Reading Material

Introduction to blockchain technology

For a comprehensive understanding of how the blockchain works on a technical level, please reference the following videos in order of technical difficulty (only the first 40 minutes of the 3rd video are necessary). Chain of Things also recommends Alex and Don Tapscott's new book, BLOCKCHAIN REVOLUTION, for a high level take on blockchain's potential across a variety of practical industry applications.

IoT

SUMMARY

  1. The 'Internet of Things' will be the world's most massive device market and save companies billions of dollars
  2. GE estimating that the “Industrial Internet” has the potential to add $10 to $15 trillion (with a “T”) to global GDP over the next 20 years, and Cisco  increasing to $19 trillion its forecast for the economic value created by the “Internet of Everything” in the year 2020.  “This is the largest growth in the history of humans,” says Bryzek
  3. Gartner estimates that IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion in 2020. IDC forecasts that the worldwide market for IoT solutions will grow from $1.9 trillion in 2013 to $7.1 trillion in 2020.
  4. We estimate that by 2019 it will be more than double the size of the smartphone, PC, tablet, connected car, and the wearable market combined. 
  5. The IoT will result in $1.7 trillion in value added to the global economy in 2019. This includes hardware, software, installation costs, management services, and economic value added from realized IoT efficiencies.
  6. Device shipments will reach 6.7 billion in 2019 for a five-year CAGR of 61%. Revenue from hardware sales will be only $50 billion or 8% of the total revenue from IoT-specific efforts, as software makers and infrastructure companies will earn the lion's share.
  7. The enterprise sector will lead the IoT, accounting for 46% of device shipments this year, but that share will decline as the government and home sectors gain momentum. By 2019, government will be the leading sector for IoT device shipments.
  8. MICROCHIPS GOVERN OUR HOMES, CITIES, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND MILITARY. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY'RE TURNED AGAINST US?
  9. In the past year, cybercrime has blossomed into a pandemic, consuming more than $445 billion in lost time, jobs, and intellectual property.
  10. More than a billion intelligent, connected devices already comprise today’s “Internet of Things (IoT).” The expected proliferation of hundreds of billions more places us at the threshold of a transformation sweeping across the electronics industry and many others. Yet, the dream of a smart, safe and efficient future is threatened by subscription fees, ubiquitous advertising and intrusive surveillance.
  11. "The audio and video sensors on IoT devices will open up numerous avenues for government actors to demand access to real-time and recorded communications," according to a Berkman Center for Internet & Society report published Monday.
  12. Here are some key points from the report: 
    1. In total, we project there will be 34 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020, up from 10 billion in 2015. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.) will comprise 10 billion.
    2. Nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years.
    3. Businesses will be the top adopter of IoT solutions. They see three ways the IoT can improve their bottom line by 1) lowering operating costs; 2) increasing productivity; and 3) expanding to new markets or developing new product offerings.
    4. Governments are focused on increasing productivity, decreasing costs, and improving their citizens’ quality of life. We believe they will be the second-largest adopters of IoT ecosystems.
    5. Consumers will lag behind businesses and governments in IoT adoption. Still, they will purchase a massive number of devices and invest a significant amount of money in IoT ecosystems.
  13. Analysts have predicted that the installed base for Internet of Things devices will grow from around 10 billion connected devices today to as many as 30 billion devices by 2020—an uptick of about 3 billion new devices per year
  14. “2016 will also provide stage to some major IoT security breaches and expose security to be the biggest risk factor for enterprise failure, as well as the greatest opportunity for commercial success once proven that security measures can manage any risks effectively.”
  15. IBM announced it will invest $3 billion over the next four years to establish a new Internet of Things (IoT) business unit.
  16. GSMA today issued a new report highlighting China’s leadership in the worldwide machine-to-machine (M2M) market. According to the report, “How China Is Scaling the IoT”, China is the world’s largest M2M market with 74 million M2M connections and has now become the global leader in the deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT)
  17. We have already seen demonstrations of attacks, such as those against connected cars and medical devices, that can result in physical harm or the loss of life. As our society becomes increasingly reliant on devices around us to be connected, the line between our virtual and physical spaces will blur. Once vulnerabilities in popular IoT devices begin to be actively exploited to cause harm, our default biases attuned to favor optimism will shatter.
  18. Within the information security community, I find that there is lack of appreciation for the profound responsibility we have to help secure devices that human-kind is going to rely upon to survive and even migrate to other planets.
  19. A new report from McKinsey finds that the market for IoT could reach $11 trillion by 2025. This means a sea change for IT, as well as the CIOs who have to manage budgets.
    1. While there's been a lot of argument over how the Internet of Things will work -- issues ranging from data privacy, to security, to the eventual role of artificial intelligence in our daily lives -- the real economic impact of these technologies remains somewhat elusive.
    2. However, a new report from McKinsey & Company's Global Institute is trying to put a real dollar amount to the global IoT market. In the report's estimation, IoT has the potential to be worth between $3.9 and $11.1 trillion by 2025.
