ForkLog continues its series of podcasts ‘Explain Crypto’, where it talks live with representatives of the Bitcoin industry.
In November, the show’s guest was the blockchain developer and architect of the project «Робономика» Sergey Lonshakov. In an interview with ForkLog Live, he spoke about the prospects for integrating blockchain and the Internet of Things and explained why the future lies with open rather than private blockchains.
Smart contracts — a bridge between fintech and the Internet of Things
Robonomics develops solutions for integrating financial technologies and the Internet of Things using smart contracts.
“Suppose you have a network of coffee vending machines. For operation they require energy, water and coffee. The machine can take money and prepare a drink. But you must constantly service it: monitor water and coffee levels, restock supplies, pay electricity bills. Imagine that the machine takes on all these functions: orders new batches of water and coffee itself, controls delivery and settles with suppliers. And you only receive the profit. This is the result we aim to reach,” Lonshakov explains.
According to Sergey, the Internet of Things is a promising area for smart-contract applications:
“Even in the article by the creator of smart contracts, cryptographer Nick Szabo, one of the examples of using the technology was related to robotics and the Internet of Things. Szabo proposed using smart contracts to sell cars on credit. If the borrower pays the loan on time, they gain access to the car; if not, they cannot open the car.”
He believes that decentralized technologies win over other ways of controlling smart devices. The main advantages of decentralization are the security of smart contracts and the accessibility of technologies regardless of the political situation in the world.
According to Lonshakov, no cloud platform can reach the security level of smart contracts. Moreover, smart contracts do not require oracles to connect IoT devices with financial technologies, as is currently the case.
IoT Without Oracles
Lonshakov notes that blockchain technologies are still developing. There are currently only pilot IoT system projects based on smart contracts on the market. Sergey says that even the smart devices themselves have only recently learned to solve complex tasks.
“Until recently, IoT devices understood only low-level communication: they collected data and transmitted it to a human. But for effective operation they need high-level communication. It is not enough to receive data about pressure in the pipes of a multi-apartment building: devices must analyze the information, warn people and call a technician for repairs,” Lonshakov comments.
In recent years, IoT specialists have been teaching smart devices to communicate with each other to make the technology mass-market.
«Робономика» builds cyber-physical systems that connect physical objects and computing power. Such systems consist of many individual sensors, each performing its own task.
“If a sensor is alone, it will not be effective because it provides little information. We cannot obtain an accurate weather forecast from a single sensor — thousands of sensors at different points in the city are needed,” Lonshakov explains.
However, he urges not to expect quick results from decentralized technologies:
“Everyone wants the development of promising projects like Pavel Durov’s TON to take one or two years. It does not work like that. Innovations are not startups; they require time. Although even in the last five years we have seen a large number of technological achievements. Who could have imagined in 2015 that Tesla with Autopilot would be allowed to drive on city streets? Today, autonomous vehicles are not limited to car companies. For example, this direction is being developed by ‘Yandex’.”
Corporate blockchains cannot compete with open networks
Robonomics develops cyber-physical systems on the basis of open blockchains. The first such blockchain was Ethereum; the project is now preparing to integrate with Polkadot.
According to Sergey Lonshakov, Polkadot was needed for two reasons: it allows building networks on top of different blockchains and makes the technology cheaper, and thus more accessible to a wide range of users:
“We are not interested in flashy partnerships. We will not work with Tesla merely to talk about it later. Our task is to attract a community of developers. Using Robonomics on Ethereum is expensive, and a partnership with Polkadot will allow us to set a product price comparable to cloud platforms. Thanks to working with Polkadot we can provide users a product for $10 a month.”
Sergey believes the future lies with open, not corporate blockchains.
«Робономика» and IBM have been developing blockchain projects for about five years. During this time we launched water drones on the Volga and Neva, concluded several major deals, and begun building a sensor network. Little is known about IBM’s project. No corporation has a solution that would yield a breakout effect and gain mass popularity, he explains.
According to Lonshakov, private corporate blockchains cannot compete with open ones:
“In the future, collective governance will be built on the principles of DAOs, not private blockchains. Smart contracts in open blockchains will open and close smart locks in offices and Airbnb apartments. Because with open blockchains the community of developers and users grows. We will not have dominance of corporate blockchains, but there will be ecosystems of distributed ledgers.”
In late October, Robonomics Network valued the Polkadot slot at $3 million.
Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: ForkLog FEED — the full feed of news, ForkLog — the most important news and polls.