Take ownership of your data. It's More Important (And Valuable) Than You Realize.

It will live in our pockets, in our computers, and even in our coffee maker. The intelligent IoT (Intelligent Internet of Things) will be physically personal—in a way the internet isn’t.

Will it be seamless? Intrusive? Dangerous? Profitable? That depends on how we interact with it.

Who will own the intelligent IoT? What are the economics?

It’s undeniable, even to the skeptics, that the intelligent IoT is going to create enormous value.

Consider how wealthy Google and Facebook have become from collecting data on millions of people. Surely, the data from billions, perhaps trillions, of devices is going to be worth a fortune.

But who will own and control the intelligent IoT devices? Who will profit from the data being collected?

We may think that we, the individual, are first in line to collect the profits. After all, we own our mobile; why wouldn’t the profits be ours? Again, the current data we share from our mobile phones already becomes information that Google, Facebook, and others profit from. We get free entertainment and free information, but we don’t make a monetary profit.

And why are we presuming we’ll own the intelligent IoT devices? Because they are in our homes? Well, consider the SolarCity model. SolarCity places solar panels on your roof—but they still own them.

Which corporations want to own the IoT devices? Perhaps the telecom companies—who own the 5G network that the intelligent IoT will be built on. What about Google? Or Huawei?

With these economic models, it certainly looks like corporations have the economic models ready to own the data and take the profits. But so do consumers.

Have you heard of the Brave Browser? It uses a Distributed Ledger Technology-based advertising model so that you, the consumer, are paid for advertisements you consume. Essentially, you’re profiting from your data. The Brave economic model becomes possible on an intelligent IoT built on a distributed ledger.

So who will control the intelligent IoT and its data? Who will profit from it? Ultimately, that’s up to us. Both corporations and consumers have the opportunity. And a lot of that opportunity comes because of how intelligent IoT will be built.

How Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Ledger Technology are Building an Intelligent IoT

We’re moving from merely building products to building networks of products—the Internet of Things (IoT). This transition was simple enough; you have a number of products, and all you need to do is connect them together.

Sure, the opportunities to integrate the physical and virtual worlds seem exciting—for individuals and businesses alike:

Rolls Royce is building intelligent engines.

There are plans for super-energy-efficient smart cities, and

The healthcare industry is creating ingestible pill-sized sensors to monitor your medications.

But they also seem terrifying. Right? Especially when this network is built with the sensor in your cars, phone in your pocket, watch on your wrist, and headphones in your ears—anything that can be connected will be connected.

Feeling skeptical? Me too. An intelligent IoT feels like it could morph into Big Brother from George Orwell’s 1984. Right now I avoid any IoT device.I’m fearful, uncertain, and doubtful. However, changes are bringing a more optimistic perspective.

Why? We’re reaching the point where we can use artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology to build a secure and intelligent IoT. Does this sound all too familiar? It should. Many technologies are hyped like they are bringing us Utopia—none more so than AI, DLT, and IoT.

For the record, I don’t think IoT is revolutionary, but I do believe it will make our lives a little better—as long as we manage the risks. This is what artificial intelligence, the IoT, and distributed ledger technology can do together. The key isn’t in any of the technologies individually, but in how they converge.

Here’s why AI, DLT, and IoT work so well together.

IoT is data-rich but information-poor. It needs intelligent insights from AI.

AI is information-rich but data-poor. It needs data from IoT devices.

And both working together, an intelligent IoT needs the security of a distributed ledger.

Clearly, there’s a lot going on. And it only gets more complex as the technologies entwine. So in this article, we’re going to break down the most important factors so you understand what’s going on and when to (or when not to) safely integrate intelligent IoT devices into your life.

How can AI make the IoT intelligent?

1. Prioritize data to increase the IoT sensor's efficiency.

AI makes IoT sensors more efficient. AI can inform the sensors in which data is worth capturing and ignoring. And AI will also optimize where to locate the sensors to make them more effective.

