This blockchain platform is trying to solve the issue of distrust in Internet of Things (IoT) by enabling a borderless ecosystem, where humans-machines interaction is trustworthy.
With the help of IoT, smart devices have become a significant part of our daily lives. They operate in our businesses, homes, and cities. Whether it is a homeowner using a security camera for protection, a farmer using a drone for crop monitoring, or athletes using wearable health monitors, IoT is impacting everyone and everything.
According to Zinnov, IoT investments in India were close to US$ 5 billion in 2019 and are expected to triple touching US$ 15 billion this year both across technology products and services components.
However, as IoT helps connect our lives in unprecedented ways, it also opens an exposing hallway into our private worlds. According to Kaspersky, January to June in 2021 itself has seen 1.51 billion IoT breaches, most through telnet remote access protocol.
For the past decade, corporations and governments have also been accused of tracking people and monitoring, manipulating, and using their data for their own gain.
IoTeX, a decentralized, scalable, and EVM-compatible blockchain network for real world dApps and digital assets is trying to solve this issue of distrust by enabling a borderless ecosystem, where human-machine interaction is trustworthy and respects privacy.
The Tech Panda spoke to Larry Pang, Head of Ecosystem at IoTeX, to find out how they are making this happen.
Larry Pang
We visualize a future where users, and not institutions, are in control of their devices and data. We call this vision the Internet of Trusted Things
“We visualize a future where users, and not institutions, are in control of their devices and data. We call this vision the Internet of Trusted Things,” he says.
IOTX, the native token on IoTeX, has numerous on-platform utilities that facilitate trusted and transparent interactions between various stakeholders, and the platform has been honoured with several industry awards for the same.
“IoTeX not only addresses the shortfalls IoT has in security, privacy, and interoperability but also empowers users to capture data from their devices and utilize it in next-gen DApps on the IoTeX platform,” he adds.
The IoTex Philosophy
IoTeX was founded with the aim to ensure people and businesses own and control their devices, as well as the data they produce. It is a decentralised ecosystem, where humans machine interactions have guaranteed security and trust.
The IoTeX platform converts traditional Internet of Things (IoT) data and makes it adaptable for the Web3 ecosystem.
“The main goal is to ensure that users have control over their own data and generate value in a secure way. The transformation called “The Internet of Trusted Things” is what IoTeX is bringing to our future,” says Pang.
The main goal is to ensure that users have control over their own data and generate value in a secure way. The transformation called “The Internet of Trusted Things” is what IoTeX is bringing to our future
The IoT technology sector has matured significantly and is establishing itself as a part of the future Internet. Having billions of devices deployed comes with the challenge of managing them. Although there are several management technologies that exist in IoT, they have a technical limitation of security and verifiability.
IoTeX has solved this problem by creating a hardware device that outputs tamper-proof live data. In the case of supply chain management, this use of blockchain provides more efficiency, trust, and safety for the products being tracked.
“IoT and blockchain technology individually have the power to revolutionize the world, but their integration opens the door for new possibilities that intrinsically minimise inefficiencies, improve transparency, and enhance security, all while enabling secure machine to machine transactions,” he explains.
To further democratise IoT generated data with blockchain technology, the company has also launched thier first-ever India focused IoTeX Hackathon India 2021 with Lumos Labs, a tech innovation management firm that further facilitated the entry of IoTex into the Indian developer community.
“We have witnessed India progress in the blockchain and other technology sectors and want to encourage the impressive developer ecosystem here through our IoTeX platform. Over 1,290 teams have registered. Indian teams are excited to join in on the IoT tech revolution,” he adds.
What They Do
The IoTex platform is a highly scalable, decentralised solution built on four prime features:
- Roll-Delegated-Proof-of Stake (Roll-DPoS) consensus
- Edge-trusted computing
- Layer 2 chain service
- Cross-network interoperability
They have successfully launched many projects and secure hardware devices, like their award-winning UCam, a blockchain-based home security camera, and the Pebble Tracker, a multi-sensor, tamper-proof asset tracker, for verifiable supply chain data.
