Blockchain Technology is Good News for the “Internet of Things”
The invention of blockchain technology mirrors the invention of the Internet in many ways. When the internet was first available on a commercial scale, industries raced to discover new ways that they could use this exciting new technology to improve their service offerings and get ahead of their competitors.
New industries emerged on the backbone of the internet, and startups used widespread access to the world wide web as a key ingredient in creating some of the most disruptive products and services of the 21st century.
Now, with blockchain technology reaching its own epoch of commercial availability, the tech world has found itself in a similar situation once again.
This is why blockchain technology is often referred to as the ‘second internet,’ since it provides a new array of tools for developers to use to create services that were not technologically possible as early as just a few years ago.
How Blockchain Technology relates to the Internet
The way that blockchain technology relates to the internet is deeply rooted in how the tech actually functions. Blockchain technology works through a public ledger system where all interactions are recorded and verified by their relation to the rest of the information stored within the ledger.
Blockchain exists as a sort of ‘equalizer,’ since no single party has more power over a decentralized public ledger than any of their peers.
If you think back to what many praised about the invention of the internet, you can see many similarities to what blockchain is being praised for today.
The internet was believed by many enthusiasts to be an equalizer of its own, as it would promote the free exchange of ideas where no one person’s voice was louder than anyone else’s.
Ultimately, your opinion on whether or not the internet has succeeded in being a ‘free exchange of ideas’ is subjective, but the internet does rely on intermediaries in order to allow us to connect to each other and our devices.
Your interaction with the internet relies on your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and ISPs are mandated by the government. Furthermore, with threats to Net Neutrality, the internet is at risk of becoming even less decentralized.
Blockchain Technology and the Internet of Things (IoT)
This is where the concept of the IoT, or the “Internet of Things“, benefits from the existence of blockchain technology. Since blockchain provides many opportunities for systems to run in a decentralized way that was simply not possible a few years ago, the internet can utilize blockchain as a method of becoming truly decentralized.
If we consider DApps (Decentralized Applications) for example, we can see a perfect case study of how the Internet of Things goes hand-in-hand with the concept of decentralized blockchain applications. DApps are applications that are not under the control of any single governing body, instead they are regulated by their users.
The Internet of Things (IoT) means that we are increasingly living in a world where everything is connected to the internet, and most of the technology around us that we interact with in our day-to-day lives is linked through a global network.
In the world today, this network has many intermediaries (or “middlemen”) that could be circumvented altogether by implementing solutions that utilize blockchain technology.
Instead of living in a world where everyone connects to the same stream of information, we can instead use blockchain technology to live in a world where we connect directly to each other and the services we choose to use.
Develop a DApp for your Business
Looking to create a blockchain solution for your business or organization?
eXeBlock Technology Inc. is a Canadian company that designs custom, state-of-the-art blockchain based software applications that provide profitable, secure and efficient solutions to businesses and markets globally. Reach out to us today to schedule a consultation.