Ethereum based blockchains as a protocol for IoT networks

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Blockchain is for Robots
i.e not for Humans
Igor Artamonov
ETCDEV
Atlanta, GA, 2018

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Software engineer, distributed systems, data
processing, security, Java
Followed Ethereum Classic blockchain when
Ethereum ETH made the fork in 2016, which
violated base principles of public blockchain.
Founder of ETCDEV, a leading Ethereum Classic
development company with a strong focus on
decentralized computing providing long term
support for the ETC blockchain.
Igor Artamonov

3. Going to talk about what is
blockchain, smart contracts,
IoT
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4. What is Smart Contract?
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Token
• A code that keeps track of a balance of its users
• User A can send X tokens to user B
• getBalance(A)
• transfer(A, B, X) ->
• balance A minus X
• balance B add X

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8. A function that operates data
stored on blockchain.
No UI, no external
dependencies, just blockchain.
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"A smart contract is a computer protocol intended to
digitally facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or
performance of a contract.»
From Wikipedia
Smart contracts were first proposed by Nick Szabo,
who coined the term in 1994

10. Examples of
Legal Smart Contracts
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Insurance
You pay to a Smart Contract and in the event of a
covered loss you get compensation from that contract.
But the event happens offline, people are trusted
parties in that schema. And then can talk to each other
w/o blockchain

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Tokens
A Smart Contract provides you a
functionality of sending/receiving some
digital assets

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14. Most of the people understand Smart Contract in
legal terms.
Not always true, sometimes it is just a code
executed on blockchain.
In many cases humans are not involved. In most
cases there are no legal agreement and it’s not
enforceable.
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15. Smart Contracts is a program executed on
blockchain, but the term «Contract» influenced the
industry too much, everyone is trying to issue a
token or make some legal agreement on blockchain
now :(
IBM Hyperledger has term «chaincode» which
maybe better represents the idea
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16. Maybe it’s not for humans?
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17. A machine-to-machine protocol
for communication and
agreements?
Robotics/autonomous cars/home
automation?
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18. EVM
Ethereum Virtual Machine
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19. JVM & Java were
invented for devices
Write Once, Run Anywhere
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20. Unfortunately it was also
Write Once, Debug Everywhere
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22. No Timezones in EVM
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23. No Filesystem in EVM
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24. No Networking in EVM
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25. No Random Values in EVM
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26. No Floating Point in EVM
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27. Sometimes to move into one
directions you need to be
limited in may other directions
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Ethereum Virtual machine is close to mathematical function, code executed in it
will always produce exactly same result for same inputs, and it works in a fully
isolated environment.
It’s a fully deterministic, architecture neutral, portable and secure.
Can recover from issues, data loss. Easy to debug. Easy to build fault tolerant
systems.

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SputnikVM
A standalone & embeddable EVM, compatible
with most of Ethereum based blockchains. IoT
is one of the main targets
Open Source, Apache 2

30. What problems of IoT can be
solved or what can be improved?
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31. Hardware Difference
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Basically what what proposed by JVM, a developer shouldn’t care about
underlying hardware.
A developer writes, tests and debugs code using one OS + hardware, run on
another platform and it works in exactly same way

32. What blockchain really
provides?
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33. Blockchain is
extremely slow Database
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34. Blockchain is
extremely slow VM
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35. Using blockchain you’re paying a
high price
Price of what?
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36. Decentralization
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37. Centralisation in IoT???
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44. Hardware + OS
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It’s hard to write code for different hardware (and operating system)
Easier to outsource as much as possible to a central server with more
comfortable environment
EVM can be that comfortable environment to execute business logic

45. Security
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Security is hard, especially when device is not under your control
Easier to have central server with all security stuff
Blockchain is designed for insecure environments

46. Updates
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End users never do updates, automatic updates are hard
Central server is always up-to-date
Smart contract based logic easier to update

47. Blockchain based design
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• Separate blockchain for a network of devices, maybe private and isolated,
maybe a sidechain
• Proof-of-Work is too expensive for such kind of applications, so some trusted
setup
• Some devices can’t afford a full node, but can be powerful enough to send
transactions to the network
• With trusted local network you can listen to events on EVM running on another
device

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53. Thank You
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ETCDEV
https://etcdevteam.com
Ethereum Classic
https://joinetc.tech
Igor Artamonov
splix@etcdevteam.com
@splix
linkedin.com/in/igorartamonov/