IOTA is a distributed ledger which was created to facilitate communication and transactions between machines connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. Below is a list of IOTA Partnerships, helping to propel the cryptocurrency and these companies through the innovative use of Tangle technology.

1. Microsoft

IOTA announced, in November 2017, that it launched the world’s first public data marketplace on an Internet of Things (IoT) distributed ledger in conjunction with Microsoft.

The idea was to monetize data, which is the main resource of the IoT economy. It would enable stakeholders to securely share and monetize their data. “Any kind of data can be monetized,” said IOTA co-founder David Sonstebo. “If you have a weather station collecting wind, temperature, humidity, and barometric data, for instance, you can sell that to an entity that is doing climatic research.”

But later in December 2017, IOTA stated that it currently has no formal partnership with Microsoft. The debate was ignited when Microsoft blockchain specialist Omkar Naik stated via email correspondence with IOTA:

“We are excited to partner with the IOTA Foundation and proud to be associated with its new data marketplace initiative. This next generation technology will accelerate the connected, intelligent world and go beyond blockchain that will foster innovation real world solutions, applications and pilots for our customers”.

The news led to a substantial increase in the price of the MIOTA cryptocurrency, gaining 500% from around $1 to over $5 at its highest value in December 2017.

Even though there is no official partnership, the two companies are continuing to work together on a series of technology innovation applications with IOTA’s Tangle network.

Source: www.microsoft.com

2. Volkswagen

The world of motoring is seeing more and more technological advancements, and IOTA is lending a helping hand to the process. Driverless technology is an application of IOTA’s data marketplace, seeing as the cars face different driving conditions all over the world. The sensory data can be introduced into the database to improve the quality of the manufacturer’s future products.

Seeing as the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of Volkswagen, Johann Jungwirth, has joined the IOTA foundation’s supervisory board, it can be deduced that the two companies are working closely together.

Volkswagen’s partnership with IOTA was made public in January 2018. Jungwirth is in charge of leading Volkswagen through the process of implementing the digital technology.

A proof of concept which involves live testing the IOTA network has already been launched by Volkswagen.

“Volkswagen, together with @iotatoken will show at #cebit18 a proof of concept how the trusted transfer of software over-the-air to vehicles can be securely documented using the #tangle. Great example how distributed ledger technology can be used in the future.”

The Volkswagen group comprises of 12 motoring brands, including Lamborghini, Porsche, Bentley, Audi & Bugatti.

IOTA is already collaborating with Porsche on the Program 4 project, which was backed by the platform Startup Autobahn. IOTA and Porsche will be working along with other startups on a program that integrates smart mobility.

“Startup Autobahn is the ultimate innovation platform that unites tech companies with the tech expertise of Silicon Valley & the best of German engineering,” stated IOTA in a tweet.

3. DnB

At the beginning of June, IOTA announced that it signed an agreement with Norway’s largest financial group – DnB. DnB expressed its interest in blockchain-based technology and crypto assets in many instances prior to entering this partnership.

The partnership will focus on formulating new business models, data privacy management systems, and collective cross-silo hackathons.

“As Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine to Machine (M2M) communication and payment for microservices seem to escalate in the future, we think engaging in a Distributed Ledger based technology like IOTA gives us valuable experience and know-how on future revenue streams and business models. We are looking forward to dive into the IOTA space” – stated Lasse Meholm, Head of DLT at DNB.

Source: slush.org

4. BOSCH

Bosch is a German-based multinational engineering and electronics company, which is currently the largest supplier of automotive components in the entire world. Bosch views IOTA technology as a simple means through which they can gather micropayments and information.

Bosch currently has a large involvement in the IoT space and an estimated number of 15.6 Billion devices will be connected to the internet of things by 2020.

The German company announced their partnership with the IOTA project on the 17th of October 2017.

“There is great potential through Distributed Ledger Technologies to make each IoT project more secure, efficient and provide increased transparency to consumers of IoT solutions. Our goal is to increase the adoption of Distributed Ledger Technology throughout the Midwest region as IoT solutions and business models continue to grow,” stated Dennis Boecker, head at Bosch IT global innovation at the Chicago Connectory.