    3. On the top end, that means IoT has the potential to represent just about 11% of the world's economy. The McKinsey study: "The Internet of Things: Mapping the Value beyond the Hype," is a market-focused report, rather than a strictly technical one. Although the IoT concept is so muddied right now, there are several valuable insights in it.
      1. Vehicles: Autonomous vehicles and condition-based maintenance, with an estimated value of $210 to $740 billion
      2. Cities: Public health and transportation: $930 billion to $1.7 trillion
      3. Outside: Logistics and navigation: $560 billion to $850 billion
      4. Human: Health and fitness: $170 billion to $1.6 trillion
      5. Worksites: Operations optimization, as well as health and safety: $160 billion to $930 billion
      6. Retail environments: Automated checkout: $410 billion to $1.2 trillion
      7. Factories: Operations and equipment optimization: $1.2 billion to $3.7 trillion
      8. Offices: Security and energy: $70 billion to $150 billion
      9. Home: Chore automation and security: $200 billion to $350 billion
  20. IoT Incompatibility - The IoT is growing at a tremendous rate, with numerous devices spanning from automobiles to home appliances. However, the industry has been vocal in its criticism of the lack of standards - an issue which is stifling innovation and halting any further adoption. The Internet of Things could do so much in a number of industries and truly transform daily lives, but, as Gordon Haff, cloud evangelist at Red Hat, told CBR, the industry is holding itself back through a lack of standards.
  21. "The Internet-of-Things (IoT) has enormous potential to use data from pervasive sensors to save energy, improve health, and generally provide an interface between the digital and the physical worlds but a plethora of incompatible communications standards could continue to be the norm.
  22. "Smart devices incorporated into the electric grid, vehicles—including autonomous vehicles—and household appliances are improving efficiency, energy conservation, and convenience. However, security industry analysts have demonstrated that many of these new systems can threaten data privacy, data integrity, or continuity of services.
  23. During his live appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Clapper testified that "unpredictable instabilities have become the new normal and this trend will continue for the unforeseeable future." (regarding security-less IoT)

FULL SUMMARY

  • Internet of Things to be used as spy tool by governments: US intel chief
    • http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/us-intelligence-chief-says-iot-climate-change-add-to-global-instability/
    • "Smart devices incorporated into the electric grid, vehicles—including autonomous vehicles—and household appliances are improving efficiency, energy conservation, and convenience. However, security industry analysts have demonstrated that many of these new systems can threaten data privacy, data integrity, or continuity of services. In the future, intelligence services might use the loT for identification, surveillance, monitoring, location tracking, and targeting for recruitment, or to gain access to networks or user credentials," Clapper said (PDF), according to his prepared testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
    • During his live appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Clapper testified that "unpredictable instabilities have become the new normal and this trend will continue for the unforeseeable future." He said that infectious diseases like Zika, government instability, and the 60 million displaced people across the globe are adding to the world's instability. But there's more. "Extreme weather, climate change, environmental degradation, rising demand for food and water, poor policy decisions and inadequate infrastructure will magnify this instability," he said.
    • But "technological innovation," he added, "will have an even more significant impact on our way of life.
    • "This innovation is central to our economic prosperity but it will bring new security vulnerabilities. The Internet of Things will connect tens of billions of new physical devices that could be exploited. Artificial intelligence will enable computers to make autonomous decisions about data and physical systems, and potentially disrupt labor markets," Clapper told the Armed Services Committee.
  • How secure will our data be in the post-quantum era?
    • https://medium.com/quantum-bits/how-secure-will-our-data-be-in-the-post-quantum-era-6a7f444ce7d5#.l5qb75ojf
    • Quantum computers are being worked on by academics, the government, large companies including IBM, Microsoft, and Google, and small, but well-funded startups. Every piece required for a quantum computer to exist has been experimentally demonstrated. It’s now an engineering challenge, and that’s scary. It’s a race to put together the pieces (read my quantum computing primer here). Quantum computers increase processing speed on certain quantum algorithms. Then it’s open season, and we are hunting RSA, elliptic curve, and other quantum breakable cryptography.
  • Wireless Infrastructure Provider Filament Closes $5m Series A, Shows Promise for Agtech Application
    • https://agfundernews.com/wireless-infrastructure-provider-filament-closes-5m-series-a-shows-promise-for-agtech-application.html
    • Enterprise technology company Filament is developing products and services that can help companies harness the power of this interconnectivity by building a connected business, without also having to become an expert on network stacks, security, and scalability. The company recently closed a $5 million Series A round led by Bullpen Capital. A number of other big name investment firms joined the round, including Verizon Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Samsung Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Haystack, Working Lab Capital, Techstars, and a number of existing investors.
  • IBM - Device democracy - Saving the Internet of Things
    • http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/gb/en/gbe03620usen/GBE03620USEN.PDF
    • Transforming businesses as the Internet of Things expands As a global electronics company, we understand the issues facing the high-tech industry and the continuous transformation required to thrive. Across the industry, companies are turning their attention from smartphones and tablets to a new generation of connected devices that will transform not just the Electronics industry, but many others. The IBM Global Electronics practice uniquely combines IBM and partner services, hardware, software and research into integrated solutions that can help you deliver innovation, create differentiated customer experiences and optimize your global operations. 
