IONChain. The New Development Stage For The IoT

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Our society is evolving at an ever-increasing speed, today modern production an administration process uses a lot of devices that gather and transmit data from a wide range of different tasks. This gigantic network of devices connected through the Internet is known as the Internet of Things (IoT).

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IoT is present almost everywhere, from devices placed on the street that control traffic signals to devices placed on our homes to manage electricity consumption optimization. But, the IoT networks are poorly integrated and lack standardized data transfer and data security protocols, thus diminishing the efficiency of the whole IoT ecosystem.

Fortunetely we have arrived at the tenth anniversary of the Bitcoin's Whitepaper release. We are really proud to have welcomed a new major evolution of the Internet, the Internet of Value (IoV). This new technological advance is a ground shaker from the old paradigms of data security, value storage, and value transaction. Know, people are able to trade value in a decentralized and trustless network where freedom and security are no longer mutually exclusive properties.

The Blockchain Technology has developed enough to be able to address the issues plaguing the IoT and a group visionary have stepped forward to create the perfect integration of this two technologies. Let's introduce IONChain, the bridge between the Internet of Things and the Internet of Value.

What IONChain is?

IONChain's name is inspired on the famous Swedish physicist and chemist Svante Arrhenius' theory. In a nutshell, Arrhenius explained how some chemical compounds dissociated into species with a net electrical charge in aqueous solutions. This and other contributions allowed the development of batteries and electrical cells. Much in the same way that ions allow us to get electricity from a cell and use it to fuel our smartphones, computers, electric cars, and many other products. IONChain will be the key for IoT to generate a seamlessly integrated network that will drive the whole ecosystem to the next stage of development!

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IONChain targets a market in constant growth

According to Report Linker the IoT market is forecasted to grow at a 26.9% Compound Anual Growth Rate. Other sources go further, according to Forbes the inversion on the IoT will grow from $235 Billion in 2017 to $520 Billion in 2021, reaching a Compund Anual Growth Rate of 50%.

^{Image source: IONChain Whitepaper page 9}

Despite the different figures, every financial institution agrees that IoT market will grow on the Billions scale, thus providing a great business opportunity to those who invest in this market.

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IoT ecosystem current unresolved issues

Despite being such a promising field, there are some challenges that the IoT technology has to overcome, among them we can find:

• Lack of a universally established business model: So far, the only big economic benefit of the IoT deployment has been the enhanced performance of some electronic devices, such as control sensors and identification gadgets. But, the huge data resources generated by the IoT Network has not been applied in large-scale business scenarios.


• Lack of security and privacy protection: Since IoT devices gather data from businesses and individuals, privacy concerns are always a polemic discussed topic. Data is gathered by a handful of companies and users have no control over their personal data that is provided to the system nor the user is aware of the location and usage of his data.
  
  ^SourceMoreover, since IoT devices are integrated even into user's houses, centralized servers where data is stored are attack vectors for malicious parties that could compromise the user's privacy and security.


• Lack of interoperability between platforms: Big Data of the IoT is a new frontier that some big companies are competing over to claim the leading position. Because of that, data sharing and data circulation is hindered since companies are trying to protect its comparative advantages preventing the free flow of data and diminishing it's value.


• Shortcomings of Cloud Computing: Since the network bandwidth have been increasing exponentially on the last few years, cloud computing is now the mainstream trend in the IoT industry. But when faced with several of its most profitable applications such as Virtual Reality and Autonomous Driving, Cloud Computing has a delay of hundreds of milliseconds from the input to the execution. Such a latency interval is too high for the end user.
  
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IONChain answer is Edge Computing

Edge computing is a platform that integrates storage, computation, and applications at the edges of the network. It enhances the connectivity speed, data optimization, security, privacy, and many other features. The development of edge computing has been boosted with the creation of intelligent terminals (terminals that have AMR architecture processors integrated within the device), such terminals are able to store and process data or even nest Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions.

Instead of presenting Edge Computing as opposite to Cloud Computing, IONChain vision is to integrate the both of them as perfect complements. This will grant lower network latency feedback and will expand the scope of applications for the IoT. Even better, Edge Computing will solve privacy and security issues that plagued IoT Networks. Security breaches on centralized servers will be a concern from the past. Below is a piture that illustrates the Edge Computing Architecture

^{Image source: IONChain Whitepaper page 11}

Due to the implementation of Edge Computing IONChain will break the barriers that prevented data from being freely traded and shared. Each IoT device manufacturer, data owners, and service requestors will be able to gather what they need from a decentralized blockchain that will connect IoT devices of all classes and scales.

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IONChain perfectly mixes Edge Computing and Blockchain Technology

IONChain introduces two innovative concepts. The first one is that "every device is a mining machine", this will create a strong wave of development for the IoT ecosystem. Since each device will be able to get mining rewards, more companies and individuals will be incentivized to contribute to the IoT ecosystem. The second one is what they have called "One Device, One Coin, One Code".The Device part represents all IoT devices connected to the network, the Coin part represents the IONC token of the platform, and the Code part represents the unique identity code that each device will have on the network.