IoT and blockchain technology individually have the power to revolutionize the world, but their integration opens the door for new possibilities that intrinsically minimise inefficiencies, improve transparency, and enhance security, all while enabling secure machine to machine transactions
Some of their services include ioTube, a decentralised cross-chain bridge allowing the bidirectional exchange of cryptocurrencies and the data between IoTeX and other blockchain networks, and ioPay, a wallet to manage your IOTX and assets on IoTeX blockchain.
They also have DApps on their platform namely, Cyclone, a privacy-focused protocol that obfuscates IoTeX tokens/transactions history using no-knowledge proofs, and mimo, a fast, cheap and secure DeFi protocol powered by IoTeX blockchain technology.
All of these products are only a slice of IoTeX’s growing ecosystem.
IoTeX is also opening up into the space of NFTs and DeFi. For instance, their new NFT game StarCrazy has already seen great success in beta testing with an official launch on September 27.
It is built on the IoTeX blockchain, where users can purchase, trade, and mine NFTs complemented with gaming experience. IoTeX is an ideal blockchain for gaming due to its incredibly low fees and quick transactions.
The Indian market & IoT
According to Statista, the number of IoT connected devices in India is expected to reach over two billion by 2021, with an even stronger growth rate likely in the future. As this market has a huge number of IoT users, it is a breeding ground for security and data loopholes lying within.
For this reason, the Indian market holds significance for IoTex, says Pang.
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“We look forward to bringing our vision of trusted IoT to the Indian market as we work to prevent and solve these security threats. Additionally, the Indian market consists of a considerable number of innovators and developers capable of revolutionizing the IoT and blockchain space,” he says.
“With this vision, our IoTeX Hackathon India is primarily focused on the Indian developers to bring out ground-breaking solutions for real-world IoT data. The developers will have a chance to win up to US$16,000 in prizes with this opportunity,” he adds.
Growth Story
The IoTeX mainnet has been running glitch-free and is operated by more than 100 decentralised delegates, including CoinGecko, DraperDragon, and Blockfolio. They have a global community of more than 100,000 people across 100 countries united with the common vision of building a connected world.
“Our aim is reflected in our consistent offerings to enable people and organisations to operate and own their devices. With both hardware and DApp solutions already running live on IoTeX, we have seen many successful projects so far,” Pang says proudly.
Our aim is reflected in our consistent offerings to enable people and organisations to operate and own their devices
The new NFT game, StarCrazy, has already been built and launched on IoTeX and has seen massive success so far.
“There is so much potential for IoTeX in the NFT gaming space given its extremely cheap and fast transactions. StarCrazy sets the precedent for many other games that can be launched on IoTeX, this is only the start,” he adds.
Future Plans
IoTex is now planning to expand their global community and upgrade their protocol for better evolution, market recognition, and adoption. Pang says they will also prioritize hyper-growth of the IoTeX Network by strategically onboarding partners and communities and enriching their user-facing tools for seamless onboarding to IoTeX.
“The IoTeX brand will become synonymous with quality, innovation, and trust,” he predicts with confidence.
The IoTeX brand will become synonymous with quality, innovation, and trust
“IoTeX already holds the reputation of being a one-of-a-kind and reliable blockchain across the globe, empowering a diverse IoT blockchain ecosystem. But we are still early on our journey. We have an ambitious roadmap for the future to bring us closer than ever to powering billions of devices,” he further adds.
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Their next steps are to enable privacy-protecting DApps that leverage the trusted data and trusted devices powered by IoTeX. These will eventually form diverse human-machine economies and create new decentralised that are trusted.
“Our goal is to build our ecosystem of builders and contributors that will bring great network effects to IoTeX. We are starting this process by launching our IoTeX Hackathon India 2021 to disrupt the world of data monopoly by creating innovative solutions using the IoTeX framework.
Through this hackathon and our future initiatives, we will make a blockchain-powered IoT ecosystem. Built on the IoTeX platform, this is the future of the IoT,” he concludes.