    • More than a billion intelligent, connected devices already comprise today’s “Internet of Things (IoT).” The expected proliferation of hundreds of billions more places us at the threshold of a transformation sweeping across the electronics industry and many others. Yet, the dream of a smart, safe and efficient future is threatened by subscription fees, ubiquitous advertising and intrusive surveillance. For the IoT to survive the end of trust and successfully scale from billions to hundreds of billions of devices, executives need to rethink the technology strategy, business models and design principles at its foundation. This first report of our study shows that a low-cost, private-by-design “democracy of devices” will emerge that will enable new digital economies and create new value, while offering consumers and enterprises fundamentally better products and user experiences.
  • Internet Of Things – An “Age of Ultron” In The Making?
    • http://techstory.in/internet-of-things/
    • There should be no two-ways in accepting that Iron Man series, more specifically – Tony Stark and the most awesome virtual assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. – DEFINE the amalgamation of Technology and human interaction i.e. the Internet of Things (For those who haven’t yet watched the series, I urge them to go and watch those – I bet you won’t regret a minute of your time!!)
  • IoT Market Forecast At $11 Trillion, Report Finds
    • http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/digital-business/iot-market-forecast-at-$11-trillion-report-finds/a/d-id/1321100
    • A new report from McKinsey finds that the market for IoT could reach $11 trillion by 2025. This means a sea change for IT, as well as the CIOs who have to manage budgets.
    • While there's been a lot of argument over how the Internet of Things will work -- issues ranging from data privacy, to security, to the eventual role of artificial intelligence in our daily lives -- the real economic impact of these technologies remains somewhat elusive.
    • However, a new report from McKinsey & Company's Global Institute is trying to put a real dollar amount to the global IoT market. In the report's estimation, IoT has the potential to be worth between $3.9 and $11.1 trillion by 2025.
    • On the top end, that means IoT has the potential to represent just about 11% of the world's economy. The McKinsey study: "The Internet of Things: Mapping the Value beyond the Hype," is a market-focused report, rather than a strictly technical one. Although the IoT concept is so muddied right now, there are several valuable insights in it.
      • Vehicles: Autonomous vehicles and condition-based maintenance, with an estimated value of $210 to $740 billion
      • Cities: Public health and transportation: $930 billion to $1.7 trillion
      • Outside: Logistics and navigation: $560 billion to $850 billion
      • Human: Health and fitness: $170 billion to $1.6 trillion
      • Worksites: Operations optimization, as well as health and safety: $160 billion to $930 billion
      • Retail environments: Automated checkout: $410 billion to $1.2 trillion
      • Factories: Operations and equipment optimization: $1.2 billion to $3.7 trillion
      • Offices: Security and energy: $70 billion to $150 billion
      • Home: Chore automation and security: $200 billion to $350 billion
  • GSMA - CHINA IS GLOBAL LEADER IN DEPLOYMENT OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS, FINDS NEW GSMA REPORT
    • http://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/china-global-leader-ideployment-internet-of-things-finds-new-gsma-report/
    • Shanghai: At Mobile World Congress Shanghai, the GSMA today issued a new report highlighting China’s leadership in the worldwide machine-to-machine (M2M) market. According to the report, “How China Is Scaling the IoT”, China is the world’s largest M2M market with 74 million M2M connections and has now become the global leader in the deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT).* The in-depth report includes insights from the country’s major mobile operators China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, as well as leading industry experts, and cites the combination of a strong economy, far-sighted government investment and international cross-sector partnerships as key factors in enabling the IoT to quickly reach scale.
    • “Clearly, China’s size offers economies of scale unavailable to other countries, but it’s been the government’s focused strategy, emphasis on common specifications and cross-sector collaboration that has allowed the Internet of Things to scale, delivering positive benefits to businesses and consumer alike,” commented Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA. “Connectivity is boosting major industries such as logistics, manufacturing and energy in terms of increased efficiency, but it has also created a new consumer market in areas such as connected vehicles, home appliances and wearables, putting China at the forefront of IoT deployment.”
    • OFFICIAL REPORT: http://www.gsma.com/newsroom/wp-content/uploads/16531-China-IoT-Report-LR.pdf
  • IBM Pours $3B Into New IoT Business Unit
    • http://www.eweek.com/it-management/ibm-pours-3b-into-new-iot-business-unit.html
    • IBM announced it will invest $3 billion over the next four years to establish a new Internet of Things (IoT) business unit.
    • Big Blue also said it is building a cloud-based open platform to help customers and ecosystem partners build IoT solutions. The company also is creating new IBM IoT cloud services to drive insights into business operations. More than 2,000 IBM consultants, researchers and developers will support the new IoT initiative and help enterprise clients gain new insights.
  • Internet of Things: Security misconceptions, expectations, and the future
    • https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2015/09/10/internet-of-things-security-misconceptions-expectations-and-the-future/
    • What are the most significant misconceptions people have when it comes to IoT security, even in the information security community?
    • We are biologically wired to concede to optimism bias – the mistaken belief that the one’s chances of experiencing a negative event are lower than that of other people. When it comes to the risk posed by attacks against IoT devices, this perception is further fueled by the notion that living in a traditional world of disconnected devices will continue to be an option.