2. Increase efficiency and cut costs.

Energy efficiency on small IoT devices may seem insignificant, but when there are billions of them, efficiencies bought by AI, including unplanned downtime prediction and optimal data storage, are critical.

3. Use prediction models to prevent external threats.

Even before DLT is integrated, AI will make the IoT more secure. AI will help predict and prevent external threats.

4. Reduce attack points by computing away from the cloud.

The smarter processing of AI means IoT devices can compute within the device (on the edge), rather than having to send information to the cloud. Google has already released the Cloud IoT Edge platform.

5. Provide remote software updates to update optimized security protocols.

As the real value of IoT devices lies in the software rather than the hardware, AI can help build better software that can then remotely update the physical device.

Considering the key weakness of IoT is its vulnerability, many of the most important improvements from artificial intelligence are security improvements. However, these will all be much more effective when combined with distributed ledger technology.

How can distributed ledger technology secure the intelligent IoT?

As we saw, AI not only makes IoT more secure as well as more intelligent, we will see that distributed ledger technology makes IoT more efficient as well as secure.

1. Control access to data.

A distributed ledger isn’t designed to store data. It’s a ledger, not a log. However, the ledger can be used as “control points” to control access to data.

2. Provide the right incentives (and security) so companies share data.

The core principle of distributed ledger technology is the incentive structure. For an intelligent IoT to work, different users need to share information with each other—across companies and industries. Naturally, companies are reticent to share their data. But when you have an authenticated and secure platform, you can more easily build in an economic model that incentivizes companies to share their data and ultimately the profits that the data produces.

3. Distribute the workload to increase efficiency.

Distributed ledger technology can be used to distribute the workload so computing tasks can be done in parallel. This will help keep the entire intelligent IoT ecosystem efficient and secure.

While we’re focusing on IoT, it’s important to look at how DLT and AI improve each other, as together, their impact compounds when reapplied to the IoT.

How does DLT improve AI, and vice versa?

Simply put, DLT helps us trust our AI models, while AI can make DLT even more secure and energy-efficient. Here’s exactly what’s going on:

1. Audit trails build trust in AI models.

DLT helps us trust the insights AI generates. Right now, artificial intelligence has a black-box problem—we don’t know what it’s doing—so it’s hard for us to trust it. A DLT can provide a clear audit trail so we can analyze the AI’s decision process, the data used, where the model came from, etc. This is the essence of what has become known as “algorithm standards.”

2. Smart contracts limit the consequences of catastrophic failure.

Smart contracts within a distributed ledger, such as those on the Ethereum network, can reduce the chance of a catastrophic scenario because smart contracts limit the action space, and thus, the possible damage.

3. AI can help the DLT conserve energy.

Distributed ledger technology can demand so much energy it makes the ecosystem expensive to run. Artificial intelligence can help the network run more efficiently.

Compounding the benefits

DLT and AI help build network effects on the IoT. Securing the IoT with DLT means that more data will be shared, which will improve AI security features, which will encourage more people to share data. The loop continues on and on.

As the IoT network grows, it will become big enough to support markets. This means you will be able to sell your data, and companies will be able to buy it. Although how this works, as we discussed, will depend on who controls the intelligent IoT devices.

Companies want to own and control the data too. But we shouldn’t let them. Because you should own your data. It’s more important (and profitable) than you think.

What does this all mean for me?

Here’s how I’m planning to interact with the intelligent IoT:

know that decentralization provides me more responsibility—and opportunity. I am responsible for ensuring the security of my personal data, as well as the ability to sell it.

I am totally unwilling to reveal some personal information. While I am happy to share data from my car's sensors, weather sensors, and even coffee machine sensors, I will not disclose or sell any sensitive data, such as my heart rate or anything related to my identification.

I'll be aware that there will be numerous great startup prospects in the IoT business during the next decade. However, I recognize that, given the network effects that will be at play, it is critical to collaborate with partners and companies that are creating the architecture in a way so we can all profit from our data.

