Cyber Physical Chain (CPChain), an Internet of Things (IoT) technology company, is developing a new distributed infrastructure for the next generation IoT that aims to support a myriad of promising future business use-cases and applications.

One of the most prominent use-cases for IoT is smart city development, where governments, institutional organizations and general city populations worldwide can all benefit from smart solutions that help to manage the multitude of issues introduced by ever increasing urbanization rates. Smart cities have the potential to revolutionize how people live and interact with devices in urban environments, provide economic growth, improve people’s quality of life and reduce both carbon emissions and energy wastage. However, today’s IoT industry faces many challenges such as costly systems interconnection, security, data privacy, storage capacity and scalability, which together hold up technological advancements that would otherwise pave the way for effective smart city solutions.

CPChain’s IoT platform integrates blockchain technology with IoT through design of a parallel distributed architecture for IoT data storage and sharing (PDash). CPChain’s innovative solution separates the data layer from blockchain, instead using blockchain as a control channel for IoT data exchange. As opposed to storing all IoT data on-chain, which would quickly lead to massive storage requirements and network congestion, the chain is reserved for transactional metadata or references to data and is used for access control to data as well as data validation, authenticity and integrity purposes. Sensitive data is stored off-chain in a distributed cloud storage network, which is made secure using encryption techniques and blockchain. Using the PDash system, data is encrypted and digitally signed client side before it is uploaded to a distributed cloud network. At the same time, a hash is produced, which is stored as a record in the blockchain and serves as an identifier for the uploaded data. This hash is cryptographically tied to the uploaded data, where any efforts to tamper with this data will be immediately obvious to the data recipient(s) as the hash value of incorrect or tampered data will not match the reference in the blockchain.

CPChain’s PDash solution addresses the challenges that plague today’s centralized IoT systems by using blockchain, to ensure network security and preserve data integrity, and an encrypted cloud storage and computing system, to provide scalable and private data storage. Aside from security and privacy concerns, many centralized IoT systems introduce added complexity through use of proprietary solutions that tend to be tailored to specific use-cases in an effort to reduce overall system cost. These systems are generally costly to deploy and often lead to isolated data islands, which are usually difficult and expensive to connect. A major advantage of PDash is in its distributed nature, as this ensures that all data is inherently connected. With the design of PDash, CPChain provides a secure and practical IoT-blockchain system that can be leveraged as one of the world’s first smart city IoT platforms.

With up to two thirds of the world’s energy being consumed in cities around the globe, it’s not too difficult to believe that this energy could be harnessed more efficiently, especially when one considers how many services are carried out today. Take garbage disposal for example. Imagine a smart network of sensors fitted onto garbage cans that monitor garbage fill rates. Using CPChain’s PDash system, sensor data could be reliably stored and shared in a secure, distributed network. Garbage collection services could then use this data to plan collection routes more effectively, saving on gas costs by avoiding garbage cans that do not require collection. With these savings, competing waste disposal companies could become more competitive, potentially offering cheaper disposal services to customers along with the added benefits of reduced carbon emissions and a cleaner environment. This is but one example in an endless list of possibilities offered by CPChain’s smart city IoT platform. Other examples include a transparent, decentralized energy distribution network to reduce energy wastage and minimize costs, RFID technology to develop an efficient, automated waste separation system and swarm coordination, where city traffic can interact with smart traffic systems to help ease congestion, among many others.

By providing a platform that is capable of streamlining numerous smart city services and operations, CPChain is positioning itself as a future IoT powerhouse. Not only will CPChain’s platform allow for countless new cost saving opportunities and business models, smart city solutions will also help mitigate some of the effects of climate change through use of automated systems that efficiently manage city resources and waste.