Tech Talk: Partners Can Be Infrastructure Management Providers via Blockchain

Channel partners’ ability to make massive heaps of money off of the Internet of Things (IoT) is well documented, but one crucial area that bears discussion is the need to protect and encrypt financial and personal information as it travels across the grid. For example, a single breach in the SWIFT financial network alone was responsible for the loss of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank account at the New York Federal Reserve Bank in February.

So what can be done to prevent fraud and ensure that data remains both secure and accessible? The answer, it seems, is blockchain.

When most people think of blockchain, they tend to think of Bitcoin, the ubiquitous virtual currency that utilizes blockchain to securely store financial information. However, the same technology behind blockchain also has the potential to change the way we look at legacy infrastructure like our power grids and water treatment centers by securing user information in a digital ledger, thus ensuring that payment info and other documentation remains open, safe and anonymous.

A new book, titled “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World” details how IoT sensors are being used in the Australian outback to detect when power lines go down. By utilizing a series of smart sensors on each pole, Australian utility companies have created a mesh network, which directly connects all of the poles under a single system. Without these sensors, Australian utility companies can spend hours searching the countryside for a single downed pole, which often leads to lost revenue and business disruption for the residents and farmers who rely on said infrastructure.  But with the power of IoT-connected sensors, downed poles can communicate with the rest of the grid to alert repair crews to their exact location.

That’s where blockchain technology comes into play. Authors Don and Alex Tapscott purport that by combining mesh networks with blockchain technology, not only can channel partners connect different parts of legacy infrastructure, they can ensure that payment is received securely so that the devices continue to work. Blockchain technology does this by facilitating “peer-to-peer transactions without any intermediary” so that user information can be validated anonymously. In layman’s terms, that means data can be manipulated and passed securely between two parties on the network without the need for an administrator, making it easier to safely share data.

The concept of IoT sensors utilized in a traditional city or town are part of the growing Smart Cities movement, where major urban centers like Barcelona, Chicago and Dallas are utilizing small connected devices to create a constant stream of communication. These sensors are capable of everything from water purity to traffic monitoring and even gunfire detection. But if municipalities and utility companies hope to use blockchain to secure their data, channel partners will undoubtedly be needed to help these groups understand how to effectively utilize such a complex technology. While the average person may have a difficult time understanding how blockchain technology works, channel partners possess the skills and knowledge necessary to ensure that these systems run smoothly. That means these partners can charge recurring revenue to actively monitor secure systems and ensure that everything is operating as needed.

The need for effective and reliable channel partners to maintain these solutions will only grow stronger as we continue to rely on the Internet for all aspects of our daily lives. While our reliance on the web is higher than ever before (take, for example, the incident that occurred over the weekend at JFK airport, where downed computers in one of the international terminals left thousands of passengers stranded for proof) there is a lot of evidence that suggests this need is only going to grow stronger. And as it does, the need for secure access and storage of information will grow with it. As it goes, blockchain just might hold the answer we’re all looking for.