Could Blockchain Power the Internet of Things?
Blockchain has been
the technology behind the rise of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin,
but could it also play a vital role in the Internet of Things?
Posted
by Ben Rossi http://www.information-age.com/
on
8 October 2015
rocessing IoT instructions in a distributed fashion could solve
both of its looming challenges: reliability and privacy’
One of the most
disruptive technologies in computer science today is not a sexy smartwatch, a
high-resolution screen or a driverless car – it’s a distributed public database
that maintains a growing list of transactional records, protected against
tampering or revision.
Cryptocurrencies like
Bitcoin and Dogecoin have blockchain to thank for their rise in prominence. By
building a decentralised ledger that allows legions of globally networked
computers to act as a sequential spreadsheet of transactions, blockchain has
kick started a revolution in banking and business.
Most talk of
blockchain in the context of these new currencies, but an interesting movement
is afoot which will see the concept applied far more widely – and its first
task may be supporting the very fabric of the Internet Of Things.
Devices
under pressure
According to Cisco, 50
billion devices are due to come online by 2020. With so many connected gadgets
all sending, receiving and processing instructions to turn on, dial down and
move up, the sheer amount of data due to come on-stream could come with huge costs.
Servers that will
handle the data produced not just by users but by homes and workplaces may
buckle under the extra load.
And consumers already
spooked by recent online services data breaches will be even more concerned about
theft of their domestic or bodily data – but continuing to use conventional
server architecture will do little to soothe their worries.
An answer may be in
sight. Just as it has powered a currency revolution, blockchain could also be
used to process the rapidly growing amounts of data being generated by
internet-connected devices.
This isn’t just a
theory. IBM and Samsung have already started to develop Autonomous
Decentralised Peer-To-Peer Telemetry (ADEPT), an Internet Of Things system that
uses a universal blockchain as its backbone, so that all connected devices can
broadcast instructions to each other. And the system even has its own currency,
Ether, which devices use to purchase units of computing power that make them
tick.
Processing IoT
instructions in a distributed fashion could seemingly solve both of its looming
challenges: reliability and privacy.
Spreading the
processing load across nodes would eliminate single points of failure, creating
a more resilient ecosystem for devices to run on.
And although
blockchain ledgers are public, they are highly fortified using cryptographic
algorithms. On a blockchain-powered Internet Of Things, consumer data would be
more private.
The
true cost
But, whilst the dream
is exciting, the execution may not be so dreamy.
Powering the Internet
Of Things by blockchain will make for a powerful problem – one that could even
harm the environment. Because distributed, blockchain processing works by
computers (known as miners) solving cryptographic puzzles over and over again,
it is many times more processor-intensive than that carried out on conventional
servers – and that is going to require a lot more electricity to power
everything.
To
foretell that future, look to Bitcoin today. Vice’s Motherboard estimates that the
Bitcoin network consumes 210MW in power, the equivalent of 173,000 US
households’ daily electricity usage, with each Bitcoin transaction gobbling up
the same power 1.57 homes do in a whole day.
Whilst
decentralisation provides many benefits, the largest issue with it is that it
creates inefficiency. Reproducing the same transaction across a network of
devices clearly has benefits but is incredibly wasteful.
When read about
decentralisation, the utopian vision is that of a world where all devices
contribute small amounts of mining power to the network and everything from
your watch to your toaster are processing transactions on a micro scale.
The economics of this
strategy seem somewhat flawed – the efficiency of any miner built on a small
scale will inevitably be inferior to large scale miners that are built to
harness economies of scale and are placed in geographies where power is
plentiful and cost effective.
This is exactly what
has happened as the Bitcoin network has flourished, the ‘garage miners’ that
were the first peers on the network have largely made way for industrial-scale,
professionally run mining factories in places like Iceland.
These miners have
created some centralisation in an otherwise decentralised system. Ultimately
the market has gravitated towards efficiency.
Suddenly, moving the
instructions for a thermostat, smart lock or factory floor monitor into a
blockchain network that is truly distributed doesn’t seem so attractive – at
least, not if you care about the environment and about the cost of the power
you will need.
These
costs are just the start. According to Allied Control, a
manufacturer of server cooling systems, “The global power required for
mining-devices has grown 147 times in the past year alone. Cooling energy, the
power required to keep mining devices and mining farms cool, is estimated to
account for an additional 30-50% on power consumption globally.”
>See
also: From ballot box to Bitcoin: how Blockchain technology
could revolutionise age-old paper voting
True, strides have
recently been made in blockchain efficiency – new miners are increasingly
choosing servers with more efficient, ASIC chips over conventional GPUs. But
all of the power saving is likely to be offset by increased demand. Clients
will find it hard to evade the increased power costs that will come with a
blockchain-powered Internet Of Things.
All this may at least
place at an advantage those large scale miners locating their servers in
geographies with plentiful access to naturally-sourced electricity – like
Norway, New Zealand and Iceland – whose services will naturally come cheaper
than others’.
But not all vendors
will embrace this opportunity. So, whilst the idea of blockchain easing the IoT
strain is appealing at first, when the rubber meets the road things are not so
palatable. That’s why the industry should think long and hard about the real cost
of efficiency before jumping into the connected-device future.
-
See more at:
http://www.information-age.com/technology/information-management/123460307/could-blockchain-power-internet-things#sthash.twhwxJHy.dpuf
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