Imma tell cats one more time to buy Iota
Machines That Shop for Themselves Promise to Save Time and Money
It’s too early to say whether existing payment networks will be robust enough to process potentially millions of IoT payments per second, says Dr. Mercan. While not optimal yet, decentralized payment systems that
use blockchain-like technologies could offer a secure alternative, he says.
The value transfer protocol IOTA, named after the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet, has been developed to facilitate micropayments between connected objects, says co-founder Dominik Schiener. It relies on a “tangle” where each transaction confirms two others, which makes the process fast and feeless, he says. IOTA could become a standard adopted by devices as varied as electric cars, industrial robots and power grids, Mr. Schiener says.
The protocol is currently being tested as the backbone to a local, automated energy market in Trondheim, Norway, as part of a project funded by the European Union. A 2019 pilot program with Jaguar Land Rover had drivers in Ireland use IOTA to earn digital credits every time their cars flagged potholes and shared traffic updates with local authorities or navigation providers. Users could redeem the credits to pay for parking and tolls.
“As the infrastructure and opportunities across the industry evolve, there could be potential for this technology,” says Jess Bowden-Eyre, a spokeswoman for Jaguar Land Rover.