Understanding Internet of Things—The Evolution, Growth and Future of IoT and How Athero’s THO Chain Can Help Overcome Challenges with Current IoT Solutions
Over the past few years, there has been exponential growth in internet usage and this has triggered the mass adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT). Due to the anticipation that it would have a huge impact in the coming years, many consumers and companies have already started to migrate to IoT.
Considering this mass migration to IoT, it may be worth it to discuss:
How the global IoT market has evolved and grown?
What is the future of the global IoT market?
What are the challenges faced by current IoT Solutions and how can they be overcome with Athero’s THO Chain?
The Evolution and Growth of the Global IoT Market
A British entrepreneur named Kevin Ashton was the first to coin the term ‘IoT’. He used the term as a reference for a network of internet connected objects that could gather and exchange data. Between then and now, IoT has grown profoundly and Cisco predicts that there will be fifty billion devices on it by 2020. So how did IoT progress so fast?
There could be several reasons for it but IoT has grown mainly due to the evolution of multiple technologies. According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the global IoT market was worth $170.57 billion in 2017 and this number is expected to reach $561.04 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 26.9%. Additionally, Statista reveals that the global IoT market revenues stood at $157.05 billion in 2016 and this will increase to $457.29 billion by 2020.
In recent years, IoT platforms have enabled real-time optimization of manufacturing production and supply chain networks, dynamic response to product demands, and rapid manufacturing of new products. How have they achieved this? By integrating sensors, machinery, and control systems.
IoT has also helped automate service information systems and process controls, which has given birth to industrial IoT (IIoT)—an IoT niche that is expected to contribute $14.2 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
So, we know how the global IoT market has evolved and grown, but what does the future hold for it? Let’s find out.
The Future of the Global IoT Market
Due to the increase in the number of connected devices, the data collected by organizations will also increase. To deliver value from this data, advanced algorithms will be engaged by IoT platforms for analysis purposes. M2M connections, which are considered to be a key part of IoT, are predicted to grow to 18 billion by 2022. With this, businesses will have a greater opportunity to improve and grow.
Gartner predicts that IoT will add value and economic benefit worth $1.9 trillion in 2020 alone, while McKinsey & Company believes that IoT will improve insights related to both customers and operations through six distinct ways. They include:
- Process optimization
- Tracking behavior for real-time marketing
- Enhanced situational awareness
- Sensor-driven decision analytics
- Immediate response and control in complicated automated systems
Its Relationship with Blockchain and Why the Increased Interest?
If we are discussing IoT, then it would be a crime to leave out blockchain from the discussion. Before we talk about the relationship between blockchain and IoT, it is crucial to understand what blockchain is and why there’s an increased interest in it.
Blockchain is a peer to peer (P2P) distributed ledger that provides new ways for interacting and conducting financial transactions over the internet. With blockchain—a next-generation technology, businesses can lower their operational cost by keeping a list of data records that grows continuously, is secured using cryptography, and is resistant to alteration and tinkering.
The biggest plus point of the blockchain technology is that it puts the control of transactions in the hands of the public. While it isn’t the ultimate solution to the challenges faced by current IoT solutions, blockchain can play a significant role in the security and advancement of IoT. Today, blockchain is being considered in IoT for solutions and implementations outside of cryptocurrency and financial services.
Blockchain allows IoT to be part of transactions and today, it is possible to use data from connected devices with a blockchain platform. Additionally, connected devices will soon be able to correspond with blockchain-based ledgers for validating or amending smart contracts. This will allow companies to refresh the information of an IoT connected item moving through various blockchain distribution points. This in turn will make it easier to share the information and status of such item, which can only be a good thing.
The Challenges with Current IoT Solutions and How Athero’s THO Chain Can Help Overcome Them
Industries are aggressively adopting IoT solutions, and this has given rise to several challenges including:
Trust—Managing communication between disparate users is always a challenge and to exchange data, devices should trust and verify the authenticity of each other.
Data Transfer Speeds— With several distinct devices present in the network, it can take time to exchange and process data
Total Cost of Ownership— The operational costs of IoT increase due to processing overheads, gateways and other intermediaries, not to forget the cost of centralized management. This means that businesses have to optimize resources to reduce the TCO.
Security— Security and reliability is crucial while exchange of data occurs between multiple devices.
All these challenges can be overcome with the blockchain technology and this is something Athero ensures. To create a new decentralized and distributed IoT platform, Athero combines IoT, crypto and encryption/decryption technologies.
Athero leverages the blockchain technology to bring new potential to the Internet of Things. Called THO chain, the Athero chain combines IoT and blockchain to provide a modern-distributed IoT system that is decentralized and trusted. With such as an IoT system, the cost of linking systems is reduced. Moreover, the value of data sharing increases and system security and privacy of users is ensured.
Scalability, security and real-time issues faced by blockchain in IoT is the primary focus of the THO chain. Athero builds a new generation of IoT solutions by integrating IoT, blockchain, and distributed encryption storage. This combination has the potential to provide entire solutions for data acquisition, sharing and application in the IoT industry.
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