Blockchain for IoT: A Big Idea Meets Hard Design Questions

Devices ranging from refrigerators to automobiles would not only collect and share data as part of the emerging internet of things, they would also be endowed with cryptocurrency wallets and unique, blockchain-based identities.

Recent conversations with specialists at the intersection of blockchain and IoT reveal disagreements about the best ways to build various parts of the so-called machine economy, suggesting that at a minimum, the next phase will be full of trial-and-error.

"These systems require the integration of a variety of not yet mature hardware and software components as well as cryptographic methods and security processes. There are many hard choices to be made for IoT devices, some of which will stay in the field for decades, some of which our lives may depend on."

On one end of the spectrum are high-value devices such as cars, with their abundance of computing power and battery life.

At each extreme, there is a unique set of difficult design questions that are now being confronted by those seeking to tie internet-connected devices to distributed ledgers.

Amir Haleem, CEO of Helium, which is building a decentralized network of wide-range wireless protocol gateways and a token to connect edge IoT devices, said adding complexity to end devices.

Haleem said it makes no sense for end devices, like sensors that track and monitor medicine or food supply chains, to actively participate in a blockchain because these have to be power-efficient and cheap in an IoT setting.

We move all the complexity up to the gateway, which is the device that creates the network coverage and acts as a node on the blockchain," he said.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise recognizes that the majority of data is generated at the edge of the IoT world and says the goal should be to enrich those end devices in terms of computing power.

Christian Reichenbach, a transformation consultant at HPE, argues that a proliferation of IoT devices capture so much data that some computation and analysis has to take place there to sort through it all.