IoT devices produce a ton of data, but most of that data gets siloed in proprietary networks and clouds or cast away at the edges of networks even though real secondary and tertiary market opportunities may lie in that data. What we lack is a robust and vendor-neutral data sharing protocol. Inherently decentralized and scalable, peer-2-peer (P2P) networks provide a good blueprint on which to build this data marketplace.
Within just two years, Gartner forecasts that we’ll reach 20 billion Internet-connected things. They also claim that 95 percent of new technology product designs will have Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities. In each connected device, one or more sensors is logging useful data that could be shared and sold in real time to any number of interested parties. Opening that data to markets is risky, but if done right, it could represent a real opportunity.
Overwhelmingly, data remains locked in proprietary, centralized systems. The wider world can’t access its insights. The humans, organizations, and machines that produce it can’t sell it to an eager and waiting market. With data confined to silos, we’re realizing just a fraction of its value.
But with the rise of both social media and IoT, demand for a real-time data economy is emerging. Smart cities, smart homes, and autonomous vehicles will be collecting ever more localized information describing everything about us, our machines, and the world we inhabit. It’s valuable data and yet the world has no real way to trade it: on today’s Internet, there’s no vendor-neutral platform to support the secure transport, storage, and monetization that the new data economy demands.
What’s missing is a scalable publish/subscribe messaging system for information that anyone can use and which no one party owns. To illustrate the point, imagine an instant messaging (IM) app by which text published to a stream gets delivered securely to everyone listening (or subscribing) to that stream. Now imagine something similar for all data and not just text.
