本文转载自IONChain： the Future of IoT, a Mining Tool for All Things
原文链接：https://coinidol.com/ionchain-future-of-iot-mining-tool-for-all-things/
Cisco released a controversial study earlier this year. According to the report's forecasts, 75% of the world's existing networking projects will end in failure. Interestingly, however, almost at the same time, Alibaba's 12 scientists from different fields unanimously declared: as the maturity of AI technology accelerates, the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to have a truly popular year.
What does the concept of "Internet of Things", which is a little strange but frequently mentioned, mean? In what direction will IoT go in the future? Will IoT be a change maker in our lives like Internet? To what extent is the current technology of Internet of Things developed? What are the motivating forces of it?
Internet of Things, also known as IoT, as the name suggests, is a network that interconnects all objects. This sentence can be split into two meanings. The first meaning is the core and foundation of the IoT, the Internet. It is the network that extends and expands on the Internet; The second meaning is the extension and expansion of the client to any object, exchange of information and communication, that is, the interconnection among objects.
Although the concept of the Internet of Things is very abstract and difficult to understand, you must have seen a lot of things in the Hollywood sci-fi films where IoT is a applied to real life: A snap of fingers, the coffee machine will automatically make the early morning of the coffee; Before sitting in the intelligent vehicle, the automobile has already determined the best route and has already set the AC to the right temperature; On your way to home, the lights are on and your bathtub is filled with hot water. In fact, when IoT technologies mature, there will be many application scenarios including but not limited to agriculture, transport, healthcare, logistics, construction, security, and others.
Therefore, a large number of scientists, technical R&D teams, and even capital have high hopes for the "Internet of Things" and believe that the IoT can completely subvert the way we live and work like the Internet. At present, a large number of companies and project teams have begun competing to develop IoT technologies, hoping to take the lead in taking off the “pearl on the crown”: the traditional technology companies like IBM, PTC, GE, and Microsoft, have become dominant in the IoT platform market; The Chinese Internet giant BAT has also developed or laid out its own Internet of Things technology. However, outside these traditional enterprises, there is also an extraordinary force that is also impacting this huge blue ocean market--the blockchain project team.
As of May this year, there has been no less than ten kinds of blockchain crypotocurrency issuance under the concept of "Internet of Things", among which there are IOTA with the world's top ten market value, which focuses on solving the problem of transactions between machines (m2m); The SDA that implements the seamless integration of the bottom layer of the blockchain and the application of the Internet of Things; The WTC that builds a trustworthy, authentic, and reliable underlying commercial public chain by Internet of Things technology.
There is a natural fit between the concept of blockchain and the Internet of Things. Blockchain emphasizes "decentralized point-to-point connections," while the Internet of Things emphasizes "the direct connection between objects and things." Therefore, although these emerging forces may not have as many traditional IoT companies as their capital strength, R&D experience, etc., the blockchain team has a unique advantage in overcoming problems of IoT.
In a series of projects where many blockchains and the IoT are integrated, there is an eye-catching Chinese force--the IONChain. IONChain is a new IoT foundation platform based on blockchain and edge computing. It aims to build underlying public blockchain of IoT ecosystem and advocates "one device, one coin, one code". The name of the IONChain itself has a special implication: each IoT device on the IONChain is like a single ion. They can be freely combined into different application scenarios. The IONChain serves as the connection layer and can access all kinds of IoT devices and support decentralized peer-to-peer application interactions between devices.
IONChain has developed a revolutionary technology: Edge Computing. Edge Computing refers to the use of network, computing, storage, and application core capabilities as an open platform close to the objects or data source, providing nearest-end services nearby. It can meet the key needs of industry digitalization in agile connectivity, real-time business, data optimization, application intelligence, security, and privacy protection.
Relying on the edge computing, the IONChain truly has the ability to achieve "a mining tool for all things"—anything that has access to the IONChain IoT device can obtain mining incentives through the "ionization algorithm". And the system will carry out accurate reward calculations from several dimensions such as functions, data volume, time (eg, terminal controlled duration, data collection duration, etc.) and space (area covered by the terminal or terminal cluster) of the IoT device. Using ion coins as incentives, both SMEs and individual users will have great willingness to join the new ecosystem where everything is a mining tool.
The reason why IONChain can develop and apply such cutting-edge technology is because of its strong developer team. In the past three years, the IONChain technology team has provided solutions and products for more than 10 industries and nearly 20 blockchain projects, and accumulated a large amount of link systematic experience based on architecture design, product development, project management, and commercial applications. It is worth mentioning that the IONChain team have enlisted two core members from Hyperledger Core Developer. The "Blockchain Brothers" forum built by them has thousands of people and 3000+ daily page views.
Such a team with a wide range of technologies and operations and a large project structure has attracted the attention of many high-quality investors since the start of the project. According to official sources, well-known blockchain investment agency LD Capital has already invested in IONChain. And LD Capital will establish the IoT Blockchain Industry Fund, which will be managed by Kong Huawei, the head of the Shanghai branch of the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In the interview, LD Capital founder Yi Lihua said that he will continue to focus on the cross direction of the blockchain and the IoT and deeply support quality projects such as the IONChain.
The IONChain project will be listed on the Exchange recently, and its public blockchain will be issued on August this year. It is reported that the development work and community building of the project are implemented smoothly according to schedule.