“IOTA and Bosch have been in dialog about the convergence between the Internet-of-Things and IOTA’s Distributed Ledger Technology since late 2015 and built up a strong relationship,” stated David Sønstebø, IOTA Founder. “Our official collaboration on this laboratory for exploring this overlap cements both entities’ goal of enabling an open and secure IoT ecosystem.”

5. Fujitsu

In September, the IOTA Foundation entered a partnership with Fujitsu, a leading provider of IT products and services. Fujitsu revealed the benefits of IOTA Technology at the largest Industrial trade fair in Hannover Messe, Germany; the live demonstration was held on April 23rd.

The Fujitsu system showcased at Hannover is a Tangle-based system which will be rolled out at Fujitsu’s Augsburg smart factory. IOTA was described as being “a new protocol standard when it comes to IT products and services.”

Rolf Werner, Fujitsu’s head of Central Europe business, said that its Tangle is able to overcome the traditional restrictions of distributed ledger technology.

“The new tech is energy efficient, offers feeless transactions and scales extremely well, making it well-suited to becoming the industry standard of automated systems and a wider machine-to-machine economy.”- explained Werner.

Source: wikipedia.org

Audi

In order to build a permissionless mobility ecosystem, the IOTA Foundation started working with Audi Denkwerkstatt, Audi’s Think Tank. The goal is to explore the different use cases of the Tangle technology, build a low-level prototype and gather customer feedback. The information was released in a blog post by the Head of Mobility and Automotive at the IOTA Foundation Alisa Maas in July 2018.

This shows that there are many car manufacturers interested in applying innovative ideas to their projects and offer new mobility solutions. IOTA’s open-source protocol works as an accelerator for business ideas that require trust in data, scalability and machine-to-machine communication and transaction.

Through IOTA, Audi would be able to standardize and develop new DLT solutions through the IOTA Tangle.

SinoPac

Both SinoPac and the IOTA Foundation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding back in June 2018 in which the two companies will be exploring the new digital innovation landscape that is made possible by IOTA’s Tangle solution.

According to Holger Köther, Director of Partnerships at the IOTA Foundation, the IOTA Tangle is the first open-source and distributed ledger that is being built so as to power the future of the Internet of Things. SinoPac is one of the largest financial holding companies located in Taiwan operating in the Asia Pacific region.

Through this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the two companies will be exploring blockchain and distributed ledger technologies through the IOTA Tangle. SinoPac has also been working on a notary solution called iCertificate that uses IOTA’s Tangle and its data immutability capabilities. This notary certification service applies to different digital documents for both private and public companies.

Wilfried Pimenta de Miranda, Head of Business Development at the IOTA Foundation Norway, commented about it:

“IOTA is thrilled to see SinoPac take their notary certification platform to the next level. It not only demystifies IOTA’s potential to use the Tangle in a wide variety of corporate products and services, but also demonstrates the increasing practical and real world usage of distributed ledger technology in the financial sector.”

ENGIE Lab CRIGEN

ENGIE Lab CRIGEN, the corporate research centre of the ENGIE Group, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IOTA to cooperate in experimentation with the IOTA Tangle in the Energy and related IoT domains. The information was released in a blog post by Wilfried Pimenta, Business Development Director at the IOTA Foundation, on September 6, 2019.

ENGIE Lab CRIGEN has explored IOTA use cases and triggered open innovation initiatives together with other companies and parties related to the IOTA ecosystem. The firm has run the Data marketplace proof of concept and experimented internally with the IOTA Tangle.

IOTA will also be exploring and testing the possible use of the Tangle technology and how to improve ENGIE’s business processes. Philippe Calvez, Research Lab Manager, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at ENGIE Lab CRIGEN, said that they will continue their fruitful collaboration with IOTA by strengthening their links with the IOTA Foundation.

As Mr. Calvez explained, many works and Proofs of Concept have already been realized in the Lab and they would like to participate in larger projects in other countries, including France.

ENGIE Lab CRIGEN is the Group corporate centre for Research and Development and high-level expertise that is dedicated to new energy sources, including hydrogen, biogas and also LNG.