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Those ideas lead to a network architecture in which each device could have its identification code embedded in the hardware hence allowing each one of them to stamp the data that they produce. This is integrated with the immutability of the decentralized ledgers to guaranty that the data is reliable and verifiable.

To solve the block size/transaction speed tradeoff, IONChain will integrate the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to allow distributed IoT data storage and encryption. Thus, only users with the appropriate private keys will be able to access relevant data. Besides, since the IoT devices will be focussed only on the transaction processing, the system will be able to handle massive volumes of IoT data.

Also, smart contracts will evolve data transfer from human-machine transferer to machine-machine. Broadening the frontiers of IoT applications.

How IONChain improves IoT ecosystem

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IONChain provides a more robust privacy and security system

Smart devices have been surrounded by a lot of polemic discussions due to continuous demands. Users claim that their personal information was taken without their approval. The users' data is then sold by batch, used as feed for targeted advertising, or even worse, it sometimes is stolen by criminals. With IONChain disruptive model, IoT data will be stored in a decentralized system that will use encryption to guarantee that data will be traded only with the user's consent.

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The trade and circulation of IoT data will be boosted

IONChain will incentivize data circulation via monetizing the data exchange. For instance, businesses will be able to involve in a B2B data exchange platform where some companies could pay for another company information to boost its production workflow. Therefore, industries could profit from the data gathered by their IoT devices (such as sensors) embedded on their production lines, while other requesting companies will be able to gather the data they need. Furthermore, customers could also benefit from this creating C2B IoT data trading platforms by providing the data gathered by the devices of their smart home sensors, car IoT devices, and many more.

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Edge Computing will optimize IoT user experience

There are businesses that have issues with IoT networks while trying to scale their operations. For example, if one company has a private cloud service for its IoT sensors that control and boost the company workflow, it might experiment delays when trying to perform data-intensive operations, thus diminishing the company efficiency. IONChain deployed nodes will be able to perform data-intensive operations such as inventory check-up or incoming and outgoing stock settlements. Even more, those smart nodes will be fully synchronized in a distributed, fault-tolerant, private, and secure way using the IONChain Blockchain.

What is beneeth IONChain outstanding architecture?

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IONChain will evolve the current Blockchain platforms much in the same way that our cities were improved by the electricity

Apart from Edge Computing, the key idea behind IONChain is the Ionization Protocol. Its name is inspired by the mechanism that allows atoms to acquire electrical charges by gaining or losing electrons. Ionized atoms can be separated to generate the voltage and this principle is applied in every power cell that we know today.

In analogy with this mechanism, IONChain audacious propose is to separate the value creation process from the value transfer process to allow the full implementation of the Blockchain Technology in the IoT massive industry. Major Blockchain platforms such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have both processes merged into their algorithms, this could be a great advantage in some scenarios, but when facing the demands of the IoT industry this feature is an obstacle for the proper implementation of the Blockchain Technology.

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IONChain value generation process

IONChain value generation can be divided into four layers:

1- Value Generation: This layer integrates both IoT devices with Edge Computing Centers located near the device. All devices will have an IONChain identification code in which the device manufacturer information, device id, and other pertinent information will be included. All the information will be encrypted with a Zero knowledge Proof Algorithm.

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Also, all devices on IONChain will communicate via the IMQTT protocol. This protocol was initially created by IBM and was known as MQTT protocol, it is intended for communication between IoT devices. But MQTT lacks the value transferer capabilities, thus IONChain's team has customized it and created the IMQTT that has the value transferer function. Another interesting feature of this layer is that the lack of computing power of current IoT devices is overcome by creating Edge Computing Centers nearby the IoT devices. The relevant information gathered by the IoT devices is then uploaded to these centers that calculate the value of the data using the Proof of Data Quality and the Proof of Elapsed Time Algorithms.

2- Value Verification: This layer is similar to the consensus algorithms on other Blockchains, the parties interested in the data provided by the IoT device will be asked to cooperatively complete the data verification. If some party fails to comply with this stage, the data is labeled as invalid.

3- Value Evaluation: This layer is the second stage for value verification, it is created to prevent malicious attacks such as double spending. Again, the interested parties are requested to provide elements that can prove the authenticity (stamps) of the value.

4- Value Confirmation: On this stage the data is packaged and shipped to the value transfer part, from here on the value is confirmed and it exists on the blockchain in the form of a cryptocurrency.

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IONChain value transfer process

IONChain value transfer is divided into six layers:

1- Application Layer: This is the user layer interface, it will provide API services based on the HTTP protocol. The application layer will provide anti-counterfeit verification function on both the IoT devices and the vendors. On the release date it will have the following built-in services: Data validation, data query, vendor query, device registration, and wallet query.

