Introduction
The advent of blockchain technology has opened up the landscape of possibilities for thrusting an economy of value built around security, control and decentralization. According to IDC forecast report, It is predicted that IoT devices will increase to about 30 billion smart devices by 2020. Therefore, there is a high possibility that in the near future; most activities including business transaction, personal chores and many more will ineveitably be dominated by robots and smart devices inorder to effectively automate most of the processes.
Therefore, there is need to have a secure, stable network that is built around this numerous devices inorder to ensure they communicate trustlessly with each other inorder to drive an internet of value. The present internet system offers us a glimpse into the way these devices are supposed to communicate with each other albeit they are being limited by factors we shall disuss shortly.
The Inherent Challenges that confront the growth of the IoT industry
While there is already a technology to connect smart devices to a pool of resources such as the internet offers; there is no underlying protocol to drive a peer-to-peer blending of these numerous IoT devices. Apart from this, other inherent issues that further corroborates the need for such application layer protocols are as follows
- Security and Privacy
Many hackers has being able to engineer big frauds and scam activity because they were able to gain access to users information due to the centralised nature of the internet and most especially the cloud servers where the data processing are hosted. This is largely due to a single point of failure which means that hackers can gain easy access to host of information once they are able to breach the security.
This is not possible in a decentralised structure like the blockchain since it offers no single point of control. This means that even if one node is confiscated by an hacker, the hacker will not be able to gain access to users funds since every nodes will disagree with the incoherent node. Therefore, strengthening the need to deploy the blockchain.
But the blockchain also comes with its own challenges as well and one of it is : slow speed of transaction due to large block of data production
Note: The need for a more secure framework becomes even more important when you think of how IoT smart devices will be integrated into many of the things we use : such as cars, health devices and many more in the near future!
- Latency due to Internet bandwidth Limitation
The present cloud infrastructure which supports the hosting of data created by IoT smart device is inevitably limited by the bandwidth of the network. Which means that connecting multiple device to such network at a time, slows down the network and ultimately reduce the response time.
- Manufacturer's barrier and lack of a standard model
There are over 14 Billion Smart devices according to IDC Intelligence report. However, the present system does not allow cross-communication of these numerous smart devices since they are largely limited by the manufacturer's software implementation leading to a lack of cross-industry, cross-manufacturer, cross-product category and ultimately lack of peer-to-peer communication protocol since all these devices only gets to share from a pool of resources as it being hosted by the internet or the cloud service as the case maybe.
Deploying a protocol that allows this smart devices to interact via smart contracts in a trustless, secure, peer-to-peer fashion will solve many of these underlying limitations.
That protocol is IONChain!!
What is IONChain
IONChain in simple terms is an underlying protocol that will allow different smart devices in this case IoTs to communicate barring the factors discussed above. This means that IONChain protocol will allow these smart devices to communicate in a peer-to-peer fashion without compromosing speed and security of the network.
This is made possible via the help of the decentralised nature of the blockchain and the benefits of edge computing; which is ability of these devices to be able to process data on their own. while the cloud only serve a complementary need when large task need to be computed.
Inorder to really understand how it manages to improve the speed of transaction, ensure a peer-to-peer device communication while integrating numerous IoT devices into the blockchain to drive a true Internet of Value. We have to look at the network composition and the technologies behind it.
Key Concepts and prerequisite technologies behind IONChain Protocol
Edge computing technology represents the core of solutions that IONChain is bringing to the fore via the deployment of smart devices within its blockchain protocol. Edge computing is a technical term to characterise a device that has the capability to compute his data locally with little or no dependence on external resources such as clouds.
This concept has being deployed already and we can see some live examples in most of our electronic gadget especially apple phones. However, at the crux of this technology, we will find out how it is killing competitions from primitive technology like the cloud. The features below further support this claims. However, this benefits are zoned out once the devices are taken on-grid, meaning they are made to interact with each other. And this is where the blockchain instead of the internet takes control inorder to guarantee users the security and privacy which is not totally attainable in a centralised network like the cloud or the internet.
The role and benefits of deploying this prerequisite technologies are outlined below
A Secure and Private Channel for data hosting
The edge computing technology deployed in the IONChain protocol will enable each device to possess the ability to compute and process its own data with no or less support from external infrastructures like the cloud or internet. However, In this present arrangement, security and privacy feature are compromised or lets say traded for a third party trust when they data is to be transfered. Henceforth the need to deploy a secure data transfer protocol of the blockchain as opposed to a centralised infrastructure like the internet or cloud.
Low Latency
As mentioned earlier, deploying multiple devices which depend on a single cloud resources can lead to low response time. Edge computing feature also helps to solve this problem when these devices are computing their data since they don't need to over-rely on the cloud or any other external support. While it is true that smart devices may suffer due to low computing power, IONChain has built in edge computing centers which act as intermediary device to boost their computing capabilities.
