Ready or not, the IoT data marketplace is on its way
IOTA Foundation, the Berlin-based nonprofit behind the IOTA cryptocurrency platform, is gearing up to launch an IoT data marketplace to “securely store, sell and access data streams.”
A proof of concept is currently open to everyone interested, with an API available that allows users to “contribute sensors and build new data-driven applications.” It’s up and running in real time on its test network now, according to IOTA’s website, with “full end-to-end data verifiability and security offered via masked authenticated messaging within the users’ browser.”
More than 35 companies are participating in this initiative, which has the goal of exploring how a data marketplace can be built atop a distributed ledger, as well as to uncover potential challenges and applications.
The secret sauce, or architecture, that differentiates IOTA from other distributed ledgers is its directed acyclic graph (DAG) called “tangle,” which doesn’t rely on blocks. “Instead, IOTA registers transactions to ‘tangle,'” explained Jessica Groopman, industry analyst and founding partner of Kaleido Insights. “Rather than hashing transactions to blocks, transactions are approved by verifying two other transactions.”