Artificial intelligence and distributed technology will help us build an intelligent IoT. It’s our responsibility to manage the risks.

It’s more important than me (and you).

Photo by Ben Wicks on Unsplash

Owning personal data is important to everyone. Owning and controlling your data ought to become a core value of western democracy, like our freedom of speech and right to privacy. Perhaps it should even be a human right.

Our communal trust in Big Tech has waned. Although I question this negative sentiment, as we have many opportunities beyond Google’s and Facebook’s default settings—like the DuckDuckGo search engine, Brave browser, or CTemplar encrypted email.

I believe that tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, like those at DuckDuckGo, Brave, and CTemplar, will build virtuous companies that respect our data and our right to own it. But every entrepreneur needs an ecosystem. So it is up to us as consumers to support the companies we believe in.

We can only vote in a democracy every four years. But we can vote in an economy every day with our dollars and increasingly, our data.

So whatever you do, own your data. It’s more important (and profitable) than you think.nk.

It will live in our pockets, in our computers, and even in our coffee maker. The intelligent IoT (Intelligent Internet of Things) will be physically personal—in a way the internet isn’t.

Will it be seamless? Intrusive? Dangerous? Profitable? That depends on how we interact with it.

Who will own the intelligent IoT? What are the economics?

It’s undeniable, even to the skeptics, that the intelligent IoT is going to create enormous value.

Consider how wealthy Google and Facebook have become from collecting data on millions of people. Surely, the data from billions, perhaps trillions, of devices is going to be worth a fortune.

But who will own and control the intelligent IoT devices? Who will profit from the data being collected?

We may think that we, the individual, are first in line to collect the profits. After all, we own our mobile; why wouldn’t the profits be ours? Again, the current data we share from our mobile phones already becomes information that Google, Facebook, and others profit from. We get free entertainment and free information, but we don’t make a monetary profit.

And why are we presuming we’ll own the intelligent IoT devices? Because they are in our homes? Well, consider the SolarCity model. SolarCity places solar panels on your roof—but they still own them.

Which corporations want to own the IoT devices? Perhaps the telecom companies—who own the 5G network that the intelligent IoT will be built on. What about Google? Or Huawei?

With these economic models, it certainly looks like corporations have the economic models ready to own the data and take the profits. But so do consumers.

Have you heard of the Brave Browser? It uses a Distributed Ledger Technology-based advertising model so that you, the consumer, are paid for advertisements you consume. Essentially, you’re profiting from your data. The Brave economic model becomes possible on an intelligent IoT built on a distributed ledger.

So who will control the intelligent IoT and its data? Who will profit from it? Ultimately, that’s up to us. Both corporations and consumers have the opportunity. And a lot of that opportunity comes because of how intelligent IoT will be built.

How Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Ledger Technology are Building an Intelligent IoT

We’re moving from merely building products to building networks of products—the Internet of Things (IoT). This transition was simple enough; you have a number of products, and all you need to do is connect them together.

Sure, the opportunities to integrate the physical and virtual worlds seem exciting—for individuals and businesses alike:

Rolls Royce is building intelligent engines.

There are plans for super-energy-efficient smart cities, and

The healthcare industry is creating ingestible pill-sized sensors to monitor your medications.

But they also seem terrifying. Right? Especially when this network is built with the sensor in your cars, phone in your pocket, watch on your wrist, and headphones in your ears—anything that can be connected will be connected.

Feeling skeptical? Me too. An intelligent IoT feels like it could morph into Big Brother from George Orwell’s 1984. Right now I avoid any IoT device.I’m fearful, uncertain, and doubtful. However, changes are bringing a more optimistic perspective.

Why? We’re reaching the point where we can use artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology to build a secure and intelligent IoT. Does this sound all too familiar? It should. Many technologies are hyped like they are bringing us Utopia—none more so than AI, DLT, and IoT.

