Create a trusted IoT environment with Blockchain

821 billion dollars. This is what the global IoT (Internet of Things) market will represent in 2025, according to Gartner. The concept of an IoT network is intelligent devices (machines, sensors...), connected to each other, collecting data from their environment to share within the network. In the industry sector, the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) is booming. Allowing the collection of data from equipment, it represents a wealth of information for companies, and a growing revenue opportunity: Gartner claims that, in 2025, 65% of companies with IoT equipment will sell their data, an increase from 45% today. But for this to happen, the integrity of the data must be guaranteed. How can this be done?

Why does the IoT industry need Blockchain?

Despite their potential, IoT deployments still pose many challenges. These are related to security, privacy, and data exchange. While these are separate issues, they are closely related and blockchain can help solve them. Blockchain can keep a register of information, and allow it to be transmitted in an immutable, transparent, and secure manner. It is particularly well suited to the challenges related to non-tampering and traceability of industrial IoT data. The data generated by the machines are registered in the blockchain, and each IoT device has its own identity. The blockchain thus ensures trust in the data generated, guaranteeing that it is not falsified or compromised.

Blockchain to create a trusted IoT environment

The main challenges facing IIoT companies are security, trust, and data usage. These challenges are compounded by the need to protect data across their entire ecosystem. In addition, data security is becoming more difficult to ensure as the number of connected devices grows.?

Ensuring data protection

As the IoT industry will be increasingly dependent on data in the future, IoT providers need to be secure and robust while handling data. IIoT thus generates interoperability, reliability, and security issues, which blockchain can address. By integrating blockchain technology into IIoT, industrial companies benefit from a way to record and verify both physical entities (such as installations, products, etc.) and the functionality of implemented services (such as smart contracts) within a reliable and decentralized network.

Generate new business opportunities?

In addition to securing data, blockchain opens up new perspectives. Coupled with confidential computing, it allows, for example, confidential data to be processed or shared between several stakeholders, while guaranteeing the confidentiality of this data. This is a response to the challenges of personal data protection and the requirements of the GDPR.

Establish a trustworthy environment

In an IoT ecosystem, many parties interact with data. Ensuring data integrity from devices is crucial to building trust among stakeholders. The immutable nature of blockchain can provide IoT in industrial settings with a secure environment, guaranteeing that the data generated is not tampered with or even altered. Additionally, blockchain, by recording the actions performed on the data, ensures transparency in the environment.

Reduce costs and automate operations

The blockchain also enables the automation of the transaction validation and processing steps on the blockchain, the entire IoT ecosystem can be made proactive at a reduced cost. Smart contracts deployed on the blockchain automatically execute according to predefined conditions, without human intervention, eliminating delays and bottlenecks.

Manage Identity Access

The number of inter-connected devices within the IoT is growing rapidly. Keeping track of these devices is becoming difficult for most centralized systems. With blockchain, IoT platform providers can solve this scalability problem and potentially monetize the data from their devices.

How does iExec help you solve your IoT challenges using blockchain?

Having developed our own infrastructure combining blockchain and confidential computing, we support IoT companies in the deployment of blockchain infrastructures within their ecosystem. We deploy a secure solution to create a trusted environment to process, share and monetize data from your IoT infrastructure without losing control and without ever revealing it.

Use case - The French Technical Centre for Mechanical Industries

As we have just seen, facility breaches, industrial identity theft, and the use of falsified information are some of the major security threats in Industry 4.0. Trust in the data collected and the security of the IoT infrastructure is thus central.?

In particular, we have worked with the French Technical Centre for Mechanical Industries (Cetim), which includes more than 6,500 companies, in the implementation of a blockchain to secure data from remote IoT systems, test benches, and manufacturing workshops. Thanks to the blockchain infrastructure deployed by iExec, every action performed on the IoT network is immutably recorded, guaranteeing the integrity of the data collected. The transparency of access management is total, and access control managed by smart contracts ensure the security of the network.?

Ready to get started with blockchain?

In the future, most IoT vendors will monetize the data from their devices. Companies will be looking for a reliable solution that allows them to sell their data without losing control and privacy.

Are you an IoT provider? Are you considering using blockchain or wondering about its added value for your company? Contact us at [email protected] or fill in our contact form.

Learn more about our offers and use cases: https://iex.ec/enterprise-use-cases/