    • We have already seen demonstrations of attacks, such as those against connected cars and medical devices, that can result in physical harm or the loss of life. As our society becomes increasingly reliant on devices around us to be connected, the line between our virtual and physical spaces will blur. Once vulnerabilities in popular IoT devices begin to be actively exploited to cause harm, our default biases attuned to favor optimism will shatter.
    • Within the information security community, I find that there is lack of appreciation for the profound responsibility we have to help secure devices that human-kind is going to rely upon to survive and even migrate to other planets. We dwell upon the criticality of state sponsored attackers with a myopic comprehension of the risk that awaits us. I feel we must begin to look upon connected systems such as smart cities, our increased reliance on medical devices that are online, and our projects to preserve our species to survive beyond planet Earth (such as what Elon Musk is doing with SpaceX).
  • CBR - Security: An existential threat to the Internet of Things
    • http://www.cbronline.com/news/cybersecurity/business/security-an-existential-threat-to-the-internet-of-things-4695912
    • The biggest threat is really a mind-set that security is not something that you do want. Security is a continuous process. There are lots of direct factors, but the minute you solve one, another one pops up.
    • The thing is that you have to build these systems in an IT sort of way, there has to be encryption, VPNing; we have to use authentication certificates, certificate based authentication to authenticate the actors.
    • This will help avoid having somebody pretending to be a device and sniffing data, that is one of the biggest threats - someone not stealing data (which it is also a threat), but injecting harmful data into a system to cause it to behave differently, to cause it to destroy itself, to act in an inefficient manner.
    • Those kind of attacks you have to have a kind of layered defence to. It is application whitelisting, it is continuous patching, and updating keys.
    • You also have to use an active detection scheme to look for signatures of attack, so that when something is compromised that device cannot get anywhere harmful and if there are attempts to go somewhere else it will be detected and remediated.
  • Internet of Things By The Numbers: Market Estimates And Forecasts
    • http://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2014/08/22/internet-of-things-by-the-numbers-market-estimates-and-forecasts/#60f9f1002dc9
    • Janus Bryzek, known as “the father of sensors” (and a VP at Fairchild Semiconductor), thinks there are multiple factors “accelerating the surge” in interest. First, there is the new version of the Internet Protocol, IPv6, “enabling almost unlimited number of devices connected to networks.” Another factor is that four major network providers—Cisco, IBM IBM +2.71%, GE and Amazon—have decided “to support IoT with network modification, adding Fog layer and planning to add Swarm layer, facilitating dramatic simplification and cost reduction for network connectivity.” Last but not least, Bryzek mentions new forecasts regarding the IoT opportunity, with GE estimating that the “Industrial Internet” has the potential to add $10 to $15 trillion (with a “T”) to global GDP over the next 20 years, and Cisco  increasing to $19 trillion its forecast for the economic value created by the “Internet of Everything” in the year 2020.  “This is the largest growth in the history of humans,” says Bryzek.
    • These mind-blowing estimates from companies developing and selling IoT-related products and services, no doubt have helped fuel the media frenzy. But what do the professional prognosticators say? Gartner estimates that IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion in 2020. IDC forecasts that the worldwide market for IoT solutions will grow from $1.9 trillion in 2013 to $7.1 trillion in 2020.
  • IoT at “the tipping point” in 2016, says government body
    • http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/iot-at-the-tipping-point-in-2016-says-government-body-2016-01/
    • "AllSeen, OIC and Thread are some examples of such emerging alliances to grow market confidence, however, many smaller partnerships will be formed between different stakeholders along the IoT value chain to unlock new commercial opportunities.”
    • “2016 will also provide stage to some major IoT security breaches and expose security to be the biggest risk factor for enterprise failure, as well as the greatest opportunity for commercial success once proven that security measures can manage any risks effectively.”
  • McKinsey&CompanyThe Internet of Things: Sizing up the opportunity
    • http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/the-internet-of-things-sizing-up-the-opportunity
    • Analysts have predicted that the installed base for Internet of Things devices will grow from around 10 billion connected devices today to as many as 30 billion devices by 2020—an uptick of about 3 billion new devices per year (exhibit). Each of these devices will require, at a minimum, a microcontroller to add intelligence to the device, one or more sensors to allow for data collection, one or more chips to allow for connectivity and data transmission, and a memory component. For semiconductor players, this represents a direct growth opportunity that goes beyond almost all other recent innovations—with the exception, perhaps, of the smartphone.
    • And security and privacy issues absolutely must be addressed. Internet of Things devices will not be used for critical tasks in, say, industrial or medical environments if connectivity protocols have not been established to prevent hacking, loss of intellectual property, or other potential breaches.
  • Gartner Says 6.4 Billion Connected "Things" Will Be in Use in 2016, Up 30 Percent From 2015
    • http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3165317
    • Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. In 2016, 5.5 million new things will get connected every day.
    • Gartner estimates that the Internet of Things (IoT) will support total services spending of $235 billion in 2016, up 22 percent from 2015. Services are dominated by the professional category (in which businesses contract with external providers in order to design, install and operate IoT systems), however connectivity services (through communications service providers) and consumer services will grow at a faster pace.