Jaguar Land Rover

Jaguar Land Rover has also partnered with the IOTA Foundation in order to let drivers earn cryptocurrency on the go through the implementation of the innovative “Smart Wallet.” Users will be able to earn credits for sharing information about traffic jams, potholes and more. This funds can be automatically used to pay for tolls, parking and also electric charging. This has been reported by Cara Harbor, Head of Comms for IOTA Foundation on April 29, 2019.

The main goal is to achieve Jaguar Land Rover’s Destination Zero vision, including zero accidents, zero congestion and zero emissions. Users will be able to earn credits by automatically reporting road condition data, including traffic congestion to navigation providers and local authorities. These credits can be used to pay for coffee, tolls or parking fees for smart charging electric vehicles.

To do so, the “Smart Wallet” will be using the latest crypto technology that is provided by the IOTA Foundation.

Nick Rogers, the Executive Director of Product Engineering, Jaguar Land Rover, said that their software development centre in Shannon is working with cryptocurrencies to improve people’s lives. Drivers will be able to share data and make payments through connected technologies.

On the matter, he commented:

“Jaguar Land Rover is embracing autonomous, connected, electrified and shared mobility technology as we endeavour to make cars safer, cleaner and smarter for everybody.”

AKITA Blockchain Solutions

The blockchain company AKITA has created three different Smart Machine Agents (SMA) that are powered by distributed ledger technology (DLT). In this case, these devices are powered by the IOTA Tangle network that was designed to fit the needs of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Using the Tangle network, it is possible to automate real-time, micro-transactions that are based on milliseconds and Bluetooth RSSI. The three SMA solutions created by AKITA include a car, an approaching parking system and a virtual government tax entity.

As soon as the car reaches parking position a timer starts on the SMA to measure the exact parking duration. Once the car leaves, the timer stops. The car will then transfer funds automatically to the parking machine. In the example they used, the car was parked 2 hours, 47 minutes and 23 seconds, sending 10043 IOTA to the parking machine where 1 second was equal to 1 IOTA.

The virtual government tax entity allows the immediate transaction of money from one device to another. In this case, the previous transaction included a 5% tax that was transferred from the parking device to the government without using any paper.

The blog post released by AKITA Blockchain Solutions reads as follows:

“This scenario demonstrates only the beginning of an upcoming direct machine-to-machine economy. The required technologies already exist today and our Proof of Concept (PoC) with live, integrated hardware prototypes on the live IOTA Main Net show that it is possible.”

Alliander

Alliander, a Dutch energy grid operator created a proof of concept in which smart meter data can be obtained using a Raspberry Pi and published using the IOTA Masked Authenticated Messaging. This sharing process can help the energy transition. In many places, when individuals have the possibility to access energy usage data in real-time, it can help balance the grid.

However, it is not possible to share energy data without adhering to it. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect back on May 25. 2018, protecting European citizens and their data.

IOTA’s Tangle has a feature called Masked Authenticated Messaging (MAM) that allows to publish and also fetch encrypted messages. The MAM can be used for data integrity access and control.

According to a blog post released by the software engineer Erwin Rooijakkers, energy data could be used by everyone users trust. This could help owners in controlling their information, and everyone can create services around it.

By using IOTA, it is possible to improve the speed of proof-of-work (PoW) for publishing MAM data messages. In addition to it, it is possible to standardize key exchange and key rotation.

Avery Dennison

Avery Dennison and IOTA are working together in order to drive supply chain transparency forward by leveraging IOTA’s tangle network. Through a label that can be simply scan with a smartphone, consumers would be able to understand how a product moved since it was created until it reached the buyer.

This provides consumers with the possibility to have information about the whole supply chain, including the authenticity of the product and its sustainability credentials. Moreover, brands will have full visibility of their product’s journey throughout the supply chain.

There are many solutions already implemented in the market and IOTA is clearly one of the leaders in the market.

Learn More

Learn more about the IOTA project in this beginner’s guide, detailing project history and token usage and more!

Interested in investing in IOTA? Do your due diligence first and foremost. Read our IOTA Price Prediction article, as well as how partnerships could boost MIOTA price.

You can buy MIOTA on Binance with info in this guide, and store MIOTA on Ledger.