Your fridge can check the weather. Your washing machine can text you. Your car can post on Twitter. It seems that more and more of the appliances, gadgets, and toys that surround us are coming online and connecting to the Internet. By welcoming the MIOTA token to the Metal Marketplace we aim to bridge our userbase to the growing Internet of Things (IoT) economy. As the native token of the IOTA network, MIOTA incentivizes machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and payments.
A growing collection of smart sensors in our natural environment is bridging the physical and digital worlds, from which large amounts of data can be generated – providing insight into the behavioral patterns of people. It is easy to imagine that these massive data caches will become very valuable to nefarious actors or profit-driven corporations. What if there was a way to secure big data across a decentralized network, while being able to safely monetize requests for the data owned by individuals? IOTA says they have the answer.
What is IOTA?
IOTA does not utilize a blockchain, but rather a different type of decentralized network called a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). This network architecture allows for massive scalability to handle high-throughput data and value transfers, while upholding the merits of decentralized consensus.
Increased Security Through Decentralization
Smart devices running on our current web architecture need to rely on centralized servers. This design creates central points of failure to alter or leak sensitive private information, as evidenced by recent hacks on the Nest ecosystem. In one particular account, hackers took over a couple’s Nest devices, raised the temperature to 90°, and were able to broadcast their voices and music over the Nest device-integrated speaker. In 2016, Princeton University discovered that Nest thermostats were quietly leaking user location data. Smart centralization is currently a pain point for smart devices. By running on a decentralized network, the IoT economy can become resistant to downtime and hacks. IOTA can bring our gadgets into a smarter decentralized future.
What is IOTA used for?
If there is a device that can connect to the Internet, chances are it could benefit from running on IOTA’s network. For example, IOTA has partnered with Jaguar Land Rover to integrate wallets into select models, allowing vehicles to earn money via micropayments in exchange for sharing vehicle-generated data as they are driven. Vehicles can also pay for tolls, parking, electric charging and more. Other potential uses can involve global supply chains or meteorology. Looking at global supply chains, over $4 trillion are lost yearly due to supply chain inefficiencies, which can potentially be cleaned up through the use of a web of interconnected smart sensors that would keep track of logistics. Additionally, the use of other sensor data would help to guarantee the quantity, quality, and status of a delivery.
Many types of devices can become IoT capable. For example, let’s assume there is a community of people in a given geographic area with smart weather sensors integrated into each of their homes. These devices are responsible for collecting every aspect of the weather – what if weather forecasters could better understand patterns and microclimates by gaining access to these user-generated data points? Everyone in this community could opt-in to sell weather data to the weather service, who would be willing to pay to improve their forecasting and weather reporting services. Data ownership, with the ability to monetize on-demand, could result in a form of Universal Basic Income (UBI). With UBI being such a hot button topic these days, it’s easy to see how a cryptocurrency offering a way for people to generate their own UBI could make waves.
More Information
We know that you might still have more questions about IOTA, which is why we’ll be posting more information about this cutting-edge cryptocurrency on our social media accounts this week. Additionally, you can check out the IOTA team’s website to see how they explain their creative cryptocurrency.
We hope you’re inspired to take a closer look at IOTA! Be on the lookout for more content about IOTA in the Discover section of the Metal Pay app, as well as on our social media accounts: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Steemit
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