    • "IoT services are the real driver of value in IoT, and increasing attention is being focused on new services by end-user organisations and vendors," said Jim Tully, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.
  • How the 'Internet of Things' will impact consumers, businesses, and governments in 2016 and beyond
    • http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-internet-of-things-market-will-grow-2014-10
    • Here are some key points from the report: 
      • In total, we project there will be 34 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020, up from 10 billion in 2015. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.) will comprise 10 billion.
      • Nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years.
      • Businesses will be the top adopter of IoT solutions. They see three ways the IoT can improve their bottom line by 1) lowering operating costs; 2) increasing productivity; and 3) expanding to new markets or developing new product offerings.
      • Governments are focused on increasing productivity, decreasing costs, and improving their citizens’ quality of life. We believe they will be the second-largest adopters of IoT ecosystems.
      • Consumers will lag behind businesses and governments in IoT adoption. Still, they will purchase a massive number of devices and invest a significant amount of money in IoT ecosystems.
  • The 'Internet of Things' will be the world's most massive device market and save companies billions of dollars
    • http://www.businessinsider.com/the-internet-of-things-market-growth-and-trends-2015-2?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=taboola&utm_campaign=taboola&utm_term=bloomberg
    • The Internet of Things will be the largest device market in the world. We estimate that by 2019 it will be more than double the size of the smartphone, PC, tablet, connected car, and the wearable market combined. 
    • The IoT will result in $1.7 trillion in value added to the global economy in 2019. This includes hardware, software, installation costs, management services, and economic value added from realized IoT efficiencies.
    • Device shipments will reach 6.7 billion in 2019 for a five-year CAGR of 61%. Revenue from hardware sales will be only $50 billion or 8% of the total revenue from IoT-specific efforts, as software makers and infrastructure companies will earn the lion's share.
    • The enterprise sector will lead the IoT, accounting for 46% of device shipments this year, but that share will decline as the government and home sectors gain momentum. By 2019, government will be the leading sector for IoT device shipments.
    • The main benefit of growth in the IoT will be increased efficiency and lower costs. The IoT promises increased efficiency within the home, city, and workplace by giving control to the user. However, many are hesitant to use devices as security problems are still an issue.
  • Filament - A Declaration of Device Independence
  • HACKED HARDWARE COULD CAUSE THE NEXT BIG SECURITY BREACH
    • http://www.popsci.com/nowhere-to-hide
    • MICROCHIPS GOVERN OUR HOMES, CITIES, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND MILITARY. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY'RE TURNED AGAINST US?
    • In the past year, cybercrime has blossomed into a pandemic, consuming more than $445 billion in lost time, jobs, and intellectual property. Hackers compromised 233 million personal records from eBay; they intimidated Sony into scuttling the theatrical release of The Interview; they even commandeered the Pentagon’s Twitter account. But as varied as those assaults were, they shared a trait: Somone hacked software to penetrate a network or account. What set the McDonald’s incident apart—and what strikes fear into cybersecurity professionals everywhere—is that the perpetrator hacked hardware instead.
    • In computing terminology, hardware boils down to microchips, the integrated circuits that run our devices. They are in our phones, refrigerators, electric grids, planes, and missiles. And many more are on the way. Cisco estimates that more than 50 billion Internet-connected devices will come online by 2020, all communicating ceaselessly with the world around them.
  • Feds don’t need crypto backdoors to spy—your TV and toothbrush will do
    • http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/feds-dont-need-crypto-backdoors-to-spy-your-tv-and-toothbrush-will-do/
    • The so-called "going dark" problem—which various government officials claim will be the death knell to the US because Silicon Valley won't bake crypto backdoors into its wares—is greatly overblown. That's because crime fighters are not in the dark, at least technologically, and are now presented with a vast array of spy tools at their disposal. Specifically, modern espionage is piggybacking on the Internet of Things (IoT) tools, from televisions to toasters, that enable wanton spying.
    • "The audio and video sensors on IoT devices will open up numerous avenues for government actors to demand access to real-time and recorded communications," according to a Berkman Center for Internet & Society report published Monday.
  • Don’t Panic.
  • Why the internet of things hasn’t gone cellular yet
    • http://www.fastcompany.com/3056442/startup-report/why-the-internet-of-things-hasnt-gone-cellular-yet
    • Wireless Carriers Don’t Do Small-Scale
    • The Internet of Things isn’t (yet) a big business, and the concept favors lots of small-scale devices, rather than a handful of hits. Certifying, provisioning, and managing data plans for all of these devices is a tall order for wireless carriers, who are used to selling smartphones by the million.
    • "There are a lot of really interesting customers out there that they would love to support," Supalla says, "but they're just not built to support smaller companies, and interestingly their definition of a smaller company can be quite large."

Blockchain

SUMMARY

  1. Blockchains are at their heart a time-stamped (or other unique identifier) ledger of transactions. It’s the transactions involved in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem where the system will shine.
