
Part III — Does the Internet of Things Need To Be Fee’less?
A Distributed Secure Protocol is the Answer… But Do We Need Fees? As we discussed before in Part I & Part II, data is going to be the resource of the future, and connected devices will be the the mechanism in which data is collected. After diving into IoT we understand that there is a high need for a secure standard messaging layer and the Tangle is that answer. With the Tangle, data will travel securely between connected devices at the edge and to and from the could. Streams of data flowing seamlessly around the digital space, this is how the Internet of Things currently works, and will work in the future. After analyzing whether a centralized network may be the answer we found that indeed it is not. Instead, we need a distributed decentralized system where all participants have free access to use and secure the network. The next question becomes, can a decentralized network be viable which is based on fees support the foundation of the IoT? You must understand, that every time data is sent from and across connected devices, we considered this a transaction. Such as, when you scan your visa card, you are not only making a single transaction which records the amount on the visa ledger, but that transaction also sends additional data. This data includes information such as; this transaction was completed at store X, at this time, on this date, for this amount, at this location, etc. We see that a simple exchange of value for something creates an immense amount of data which may be completed as a single transaction or several transactions. Let’s now look at one use case and how using secure data applies, and most importantly, how many data transactions will occur. The following example is a real-use-case that is live now on the Tangle, and an application built on the Internet of Things use the secure messaging layer.
ALYX, EVERYTHING, Avery Denisson and IOTA collaborated and worked together to offer supply chain transparency. Sustainability is becoming more important to our societies and the ability to ensure that products we purchase are manufactured in environmentally conscious methods. We need a way to confirm these facts. Or, we may simply want the piece of mind knowing that what we purchased is a true product, not a fake, and that what we are buying is actually what we are getting. By ensuring the data integrity, The Tangle offers manufactures a secure and trustworthy end-to-end solution. Customers can now prove not only that their products were produced in sustainable manner; but as well as, we won’t need to trust the store, we can simply scan and check the Tangle for proof.