Combining blockchain and IoT technologies may strengthen security. It allows conducting data transmissions from one device to another, avoiding interactions between humans and computers.
Blockchain technology is being used in many and different fields around the world, from Medicine to agriculture, transactions and even cars or food production.
The Internet of Things (IoT) industry is an example of this. Those objects that use the Internet to run an action are taking advantage of the benefits that blockchain technology offers.
Increased security and trust in shared multiparty transactions are the top benefits when the companies combine blockchain and IoT technologies.
In this sense, Avivah Litan, an IT industry analyst, conducted a survey to study and find more about the adoption of blockchain technology in the IoT industry.
Avivah said that “75 percent of the IoT technology adopters in the United States have already adopted blockchain or are planning to adopt it by the end of 2020 out of more than 500 US companies”. That is a way to predict the union of both technologies.
This is according to the survey’s result. Almost 63 percent of the survey respondents said that combining blockchain and IoT technologies strengthens security, while 56 percent said the top benefit is an increase in business efficiency and lower costs.
According to Litan, of the 75 percent of blockchain adopters, 86 percent are implementing both IoT and blockchain in different projects.
How Does It Work?
The study indicated that blockchain technology can create a trusted environment or platform for data transmissions between virtual networks or devices whilst increasing the efficiency of those changes.
The intention of IoT companies is to integrate computing devices with digital and mechanical machines in order to avoid, this way, human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction so these devices could work in a faster way and help save time.
Apple Watch and Amazon Alexa are companies that use this type of technology in consumer goods. They are a current example of the uses that blockchain technology can carry out.
But definitely, increased security and trust in shared multiparty transactions are the top benefits when the companies combine blockchain and IoT technologies. The majority of respondents said the top benefit is an increase in business efficiency and lower costs. This is what they consider as the most important characteristic.
However, Litan said that blockchain technology implementations related to protocol changes could be difficult for long-lived IoT devices due to its relatively high volatility. This is one of the aspects they should evaluate.
“Some blockchain implementations struggle to scale to the transaction rates that can be generated by large numbers of connected things”, Litan commented. The idea will be to support these operations in a safe platform.
The company expects what it considers the necessary evolution in both blockchain technology and the Internet of Things technology to “mature” in five to 10 years so the use of blockchain technology in IoT firms could be every day more present in the evolution of that dynamic industry.
By María Rodríguez