  2. Blockchain technology offers a way of recording transactions or any digital interaction in a way that is designed to be secure, transparent, highly resistant to outages, auditable, and efficient
    1. `The technology is young and changing very rapidly; widespread commercialization is still a few years off. Nonetheless, to avoid disruptive surprises or missed opportunities, strategists, planners, and decision makers across industries and business functions should pay heed now and begin to investigate applications of the technology.
  3. A billion dollars in venture capital has flowed to more than 120 blockchain-related startups, with half that amount invested in the last 12 months.
  4. Thirty of the world’s largest banks have joined a consortium to design and build blockchain solutions.2
  5. Nasdaq is piloting a blockchain-powered private market exchange.3
  6. Microsoft has launched cloud-based blockchain-as-a-service.4
  7. Blockchain concepts, prototypes, and investments are emerging in every major industry.
  8. Eric Jennings, co-founder at wireless infrastructure provider, Filament, said blockchain technology is helping enable the Internet of Things by registering the identity of devices that connect to infrastructure or physical assets and recording payment for the use of each device.
  9. Jennings said 71 per cent of all industrial infrastructure across gas pipelines, agricultural plots, manufacturing lines, and fleets and vehicles, is disconnected.
  10. Eight Months Since Release, Ethereum Is Second Only To Bitcoin
  11. “IOTA is a decentralized, very lightweight micro-transaction token that is optimized for the Internet-of-Things. It is essentially a blockless ledger without any sort of fees on transactions. ‘Money of IoT.’”
  12. IOTA - Quantum computation is very much science-fact, not fiction, and there are breakthroughs that bring us ever closer to scalable quantum computers weekly. In academia and security, this has been an ongoing concern for quite some time. Initiatives such as these date back over a decade. The NSA has begun their transition over to quantum resistant crypto.
    1. In short, the timeline for when a scalable quantum computer can cause havoc is impossible to predict, but most experts agree that it’s not far away. So when it comes to something as vast and impactful as IoT systems, especially its economy, it’s a no-brainer for us that this is a requirement.
  13. IBM - Ethereum is a more full-featured way to use blockchain technology than bitcoin, which was designed only for financial purposes. By including the ability to use internal executable code, far more can be done with it. And that is what the IoT will require.
  14. WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM (both blockchain and IoT mentioned in this) - We found 21 examples of these that will have far reaching impacts on human health, the environment, global commerce and international relations. We are entering a time of momentous societal shifts brought on by advancements in software. According to Erik Brynjolfsson, Council Vice-Chair; Director, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, and a prolific author: “Now comes the second machine age. 
  15. "Blockchain is here to stay, but it's important that due care and attention is taken when adopting it. A well-considered strategy and a team of technologists that know exactly what they are doing and where it fits into the wider picture may be the difference between being caught in a trap and a wonderful feast.
  16. IBM - In tech circles blockchain technology — the transaction processing engine behind the Bitcoin crypto-currency — has become the technological equivalent of quinoa. Not everyone is sure of what it is, but everyone is raving about it as an answer to any number of tough problems. The latest is IBM’s research team, who are looking at building out a distribution platform for the internet of things that uses block chain.
  17. IBM - “Our leading thesis is this: the most valuable companies being built in this space will use block chains as a deliberate architectural choice in their stack, but in a way that’s invisible to end consumers. As far as consumers are concerned, these will be services that are cheaper, faster, and more secure than ever before.”
  18. The Internet is entering a second era, one that gives us another shot to achieve a prosperous future (blockchain).

FULL SUMMARY

  • Chinese Auto Giant Wanxiang Plans $50 Million Blockchain Fund
    • http://www.coindesk.com/china-wanxiang-blockchain-50-million-fund/
    • First hinted at in a blog post by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, Chao Deng, managing director at Wanxiang-owned subsidiary DataYes, confirmed that the company had completed a purchase of 416,000 ETH, the native token on the Ethereum blockchain, in an total investment of $500,000.
    • The investment, however, is just the first step in a multi-pronged plan that includes establishing two entities dedicated to promoting blockchain technologies. The first, a non-profit called Blockchain Labs, was co-founded by Buterin, BitShares co-founder Bo Shen and Feng Xiao, vice chairman and executive director of Wanxiang Holdings, the company's investment arm.
    • The Blockchain Labs launch is to be followed by the creation of a $50m venture capital fund that will invest broadly in applications for blockchain technology and for which Wanxiang will be the sole limited partner (LP).
  • IOTA: A Blockchain-less *GASP* Token for The Internet of Things
    • http://cointelegraph.com/news/iota-a-blockchain-less-gasp-token-for-the-internet-of-things
    • “IOTA is a decentralized, very lightweight micro-transaction token that is optimized for the Internet-of-Things. It is essentially a blockless ledger without any sort of fees on transactions. ‘Money of IoT.’” — David Sønstebø, Co-founder of IOTA
    • Quantum computation is very much science-fact, not fiction, and there are breakthroughs that bring us ever closer to scalable quantum computers weekly. In academia and security, this has been an ongoing concern for quite some time. Initiatives such as these date back over a decade. The NSA has begun their transition over to quantum resistant crypto.
