What is the Internet of Things?

Since the digital revolution in the 1950s, a large number of breakthrough technologies have been produced. Although only used by a small number of people in the early stages of development, the industry has grown very rapidly, with most new technologies becoming increasingly common and popular.

The convergence of various types of innovative devices (such as RFID chips, sensors and the Internet) and the connectivity created by these devices ultimately gave rise to the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT technology marks a major shift in the computer age, meaning it’s not just computers that are connected to the Internet.

History of the Internet of Things

The first application scenario of the Internet of Things was born at MIT, a college student Uses cheap sensors to monitor and refill their Coke machines. Around 1994, more progress was made in the Internet of Things when a journal article by Reza Raji proposed the idea of moving data to automate homes and factories.

Around the 1990s, Microsoft and several other companies came up with similar ideas, and starting in 2002, many media began to discuss breakthroughs in the Internet of Things - such as using smart devices to connect to surveillance information systems . Nonetheless, 2008 is considered by many to be the official birth year of the IoT industry, with more electronic devices connected to the Internet than there were humans.

How does the Internet of Things work?

Internet of Things technology is basically a network interconnection of multiple physical devices and objects, often including a network of sensors and non-computing devices that communicate with computers or devices on the Internet. These sensors may include thermostats, heart rate monitors, sprinklers, and home security systems. Innovations in IoT technology enable remote monitoring, control, automation and status checking of a variety of devices and sensors that can be used in smart homes and self-driving cars.

IoT for individuals and homes

IoT technology can be deployed in many different ways for Personal and home use. Common examples include home automation, where several devices can be used to monitor and control the use of lights, air conditioners, heaters and even security systems. These devices can also be connected to other personal devices, such as smart watches and smartphones, or they can be connected into dedicated smart gateways that connect different smart home products (such as smart TVs and refrigerators).

Smart homes can also significantly improve the quality of life for older adults and people with disabilities by providing assistive technology to special populations – especially those with vision, hearing or mobility impairments. This approach could include using real-time sensors that automatically alert family members if their heart rate is abnormal or if they fall. Another interesting approach is to use smart beds to detect when a bed is occupied, and is already being tested by some hospitals to track when patients leave their beds.

Internet of Things in Business and Industry

Some examples in industry include using sensors to track environmental conditions such as temperature, Humidity, air pressure and mass. Farmers can also use IoT devices to track when their livestock have run out of water and food, and manufacturers can receive notifications when important generation materials are running low. They can even set up automated machines to order more products when supply falls below a certain threshold.

Limitations

The Internet of Things has brought about many interesting innovations and will definitely continue to develop. However, IoT has its limitations, and one issue with using IoT systems in businesses and homes is the need for an ever-increasing number of devices to be monitored and connected (many of which may rely on an Internet connection). Without proper implementation, companies and homeowners may have to access several different applications to monitor their multiple devices. This makes IoT inefficient and less attractive to potential customers.

For this reason, companies like Apple and Lenovo have created applications that can control devices by using voice commands in the iOS environment. Other IoT platforms also work around gateways that are independent of the internet or WiFi, including Amazon's Echo and Samsung's SmartThings Hub. Therefore, IoT works through devices connected to sensors, which can usually be connected to the Internet or another WiFi receiver, enabling centralized control, programming, and monitoring.

IoT Cryptocurrency

Many IoT systems may rely on financial microtransactions between digital objects , which requires IoT devices to support the so-called M2M method of connection - which is basically impersonal currency exchange between devices. In this context, the demand for IoT-compatible currencies is increasing, and cryptocurrencies are certainly one of the viable alternatives.

At first, many people believed that blockchain itself would be the basic framework of the M2M economy because it is suitable for micropayments and is widely used in cryptocurrencies. However, many blockchain networks have limited performance in terms of the number of transactions they can process per second, which means that most proof-of-work and proof-of-stake blockchain projects currently have certain limitations in scalability, making them unsuitable Process M2M microtransactions at scale. Despite this, many blockchain projects are working hard to solve the problem of scalability, such as Bitcoin Lightning Network and Ethereum Plasma.

Summary

The Internet of Things (IoT) will gradually support the automation, monitoring and control of large-scale equipment, This will surely continue to improve our daily lives and increase efficiency across industries. Cryptocurrencies have the potential to become part of the IoT revolution, becoming the digital currency of micro-transactions and the M2M economy. Currently, there are a limited number of cryptocurrency projects targeting the IoT industry, but as technology continues to develop, we may see more cryptocurrency projects in the near future.