Applying blockchain technology to the traditional pillars of Internet infrastructure is changing the way we exchange value and information. IoTeX and other protocols / platforms are challenging compute norms, decentralized storage projects like Filecoin are changing the way we think about storage, and decentralized connectivity projects like NKN are redefining networking. It’s important for blockchain projects to collaborate, especially across these three pillars. This is why IoTeX and NKN are partnering to identify new compute / networking synergies and drive towards real use cases.

What is NKN and IoTeX?

NKN is a new kind of network connectivity protocol and ecosystem powered by blockchain for an open, decentralized, and shared Internet. With the goal of decentralizing network connectivity and transmission, NKN also provides a network capacity exchange to bridge connectivity consumers and producers. NKN provides proof of relay / transmit, and any nodes can connect to NKN’s fully open network, enabling true peer-to-peer connectivity and scalability.

IoTeX is the privacy-centric blockchain platform for the Internet of Things (IoT). With a focus on privacy, IoTeX is building a protocol that can handle rapid IoT data exchange, support heterogeneous IoT devices, and run on low-power IoT devices. IoTeX is developing several in-house innovations to push the frontier of blockchain 3.0, including a root chain / subchains architecture, Roll-DPoS consensus mechanism, and lightweight privacy-preserving techniques.

What use cases will NKN and IoTeX work on?

The combination of NKN’s decentralized peer-to-peer network and IoTeX’s smart contract blockchain platform is synergistic in many ways. NKN’s network is more reliable and efficient with more connected nodes / devices. IoTeX’s capabilities are increased with the ability to connect to more devices outside of the immediate IoTeX network. Combining our networks can multiply the reach and impact of decentralized applications leveraging both of our technologies.

Over the past couple months, IoTeX and NKN have worked together on a smart home / sharing economy use case, which provides a decentralized alternative to traditional short-term home rental solutions. Utilizing NKN’s network to communicate between users and IoT devices and IoTeX’s blockchain to authorize access and run smart contracts, we created a proof of concept for “the Airbnb of the Future” — see our video overview here:

What are the goals of the partnership?

As both of our projects drive towards our respective Mainnet launches early next year, we hope to optimize coordination across various layers of the blockchain tech stack. We will work together on R&D, along with other partners across the various infrastructure pillars with the goal of driving holistic decentralized use cases. Furthermore, we will continue to iterate on our smart home proof of concept, and also explore additional use cases together.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with IoTeX. The IoT application and smart contract capabilities of IoTeX will help NKN’s public blockchain enabled communication network access and manage millions of smart home devices around the world.” — Bruce Li, Co-CEO of NKN

“Our partnership with NKN extends how the IoTeX blockchain can be used in the real world. We are excited to unveil version 1.0 of our smart home solution, and hope to deliver more interesting proofs of concept and solutions with NKN in the future.” — Raullen Chai, Co-founder of IoTeX

NKN and IoTeX will be unveiling and presenting a live demo of the new smart home proof of concept at the upcoming Telecom Infrastructure Project (TIP) Summit, sponsored by Facebook, Cisco, Intel and more, in London on October 16–17th. Please see our joint press release for the full details.

About IoTeX

IoTeX is the auto-scalable and privacy-centric blockchain platform for the Internet of Things (IoT). IoTeX’s global team is comprised of distinguished research scientists, top tier engineers, and experienced ecosystem builders. IoTeX is developing several in-house innovations to push the frontier of blockchain 3.0, including a blockchains-in-blockchain architecture for heterogeneous computing, Roll-DPoS consensus mechanism for high scalability, and lightweight privacy-preserving techniques. IoTeX is bringing autonomous device coordination to the masses by “connecting the physical world, block by block.”

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