    • In short, the timeline for when a scalable quantum computer can cause havoc is impossible to predict, but most experts agree that it’s not far away. So when it comes to something as vast and impactful as IoT systems, especially its economy, it’s a no-brainer for us that this is a requirement. Everyone that is interested in a more comprehensive answer to this question ought to read this tremendous article by Anastasia Marchenkova.
  • The Blockchain Application Stack
  • IBM Security Intelligence - Ethereum: A Second-Generation Blockchain for the IoT
    • https://securityintelligence.com/ethereum-a-second-generation-blockchain-for-the-iot/
    • Blockchains are at their heart a time-stamped (or other unique identifier) ledger of transactions. It’s the transactions involved in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem where the system will shine: Because one can trigger computation or other code action with an Ethereum account message, an IoT device can be controlled if it is connected to an Ethereum-based network.
    • Work has already begun to develop a comprehensive system of IoT control using Ethereum as a component, according to the IBM report “Device Democracy: Saving the Future of the Internet of Things.” As this paper puts it, “The greatest challenge, however, is not in simply building a decentralized IoT, but one that can scale universally while maintaining private, secure and trustless transactions. In other words, the IoT represents a case of billions of players, not all of which can be trusted — some even malicious — with a need for some form of validation and consensus. And for this, the ‘blockchain’ offers a very elegant solution.”
    • Ethereum is a more full-featured way to use blockchain technology than bitcoin, which was designed only for financial purposes. By including the ability to use internal executable code, far more can be done with it. And that is what the IoT will require.
    • At this point, the framework is in its Frontier release. That means it is best suited for developers or other early adopters. That also means that it is a wide-open field in terms of competition and usage. For the strong of heart, opportunities abound to either succeed or fail.
  • WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM - Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software & Society Deep Shift Technology Tipping Points and Societal Impact
    • http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GAC15_Technological_Tipping_Points_report_2015.pdf
    • (read whole paper, but IoT and blockchain are both mentioned)
    • Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software and Society set out to help people prepare for changes enabled by software. We found 21 examples of these that will have far reaching impacts on human health, the environment, global commerce and international relations. We are entering a time of momentous societal shifts brought on by advancements in software. According to Erik Brynjolfsson, Council Vice-Chair; Director, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, and a prolific author: “Now comes the second machine age. Computers and other digital advances are doing for mental power – the ability to use our brains to understand and shape our environments – what the steam engine and its descendants did for muscle power.” These changes will impact people around the world. Inventions previously seen only in science fiction, such as artificial intelligence, connected devices and 3D printing, will enable us to connect and invent in ways we never have before. Businesses will automate complicated tasks, reduce production costs and reach new markets. Continued growth in internet access will further accelerate change. In Sub-Saharan Africa and other underdeveloped regions, connectivity has the potential to redefine global trade, lift people out of poverty and topple political regimes. And for many of us, seemingly simple software innovations will transform our daily routines. These changes are not without their challenges; as technology improves the lives of many, we hope to help prepare people to understand and address concerns on privacy, security and job disruption. I would like to thank my colleagues who serve on the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software & Society for their efforts to help people around the world better understand and prepare for these shifts. This report is a small first step in understanding the changes that lie ahead. We hope it will provide important insights to consider as we navigate the complex issues related to changing technologies. - Victoria Espine
  • CBR - Robot overlords, Blockchain & IoT standards: 6 of the worst things that could happen in technology in 2016
    • http://www.cbronline.com/news/verticals/tmt/robot-overlords-blockchain-iot-standards-6-of-the-worst-things-that-could-happen-in-technology-in-2016-4772321
    • IoT Incompatibility - The IoT is growing at a tremendous rate, with numerous devices spanning from automobiles to home appliances. However, the industry has been vocal in its criticism of the lack of standards - an issue which is stifling innovation and halting any further adoption. The Internet of Things could do so much in a number of industries and truly transform daily lives, but, as Gordon Haff, cloud evangelist at Red Hat, told CBR, the industry is holding itself back through a lack of standards.
    • "The Internet-of-Things (IoT) has enormous potential to use data from pervasive sensors to save energy, improve health, and generally provide an interface between the digital and the physical worlds but a plethora of incompatible communications standards could continue to be the norm. Wi-Fi (including the recently announced HaLow), ZigBee, NFC, Bluetooth (including an LE variant)... The list goes on.
    • "Sure, different standards are needed for different purposes. There are legitimate tradeoffs, especially around battery life in particular. But sometimes one gets a sense that the industry isn't even trying to be interoperable."
    • 2015 saw companies scramble to research and adopt blockchain technologies. Financial institutions such as Barclays, Nasdaq and UBS brought blockchain on board, while technology companies such as IBM and Samsung also looked in to how blockchain could be used to boost business.
    • "Blockchain is here to stay, but it's important that due care and attention is taken when adopting it. A well-considered strategy and a team of technologists that know exactly what they are doing and where it fits into the wider picture may be the difference between being caught in a trap and a wonderful feast.
