“Lun Dao Blockchain” Aryan Hung: The Latest Practice of IoT + Blockchain (in-depth interview)
We appreciate “Lun Dao Blockchain” to interview Aryan, the founder of ioeX. Here’s the entire content of the interview:
We’re honored to have Aryan, the founder of ioeX in the second episode of the conversation program “Lun Dao Blockchain” to have an in-depth discussion with Evan Liu about “IoT + Blockchain.”[本篇中文版連結]
The focal points
1. What sort of problems of IoT can be solved by blockchain? (Take ioeX for instance.)
The smart devices require frequent updates, thus generating substantial costs to smart hardware device providers. The ioeX project offers a solution which can effectively reduce online update costs by elevating the functions and effectiveness of the applications of distributed storage. It also gives an opportunity to build an underlying network which supports data interaction in IoT and can be extended to much broader applications in different fields.
The two pain points that ioeX solves:
1.Great risks on business management due to the high cost of upgrades
OTA takes place after selling the products therefore it can cause great risks to business management. Massive cost of upgrades and fixation on bug of software are required after accessing the Internet.
The gross profit on sale of smart devices is fixed but the cost of online updates is unpredictable, so as the file sizes. If the smart device company fails in controlling the cost and managing the sales precisely, it can lead to a massive cash flow problem and even bankruptcy.
2.Lifespan of device is greatly shortened once centralized enterprise goes bankrupt
Since the decentralized mechanism that support the operation of smart devices will no longer exist once centralized enterprise goes bankrupt due to failed management (such as high cost of online updates), the smart device will not be able to work even the machine itself remains functional.
However, ioeX decentralized solution ensures the product to be able to operate even when the smart device providers stop running their business; the lifespans of smart devices hence will be greatly extended.
2. The differences between ioeX and the other blockchain/IoT projects.
If the users of the smart devices are willing to share their storage space or traffic in the IoT system, there must be corresponding rewards given; yet the reward mechanism needs to be fair. Blockchain technology offers a remarkable trade recording function and can support the reward allocation effectively.
The interaction between things in IoT system is basically the data transmission from A to B, just as the process of transferring payments (or passing on values). The transmission process is a form of transaction record. ioeX adopts this mechanism in blockchain, and makes the record incorruptible.
The incorruptible record ensures that data transmission and interaction actually take place; we adopt blockchain technology in ioeX current network as an extension of this mechanism for recording the contribution of each users effectively and to allocate the corresponding rewards and incentives.
3. How ioeX reduces cost effectively?
There are 4 major costs generated from different online updating approaches:
- Human resource: spare human resource on updates or outsource the work.
- Device: purchase or rent equipment from cloud service providers.
- Storage: pay for bigger storage space to cloud service providers.
- Traffic: support upload/download of update packages. (highest percentage of cost among all)
The estimated costs of establishment and operation on online updates takes around 80% to 90% in the entire cost of OTA. The ioeX solution can replace the storage server and reduce 70% of expense. The service fee will be returned to the network so there’s no fee for using the project.
4. How to include various smart device providers in the same project and make interconnection in practice among them?
The three types of companies in the industry chain are:brand owner, manufacturer, and chipset manufacturer; listed from upstream to downstream.
Normally the upstream company owns better bargain power. The brand owner would require the products must undergo some specific certification process to the manufacturer to ensure the quality (such as ODM certification of Android system), which gives manufacturer a certain degree of bargain power when purchasing chipsets.
Since the manufacturer bears the high cost on online updates, they would like the chipset firms to share the load by requesting them to manufacture chipsets with built-in function that reduces cost or SDK.
Among all the characters in the industry, ioeX firstly builds collaboration with manufacturers (currently often called “solution providers”). Since ioeX solution reduce cost greatly, the manufacturer will be willing to integrate ioeX function and SDK in their smart device products. To begin with a smaller scale of integration to validate the effects, we may gradually expand our collaboration in the future.
5. The relationship between ioeX main/side chains and those of Elastos.
We combine ioeX IoT application scenario with the network of Elastos Carrier to extend the entire ecosphere of Elastos.
ioeX adopts Elastos main/side chain as the base of our solution to establish ioeX token chain and side chain.
The ioeX main/side chain technology is based on those of Elastos, we will fully rely on the main chain function of Elastos in the beginning, and to commence merged mining with Bitmain mining rig through Elastos. The side chain will adjust its function according to the specific needs in different applications. Elastos offers great support in our research and development.
The spotlight of ioeX innovation focuses on application. We focus on the expansion of applications to other fields in a relatively robust environment to rapidly add values and return them in the Elastos ecosphere.
6. The current status of blockchain development in Taiwan
The development of blockchain industry is relatively slower than that in the world, yet the government and the related regulations are quite friendly and open to the entrepreneurship in this industry.
Furthermore, there are more projects focus on applications than projects that issue tokens in Taiwan; this might result from the special features of Taiwanese industries and developers, they are not sure whom to sell the tokens to so they focus more on applications. Related applications such as those in the travel industry and financial systems are focus on actual applications. Our goal is to bridge the IoT industry and connect more partners in this ecosphere.
Evan’s conclusions
1.After the conversation, what impress you in the ioeX project?
Overall, the plan of ioeX project is clear, and they provide detailed explanation about the application scenarios, the solutions. The concept in the White Paper is logical and easy to understand for our research group, which makes us gain lots of confidence to the project.
Aryan and the ioeX team have years of experience in IoT applications, and they have experienced challenges as well, all of these give them confidence in identifying the project better. In the conversation, Evan considers ioeX an practical project that is dedicated to applying blockchain in the real scenarios of IoT (that is, OTA online updates.)
The entry point and the business mode fit the style of ioeX team, they choose to collaboration with the midstream companies (the solution providers) in this industry instead of the downstream companies. This strategy is practical and feasible.
2. What might be the future challenges for the ioeX project?
Whether the project can be successful relies greatly on how fast it develops in the market and the scale of collaborations built in this industry, that is, the ioeX solution needs to be adopted widely.
It has been years of development on IoT technologies, yet there’s no breakthrough innovation on the consumption, which indicates how complicated and challenging the entire IoT industry is. How to connect all the dominant enterprises in the same ecosphere is a real challenge and goal for each project team that focuses on entering IoT industry.
3. How to solve the privacy security issues of IoT devices such as smart speakers by blockchain?
Smart devices collect our message and sound all the time, so as video information when it becomes available in the future. This has brought a huge risk to our privacy. Blockchain can be the key to this issue.
It is not just about encryption and safety of data when it comes to privacy protection; privacy can be a much bigger issue in management, legal aspect, and the retroaction and determination of liability.
About thedetermination of liability, each interaction, including the time and detailed event, will be saved in the chains by blockchain technologies. Once a privacy leak problem discovered, the related activities and the specific parties involved can be traceable and the liability can be determined according to the related regulations; which contributes to a relatively sound protection system.
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