中文译文：
思科在今年年初发布了一份颇受争议的研究报告。根据这一报告的预测，全球75%的现有物联网项目将以失败告终。然而有趣的是，几乎是同一时间，阿里巴巴旗下12位不同领域的科学家一致公开表态：随着AI技术成熟加速，IoT（Internet of Things）领域将迎来真正大火大热的一年。
"物联网"这个略显陌生却又被频繁提及的概念，到底指的是什么呢？物联网未来将会向什么方向发展？物联网是否会和互联网技术一样，给我们的生活带来翻天覆地的变化？当前的物联网技术水平又发展到了什么程度？有哪些力量在推动着它？
物联网，又名IoT（Internet of Things），顾名思义，物联网就是物物相连的互联网。这句话可以拆分成两层，第一层是物联网的核心和基础仍然是互联网，它是在互联网基础上延伸和扩展的网络；第二层是其用户端延伸和扩展到了任何物品与物品之间，进行信息交换和通信，也就是物物相连。
虽然物联网的理论概念非常抽象、难以理解，但你一定在好莱坞的科幻影片里看到过很多物联网的生活化应用：打个响指，咖啡机便会自动冲泡清晨香浓的咖啡；坐上无人驾驶的汽车之前，车子便已经设计好最优的路线，并且把空调开到最舒适的温度；下班回家，房间里会自动亮起灯光，浴缸里已经放好了热水。实际上，当物联网技术成熟后，将会有非常丰富的应用场景，包括但不限于农业、交通、医疗、物流、工业、安防等等。
因此，大量科学家、技术研发团队甚至资本都对于"物联网技术"寄予厚望，认为物联网能够像互联网一般彻底颠覆我们的生活和工作形态。目前，已经有大量企业、项目团队开始竞相研发物联网技术，希望能率先摘下这颗"皇冠上"的明珠：老牌科技企业IBM、PTC、GE和微软已成为占据物联网平台市场的主导；国内的互联网巨头BAT也纷纷在自行研发或是布局物联网技术。然而，在这些传统企业之外，还有一股非同一般的势力也在冲击这个巨大的蓝海市场——区块链项目团队。
截止今年5月，以"物联网"概念发行的区块链数字货币已经不下十种，其中有专注于解决机器与机器（m2m）之间交易问题的、市值排名全球前十的IOTA；有致力于实现区块链底层和物联网应用生态无缝融合的SDA；也有借由物联网技术搭建一条诚信真实可靠的底层商业公有链WTC。
区块链和物联网的理念之间有一种天然的契合。区块链讲究的是"去中心化的点对点连接"，而物联网强调"物物相通的直接联系"。因此，虽然这些新兴势力在资金实力、研发经验等方面或许不及一些传统物联网研发公司，但是区块链团队在攻克物联网问题上有着得天独厚的优势。
而在诸多区块链和物联网结合的项目中，一支中国新的力量令人眼前一亮——离子链IONChain。离子链是一种基于区块链和边缘计算的新型物联网基础平台，旨在打造物联网生态底层公链，主张"一物一币一码"。 离子链的名字本身就有着特别的寓意：每一个在离子链上的物联网设备都像是一个个离子，它们可以自由组合成不同的应用场景，离子链作为连接底层，可以接入各种各样的物联网设备，支持各设备之间的去中心化点对点应用交互。
离子链研发了一套革命性的技术：边缘计算。边缘计算是指在靠近物或数据源头的一侧，采用网络、计算、存储、应用核心能力为一体的开放平台，就近提供最近端服务。它可以满足行业数字化在敏捷联接、实时业务、数据优化、应用智能、安全与隐私保护等方面的关键需求。
依托边缘计算，离子链真正拥有了实现"万物皆矿机"的能力——凡是接入离子链的物联网设备，都可以通过"电离算法"获得挖矿奖励。并且系统将从物联网设备的功能、数据量、时间（例如：终端受控时长，数据采集时长等）、空间（终端或终端集群所覆盖区域）等多个维度进行精确的奖励计算。而在离子币的激励下，中小企业和个人用户都将会有很大的意愿加入到"万物皆矿机"的新局面中来。
离子链之所以能够研发和应用如此前沿的技术，是因为其强有力的技术支持团队。离子链技术团队在过往三年中，为超过10个行业、近20个区块链项目提供了解决方案并实现产品落地，积累了大量基于架构设计、产品研发、项目管理、商业应用等环节的系统性经验。值得一提的是，离子链团队成员中有2名超级账本全球CORE团队的核心人员，其内部搭建的"区块链兄弟”纯技术"论坛已有千人规模与3000+的日浏览量。
这样一支技术与运营全面、项目格局宏大的团队，从项目启动一开始就吸引了很多优质资本的目光。据官方消息，离子链已经获得知名区块链投资机构了得资本的投资，了得资本同期还宣布建立物联网区块链产业基金，由中科院计算所上海分所所长孔华威担任此基金执行合伙人。
了得资本创始人易理华曾在采访中表示，会持续关注区块链和物联网这一交叉方向，深度支持离子链这样的优质项目。IONChain项目目前正筹备登陆交易所，而其公链发布时间定于今年8月。据悉，目前该项目的开发工作与社区建设正在按时间表顺利推进。