In a similar vein, when data is being transfered, the blockchain although has an inherently less speed of transaction. Hence, IONChain will deploy a protocol that seperates the storage and transaction of data by using the Inter Planetary File system(IPFS) and the BigChainDB to handle different classes of data
All Devices can serve as a mining Machine
The Edge computing feature also means that each devices act as a single unit of a large data mining economy since each connected devices has the capability to process its own data. This equally means that these devices generate incentives for computing data (one of the few benefits for device manufacturer).
Therefore users can get value by deploying their smart device on this platform,
IONChain : Building a protocol that supports these features
As mentioned in the last chapter, IONChain is combining different technology options to build an economy of value around smart devices, hence the need to build a protocol that supports this technology. Below is their approach to the two most important features of an economy based on value, namely: Value Creation & Value Transfer
Value creation
Each smart devices hosted on the IONChain platform will bear a unique IONChain identification code; which entails details such as the device manufacturer information, device identification and other related informations. Therefore a certain amount of IONC coins can be emmited can based on the amount of data mined via the Ionization Algorithm. In this simple way, value is created within the IONChain platform. Although the low computing power of this devices limits the amount of value that can be generated
Therefore , inorder to boost the value generated within the platform, IONChain utilizes a built in Edge computing centers which act as intermediary devices to boost the computing capabilities. And the amount of value generated is calculated by the IONChain protocol via utilizing the Data Quality proof and Time Lapse proof through the mining machine after being updated by the independent IoT devices.
In otherwords sharing this data can be initiated when these devices communicate via a customised IMQTT protocol. The defunct MQTT protocol initially developed by IBM for communication between IoT devices lacks the ability to transfer data. Therefore, IONChain made an adjustment to the original MQTT protocol inorder to accomodate effective value transfer.
Once these value is created, it needs to pass through this three(3) processes before it can be transfered, namely
- Value Verification
At this stage, Any inconsistent response from any node means that the value will be returned as invalid. However, if all node response are coherent, the value is passed down for evaluation
- Value Evaluation
Act to ensure there is no malicious attack to corrupt the authenticity of the value generated. Say for instance : double spending
- Value Confirmation
This stage prepares the verified value for transfer and ensures that it is duly recorded on the IONChain network.
Value Transfer
This is the part where every devices gets to communicate on different layers of the IONChain architecture and they are split into six (6) different layers including
Application layer, Service layer, Protocol layer, Smart contract layer, blockchain layer and data storage layer.
Below is a graphical representation of the technical description of each layer
Full Features and Benefit Derivable from deploying IONChain protocol for IoTs
- Secure and privacy rich platform
- Uniquely named devices
- Fast response time
- Reliable infrastructure
- Open data sharing platform
- Customised smart contracts to define choice of interaction. Either user-machine or machine-machine
- User-Control
- Peer-to-peer interactions
- An IONC utility coin serving various use case within the economy as outlined below
- Serve as compensation for smart contract computation and DApp deployment
- Reward miners
- Enabling users to be elected as IONChain council members
- Transaction fee settlements
- Rewards for connecting other ION nodes
Source : Whitepaper
In Conclusion
IONChain believes driving a true economy of value is possible in an ecosystem where it users can feel secure, conduct their transactions privately, make all their activities/processes fast and automated and yet still have control over what they do with their resources.
Personally, I share this belief and I am sure many people share this belief as well especially industries who want to automate most of their processes via the use of IoTs, enterprise who want to have access to the largest collection of data or even individuals and manufacturers who want to monetize their resources. This set of people I mentioned stands to gain immensely from a platform like IONChain.
Use Case
- A Planned neighbourhood
Jungle street is a popular community that has being noted for his high commercial and industrial activities. Lately, the number of visitors has increased making the few parking lots jampacked and leaving the community out of order. To solve their numerous challenges regarding movement of goods and people; the local council chief could liaise with company chief to provide adequate space for their customers.
In such instance, a company of such stature could do with a rented space if no land is available. Therefore a gate keeper can be employed to ensure people and goods comply with the rules demarcated by the intelligent devices employed to ensure the free flow of both entities. But the crux of the matter is that creating and replicating a globally accepted standard for such company can be hard and capital intensive. Therefore, deploying a platform like IONChain to create a single contract that gets implemented across the industry saves time, effort and money.
Now one(1) years down the line, and the city council has decided to change the name from Jungle street to charms city!
Coin Info
Roadmap
Meet the Team
Check this Links for more Info
- IONChain Website
- IONChain Bitcointalk
- IONChain Whitepaper
- IONChain Youtube
- IONChain Github
- IONChain Steemit
- IONChain Medium
- IONChain Twitter
- IONChain Telegram
This article is submitted for 
IONChain2018