IOT//EDI (IoT + Blockchain)

Much of the personal data that’s harvested by all the connected devices that make up the IoT is hoarded, and often exploited, by a relatively small number of commercial organisations. As the quantity and quality of the data we share about ourselves increases, so will concern about how that data is being stored, shared and used. Making sense of all this data, while also protecting the personal privacy of end-users, is going to become a huge challenge. Add machine-to-machine interaction into the mix (there are already far more machines than people connected to the Internet), and it looks like the Internet is going to need a bigger boat!

That being the case, what would an entirely new kind of Web actually look like? Web 1.0 was entirely made up of static web pages connected by hyperlinks. Web 2.0 aka the “Social Web” emphasised user-generated content, usability, and interoperability. What is needed now is a third Web that enables both people and machines to interact seamlessly via a decentralised, democratic web. By using the blockchain to remove the need for servers, innovations such as Ethereum and IPFS could define Web 3.0 in the same way that HTTP/IP defined Web 1.0 — hence the importance of the blockchain.