If you have seen the Jetsons, a 1960s cartoon depicting the futuristic era of automation and hyper connectivity, you will be surprised to find some inventions being used today that may have seemed far-fetched and improbable back then.

Now that we are living in the 21st century, technology is all around us. Thanks to the rapid advancement of electronics put forth by Moore’s law, computers that were once big and clunky is now capable of handling duties of similar complexity in portable laptops and mobile devices. As a result of this phenomena, such devices brought consumer-level performance at affordable prices.

Now that the hardware has become more sophisticated, devices are becoming more intuitive, less procedural, and ever more pervasive. Such cases can be found in IoT, where computing devices are applied in non-traditional objects like refrigerators and cars, for the purposes of automation and reducing human interaction. Communication between machines enables multiple devices to operate simultaneously, allowing for more productivity, seamless human experience, and value creation for the economy.

Even though IoT is still at its nascent stage, there is an industry sector which is poised to become the forefront of the automation market, called Smart Home. Google and Amazon have already introduced digital home appliances centered around automation and security, such as digital locks, cameras, and alarm systems. With a simple pre-set of instructions commanded via voice or mobile, you can remotely lock the entry to your door, notify who is around the vicinity, and set temperature to your liking. As more digital appliances enter the market, the possibility of automation is endless.

While Ai and IoT play a pivotal role in collecting raw data and generating refined data, blockchain can create additional value in the sector by providing security and validation of data. Since communication between machines often go undetected to the human eye, security problems such as hacking and data breach can pose a threat to a person’s life. Moreover, there are many sets of data which require more emphasis on validation and notarization than simple automation. Such examples include legal contracts related to property, employment-based claims for housekeeping, repairing, and moving, escrow services for used furnishings, and location-based services for the home owners nearby.

SymVerse is currently working closely with one of the oldest moving companies in South Korea to implement a blockchain platform for the Smart Home market. All of the aforementioned use cases can be easily maintained and managed within an application, along with value added services such as mileages and discounts that grow with more usage. Since privacy is a real concern in the network, SymVerse will provide a dedicated wallet in which users can set parameters as to what data can and cannot be shared to service providers, a concept known as Self-Sovereign Identity. Through this wallet, it will create an additional layer of security and services to the home owners who are concerned about data privacy when using home related services.

Blockchain can be a great complement to smart homes because it can provide much more dynamic range of automation profiles without having to worry about getting your data compromised or hacked. By using a private key, users can store their preset configuration and securely access them via a blockchain ledger. As IoT becomes a lot more mainstream, more dynamic automation will be introduced to bring convenience to humans and thus, embedding blockchain in the IoT system will bring much more secure and sophisticated use cases in the automation industry.

References

http://www.srook.net/sun7136/636843622012612044