It seems there is a growing synergy between blockchain technology and the Internet of Things. Building the best infrastructure for this purpose will not be easy by any means. IoTeX claims to have come up with a viable long-term solution in this regard, although it remains to be seen whether the project can deliver on its initial promise.
The Concept of IoTeX
The IoTeX project positions itself as the next generation of Internet of Things-oriented blockchain infrastructure. Inter-device communication can certainly benefit a lot from distributed ledger technology. This is also relevant to IoT’s payment aspect. However, building the necessary infrastructure to make IoT thrive in its own way will always be challenging.
How Does it Work?
It seems IoTeX will focus on the things which matter in order to bring blockchain to IoT. Scalability, privacy, and interoperability are all concerns when dealing with distributed ledgers. Even though other projects are focusing their attention on the same concepts, it seems IoTeX is looking to make things a bit less confusing and more approachable for the masses.
Even though it appears IoTeX is throwing together a lot of buzzwords, it will be interesting to see how the team approaches these challenges. They will use sidechains and a rootchain to form the project’s core protocol. There is no way that multiple IoT applications can use the same blockchain at the same time, although giving them different chains to use is a different matter altogether.
Additionally, the IoTeX project offers constant-size ring signatures, a range proof using Bulletproofs, a cross-chain transfer of value and data option, and fast consensus through the RDPoS implementation. With public and private properties for all subchains and Turing completeness, there is a lot to be explored here. If successful, the transaction throughput of IotTeX will be quite impressive, although exact specifics have yet to be determined.
The IoTeX Token
As one would expect, there will be a native token for the IoTeX ecosystem. While it remains to be seen how this token will be used exactly, it seems safe to assume it will power all of the transactions and features provided by this project. It will take some time to determine the real value of this particular project and its associated token, though.
The Road Ahead
IoTeX’s roadmap is still filled with plenty of work. The testnet preview launch is ongoing, and the beta version will be introduced in June. The mainnet will go live in October, and it will be interesting to see how the IoTeX project evolves from that point forward. Transactional privacy will not be implemented until late 2019, although such timelines are always subject to change.
