.”

Grabowski, on the other hand, describes micropayments as a “really, really big revolution” in the market. He says that normally when you have companies that own devices or censors, they sell the data collected to the government or another private company. Blockchain simplifies the entire process and provides access to multiple parties.

“A big problem with most supply chains today is that they’re only made for the biggest companies,” Nilsson chimed in. “But by using the BSV Blockchain which is very scalable and very cost effective, it actually allows us to involve the small players at the edge of a supply chain and buy it.”

In this way, Nilsson said, even small fishermen and farmers have an incentive to collect data, an initiative he called “gamifying data collection.”

To regulate or not to regulate?

So where does government fit in regarding the future of IoT and blockchain? Should they have a hand in the regulation of these industries, or should they stay away?

Grabowski’s answer to this question was a simple “I don’t know.” After all, he explained, the situation now is far different than five or 20 years ago. Times have changed, but it is not necessarily more obvious when it comes to determining whether state or private companies are in control.

In the meantime, Nilsson asks the government to stay away and do as little as possible.

“The blockchain was created by Satoshi Nakamoto, and it was actually created as a system that was completely legal, in compliance with all international laws,” Nilsson conveyed. “So we already have all the laws needed to run blockchain and use blockchains. We don’t need any new laws for that.”

Apart from the above topics, the CoinGeek Roundtable also touched on 5G, IPv6 integration and many more.

Check out the previous Roundtable videos on CoinGeek’s YouTube channel.

See: CoinGeek Roundtable with Joshua Henslee on AI, ChatGPT and Blockchain

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