2- Service Layer: This layer is a series of programs that employs binary-based GRPC protocol to provide the inner parts of the platforms the required services for the IONChain platform functioning.

3- Protocol Layer: IONChain goal is to establish a standard that can allow a seamless integration of all IoT networks, therefore it provides an unified access protocol layer for consensus protocol, network protocol, currency swap protocol, and so on.

4- Smart Contract Layer: This is one of the most important layers of IONChain. The Smart Contract Layer connects the blockchain layer with the applications, also they allow compliance of the user requirements with the consensus protocol. This layer is composed by two elements, the Smart Contract Management which is responsible for deployment, installation, debugging, execution and other operations of the IONChain Smart Contracts, and the Smart Contract Interface that provides services for external systems.

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This layer also offers five Smart Contracts for certain system operations. The first one is a Currency Issuance Contract that carries the issuance, the lock, and other operations related with IONChain cryptocurrency. This contract is only validly activated after it has a multi-signature input. The second one is a Wallet Contract that carries out the wallet creation, maintenance, and other operations. The third one is a IoT Device Life Cycle Contract that performs the management and maintenance of a device's life cycle, uploads device information onto the chain, manages device activation, deletion, and son. The fourth is the Manofacturer Management Contract that keeps manufacturer information updated on the Blockchain. Finally the fifth is the Custom Contracts Manager Tool that allows users to develop and manage their own smart contracts. This contract is public but the customized contracts created by it can be only seen by the accounts authorized by the contract's creator.

5- Blockchain Layer: The Blockchain layer is the core of IONChain and its most important element is the consensus algorithm. The IONChain team have customized the PoS and PoW consensus algorithm to create a more robust algorithm called IPoS. This algorithm is designed to withstand even the least favorable conditions. IPoS have stakeholders to elect 21 block producers that will be scheduled to sign blocks. Blocks are produced every 3 seconds, in the case of a chain fork, the longest valid chain will prevail. Thus block producers will rapidly shift to the longest chain to continue their bock production. The IPoS algorithm also has many other characteristics that protect the Network even if there is a temporal majority of malicious block producer.

In order to keep this article within reasonable length limits, I won't detail all the IPoS features here. But, feel free to visit the IONChain Whitepaper and read from page 23 to page 27 in order to discover all the characteristics that makes IPoS one of a kind.

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6- Data Storage Layer: IONChain will employ two options to storage the data, the first one is the IPFS standard and the BigChainDB. These two mechanisms provide the most reliable options to store any users data. For instance, the IPFS file name system is a hash produced with the content of the file. Therefore if someone modifies even a single "," in the file, the name hash will change and the modification will be obviuos for everyone. BigChainDB also offers really robust features such as fragmentation replication, the inability to update the database, regular database backup, all signature encryption, and many others.

How will users be able to monetize IONChain business model?

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Commercial value of IONC token

The IONC token supply will be hard capped to 800 million, they will be issued gradually during the first 20 years of operation. After that, a committee elected by stakeholder will decide whether to re-issue more tokens or not depending on the supply for the token on that date and the demand for IoT information.

IONC will be used to reward users in exchange for access to their IoT devices and the data gathered from those devices. Uploading data to the network will earn rewards for the user. Also, IONC token will be purchased by businesses that will use them to pay for on-chain data analysis services.

Finally, every node that contributes to the overall well being of the ecosystem will be rewarded with IONC tokens. They could mine transactions, run dApps, run smart contracts, and many other tasks.

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IONC token distribution

^{Image source: IONChain Whitepaper page 31}

IONChain will distribute the tokens in order to incentivize people to contribute to the IoT ecosystem, 60% of the rewards will be allocated for Mining rewards (25%), Community construction (20%), and Node contributions (15%). Also, the team will have their funds locked for 36 months in order to incentivize them to create and sustain a flourishing platform.

Final Considerations

IONChain will transform the way that IoT industry works. With the integration of IoT ubiquitous devices and the cryptographic secured Blockchain Technology, IONChain will lead the IoT to the next step of development. Furthermore, thanks to the seamless integration of thousands of devices produced by any kind of manufacturers, the enhanced levels of privacy, and data security, IONChain will develop a new paradigm that will boost IoT range of applications.

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A touching use case

Despite there are many economic advantages of the solution that IONChain provides, I want to underline the advantages of this awesome technology on the most vulnerable sectors of the population. Deaf people often suffer to perform simple tasks such as answering to someone knocking the door, learning how to read, and engaging with other people. Thanks to IoT, more advanced sensors and Smartphones AI-based applications will be able to aid them to carry on these tasks and to live a less troublesome life. Also, we will be able to provide a better care for the elder and the youngest persons in our family.

This technology will also increase the security within everyone home, it will prevent more accidents such as fire and car accidents thanks to the implementation of more advanced sensors and autonomous vehicles.

Additional Information About IONChain

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Check out this video about the projects (English Subbed)