Alexandra is a software engineer who specializes in core banking systems development for financial and IT spheres. Taking strong interest in blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and IoT, Alexandra got deep understanding of the emerging techs believing in their potential to drive the future.
The IOTA foundation announced the launch of the Data Marketplace designed for the rising Internet of Things (IoT) industry. The company which stands behind the namesake cryptocurrency has already attracted more than 20 influential stakeholders such as Microsoft, Bosch, Volkswagen, Accenture and research groups from perspective universities.
Data is the base of the Machine Economy. Today we produce more data than ever. Tech giants and smartphone owners, industry leaders and people who use Apple watch – we all generate incredible amount of data. And usually it just gets wasted. The fact that most of the data generated in everyday usage may be useful can seem to be ridiculous, but you can hardly overestimate the importance of working with the big volumes of data for artificial intelligence.
The future of the IoT is deeply connected with the development of AI, machine learning, predictive analysis. Lots of world-known companies unite their efforts in order to make futuristic concepts of AI a part of our everyday life. And the IOTA foundation has created a platform which allows changing the way datasets are seen today. The Data Marketplace is like a data lake that can be used for fair buy-sell operations.
The key aspect which makes the newly created marketplace unique is the Distributed Ledger architecture called Tangle. Compared to its closest competitor – Blockchain Technology – the network has the advantage of being entirely decentralized. The validation is no longer parted from using the network. The co-founder of IOTA Dominik Schiener describes the core technology of the marketplace in the following way:
“Our next-generation technology goes beyond blockchain in order to solve some of the key pain points, such as fees and scaling, that have kept blockchain in the realm of theory instead of real-world use cases. We are aiming to implement the most impactful, collaborative demo of Distributed Ledger Technology to date”.
Tangle has already gained the appreciation of the top experts of the industry. Omkar Naik, Microsoft blockchain specialist, identified the gains of the Distributed Ledger architecture saying that “this next generation technology will accelerate the connected, intelligent world and go beyond blockchain that will foster innovation real world solutions, applications and pilots for our customers”. This decentralized approach brings the security of data to the new level: as soon as the Data is put into the Marketplace it can no longer be tampered with.
The Data Marketplace has just been announced but it can already offer different datasets that may be used in innovative studies and IoT projects. You can get data from the weather station in Rotterdam just for $0.20, purchase anonymized healthcare data from smart accessories, explore datasets from more than 10 countries. And until the beginning of January the IOTA foundation is opened for all the interested partakers.
Today the IOTA foundation is seen as one of the leaders of the industry. Their cryptocurrency takes the eights position with the Market Cap of $3.95 billion. Even though IOTA doesn’t have perfect record it demonstrated exponential growth since the word of the new Data Marketplace had been out. This cryptocurrency is being traded since 2015. The IOTA foundation definitely has a clear vision of the future development. The team started working on the Data Marketplace in 2015 and just two years later we can see a real product that can significantly accelerate the development of the IoT.
The IOTA’s Data Marketplace is just starting out. The foundation has promised to publish more information on the new project in their blog together with chosen partners.