IOTA: Becoming the Industry Standard

Today, the IOTA Foundation has announced that it has partnered with eCl@ss which is the only ISO/IEC-compliant industry standard. Read the following article to find out why this is a huge step for IOTA in becoming the standard data protocol worldwide.

Overview

In the year 2000, eCl@ass e.V. was founded by the companies Siemens, BASF, AUDI / VW, e.on, SAP, Bayer, Degussa, Wacker, Infraserv Chemfidence and Solvay. The organization’s goal: To establish a standard for secure, electronic machine-to-machine exchange of product data and properties across features, values and units. From the beginning, the standard has been developed and developed in collaboration with the industry. Both the standards development process and the derivation formats and data modeling fundamentals are based on renowned, international standards. This alignment offers users a significantly higher investment security than pure industry standards. (source)

It might make sense to watch this video first in order to understand what eCl@ss is all about:

So think of eCl@ass as the standard language for industrial companies in order to enhance communication and eliminate misunderstandings.

IOTA now adds the feature for this standard which is needed to make the Internet of Things (IoT) happen: the layer on which this standardized information is communicated – especially from machine to machine (M2M)!

How is IOTA relevant here?

As Thorsten Kroke, general manager at eCl@ss puts it:

We look forward to collaborating with IOTA towards the development of new standards of device communication and complex payment processes in the Internet of Things. In conjunction with eCl@ss, the IOTA Tangle offers a clear and standardized description for IoT devices and products, meaning that IOTA and eCl@ss can be used together for any industry transaction. (source)

IOTA is especially relevant when it comes to M2M payments. In order to avoid fraud, the data which is processed needs to be tamper proof. Once stored on IOTA’s Tangle, the data cannot be altered anymore and is thus “safe”:

For example, companies could collect data on the current and average power consumption of their microprocessors, to determine needed software updates and fixes for the next generation of the product. Machines of different vendors could also request attributes of their peers, to directly identify compatible machine partners and their needs, such as current engine power consumption or whether certain modules/capabilities are present. (source)

But the real kicker is that this data can not only be sent in a tamper-proof fashion but can also be paid for on the spot. If machines cannot only talk to each other but also make payments, this opens the doors to what many know as the true Industry 4.0, or as Holger Köther, director of partnerships at the IOTA Foundation puts it:

It is an exceptional opportunity to shape how the next generation of devices, across all industry landscapes, can communicate through data and micropayments, truly empowering a machine-to-machine economy for the Internet of Everything. (source)

Probably you have never heard of eCl@ss before now, but it might help you to read what a company like Siemens has to say about it:

We believe eCl@ss has a strong presence in EU and is fast spreading in China, Japan, and North America as a master standard where product master data can be exchanged digitally across all borders – across sectors, countries, languages, and organizations. As a simple, machine-readable, one-to-one, ISO-compliant, and yet open system, the standard is growing faster than all others. And because it is defined by its users, it is vital and based on real-world practices. eCl@ss is built on the world’s expert knowledge. Currently, eCl@ss is used in about 3,500 companies both nationally and internationally. (source)

Outlook

Now you might think that this is just one premium partner, but here is the list of all the official partners.

On their website they describe IOTA as “of the most important cooperations of international significance”. Moreover, they say that “IOTA is a new transaction and data transfer layer for the Internet of Things (IoT) supporting the exchange of digital resources and to be introduced as a payment model for eCl@ss. At the same time the eCl@ss standard should be established in the data market as well as in the IOTA protocol.”

So if IOTA partners with eCl@ss as their payment protocol, it automatically is introduced as such to the above-mentioned companies. Now you might ask where these companies come together to buy and sell their data – IOTA data marketplace is the answer.

The data marketplace has been under the radar for some time now, but an update is imminent – and it will be big as one of the IOTA Foundation members has mentioned on Discord lately:

Maybe the delay was even caused by the integration of the new partner – we don’t know! What we do know, however, is that with Richard Soley as a member of the Supervisory Board and chairman of the standard-setting OMG group and eCl@ss as a new partner in the same domain, IOTA is inching closer to become an industry standard for data processing and payments.