  • Check out IBM’s proposal for an internet of things architecture using Bitcoin’s block chain tech
    • https://gigaom.com/2014/09/09/check-out-ibms-proposal-for-an-internet-of-things-architecture-using-bitcoins-block-chain-tech/
    • In tech circles blockchain technology — the transaction processing engine behind the Bitcoin crypto-currency — has become the technological equivalent of quinoa. Not everyone is sure of what it is, but everyone is raving about it as an answer to any number of tough problems. The latest is IBM’s research team, who are looking at building out a distribution platform for the internet of things that uses block chain.
    • Paul Brody, the head of mobile and internet with [company]IBM[/company], is proposing a system called Adept, which will use three distinct technologies to solve what he sees as both technical and economic issues for the internet of things. The Adept platform is not an official IBM product, but was created by researchers at IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV). Adept will be released on Github as open-source software. The platform consists of three parts:
  • IBM - What is blockchain and what does it have to do with the Internet of Things?
  • Microsoft to Offer Ethereum-Based Services on Azure
  • What the Blockchain Means for Economic Prosperity
  • Deloitte - Beyond bitcoin - Blockchain is coming to disrupt your industry
    • http://dupress.com/articles/trends-blockchain-bitcoin-security-transparency/
    • Blockchain, the “distributed ledger” technology that underpins bitcoin, has emerged as an object of intense interest in the financial services industry and beyond. Blockchain technology offers a way of recording transactions or any digital interaction in a way that is designed to be secure, transparent, highly resistant to outages, auditable, and efficient; as such, it carries the possibility of disrupting industries such as financial services, remaking business practices such as accounting and auditing, and enabling new business models. The technology is young and changing very rapidly; widespread commercialization is still a few years off. Nonetheless, to avoid disruptive surprises or missed opportunities, strategists, planners, and decision makers across industries and business functions should pay heed now and begin to investigate applications of the technology.
    • SIGNALS
      • A billion dollars in venture capital has flowed to more than 120 blockchain-related startups, with half that amount invested in the last 12 months.1
      • Thirty of the world’s largest banks have joined a consortium to design and build blockchain solutions.2
      • Nasdaq is piloting a blockchain-powered private market exchange.3
      • Microsoft has launched cloud-based blockchain-as-a-service.4
      • Blockchain concepts, prototypes, and investments are emerging in every major industry.
  • Could blockchain power the Internet of Things?
  • CIO - How Bitcoin blockchain technology is being applied across industries
    • From enabling the Internet of Things, to managing the use of digital content and improving the efficiency of global payments, there’s more to blockchain technology than just Bitcoin.
    • A panel from diverse industry sectors discussed how they are using Bitcoin blockchain technology at a Blockchain Workshop in Sydney on Thursday. The blockchain is a distributed database that maintains a list of all transactions made through it using Bitcoin, and allows for peer-to-peer payments over the Internet.
    • Eric Jennings, co-founder at wireless infrastructure provider, Filament, said blockchain technology is helping enable the Internet of Things by registering the identity of devices that connect to infrastructure or physical assets and recording payment for the use of each device.
    • Jennings said 71 per cent of all industrial infrastructure across gas pipelines, agricultural plots, manufacturing lines, and fleets and vehicles, is disconnected.
  • IOTA - Economy of Internet-of-Things
    • https://medium.com/@DavidSonstebo/iota-97592581f985#.ej2vuqe7t
    • Internet-of-Things (IoT) is a lot more than a buzzword, it’s an inevitable paradigm shift that we are all at the cusp of. It marks the dawn of an age of unprecedented automation, distribution, efficacy and growth. While the term ‘IoT’ conjure up fantastical imagery resembling SCI-FI-esque promises, it is in reality just an inevitable and natural evolutionary step in the ceaseless chain of technological progression. Through sensors and processors in conjunction with big data analytics it will revolutionize everything from our healthcare to our assembly lines.
    • As our homes, streets and cities become immersed in an endless sea of sensors and actuators there will be an incessant demand for computational power to analyse the perpetual influx of data from these sensors. Sending it back to the cloud for analysis is too costly due to bandwidth limitations and latency. Instead the cloud must include these edge devices.
    • This means that we’ll see a combination of smart sensors where the computational ability is packed into the sensor itself (Mist Computing) in combination with processing stations being spread out (Fog Computing). IOTA micro-transactions enable Party A’s sensor data to be processed by Party B’s processors in real time. In return Party B can use the iotas it gets compensated with to buy data from Party A or any other technological resource from another party in this symbiotic ecosystem.
    • Additionally research projects such as BOINC can use iotas to incentivize people with idle processors to participate in research.
  • Eight Months Since Release, Ethereum Is Second Only To Bitcoin
  • 3 Reasons Bitcoin's Blockchain Technology Won't Be Mainstream in 2016
    • http://www.thestreet.com/story/13425204/2/3-reasons-bitcoin-s-blockchain-technology-won-t-be-mainstream-in-2016.html
    • The need for industry standards: Blockchain was designed to provide a shared, public platform on which cryptocurrency trades could take place. But within the capital markets, there's already a push toward proprietary deployments like Nasdaq Linq. Such implementations make sense as firms familiarize themselves with the technology, but the widespread emergence of these and similar private solutions could impede the development of a uniform set of blockchain standards in the capital markets. An industry-wide regulatory framework will be crucial before blockchain can become the accepted transactional platform for banks and brokerages.