For the record, I don’t think IoT is revolutionary, but I do believe it will make our lives a little better—as long as we manage the risks. This is what artificial intelligence, the IoT, and distributed ledger technology can do together. The key isn’t in any of the technologies individually, but in how they converge.

Here’s why AI, DLT, and IoT work so well together.

IoT is data-rich but information-poor. It needs intelligent insights from AI.

AI is information-rich but data-poor. It needs data from IoT devices.

And both working together, an intelligent IoT needs the security of a distributed ledger.

Clearly, there’s a lot going on. And it only gets more complex as the technologies entwine. So in this article, we’re going to break down the most important factors so you understand what’s going on and when to (or when not to) safely integrate intelligent IoT devices into your life.

How can AI make the IoT intelligent?

1. Prioritize data to increase the IoT sensor's efficiency.

AI makes IoT sensors more efficient. AI can inform the sensors in which data is worth capturing and ignoring. And AI will also optimize where to locate the sensors to make them more effective.

2. Increase efficiency and cut costs.

Energy efficiency on small IoT devices may seem insignificant, but when there are billions of them, efficiencies bought by AI, including unplanned downtime prediction and optimal data storage, are critical.

3. Use prediction models to prevent external threats.

Even before DLT is integrated, AI will make the IoT more secure. AI will help predict and prevent external threats.

4. Reduce attack points by computing away from the cloud.

The smarter processing of AI means IoT devices can compute within the device (on the edge), rather than having to send information to the cloud. Google has already released the Cloud IoT Edge platform.

5. Provide remote software updates to update optimized security protocols.

As the real value of IoT devices lies in the software rather than the hardware, AI can help build better software that can then remotely update the physical device.

Considering the key weakness of IoT is its vulnerability, many of the most important improvements from artificial intelligence are security improvements. However, these will all be much more effective when combined with distributed ledger technology.

How can distributed ledger technology secure the intelligent IoT?

As we saw, AI not only makes IoT more secure as well as more intelligent, we will see that distributed ledger technology makes IoT more efficient as well as secure.

1. Control access to data.

A distributed ledger isn’t designed to store data. It’s a ledger, not a log. However, the ledger can be used as “control points” to control access to data.

2. Provide the right incentives (and security) so companies share data.

The core principle of distributed ledger technology is the incentive structure. For an intelligent IoT to work, different users need to share information with each other—across companies and industries. Naturally, companies are reticent to share their data. But when you have an authenticated and secure platform, you can more easily build in an economic model that incentivizes companies to share their data and ultimately the profits that the data produces.

3. Distribute the workload to increase efficiency.

Distributed ledger technology can be used to distribute the workload so computing tasks can be done in parallel. This will help keep the entire intelligent IoT ecosystem efficient and secure.

While we’re focusing on IoT, it’s important to look at how DLT and AI improve each other, as together, their impact compounds when reapplied to the IoT.

How does DLT improve AI, and vice versa?

Simply put, DLT helps us trust our AI models, while AI can make DLT even more secure and energy-efficient. Here’s exactly what’s going on:

1. Audit trails build trust in AI models.

DLT helps us trust the insights AI generates. Right now, artificial intelligence has a black-box problem—we don’t know what it’s doing—so it’s hard for us to trust it. A DLT can provide a clear audit trail so we can analyze the AI’s decision process, the data used, where the model came from, etc. This is the essence of what has become known as “algorithm standards.”

2. Smart contracts limit the consequences of catastrophic failure.

Smart contracts within a distributed ledger, such as those on the Ethereum network, can reduce the chance of a catastrophic scenario because smart contracts limit the action space, and thus, the possible damage.

3. AI can help the DLT conserve energy.

Distributed ledger technology can demand so much energy it makes the ecosystem expensive to run. Artificial intelligence can help the network run more efficiently.

Compounding the benefits

DLT and AI help build network effects on the IoT. Securing the IoT with DLT means that more data will be shared, which will improve AI security features, which will encourage more people to share data. The loop continues on and on.

As the IoT network grows, it will become big enough to support markets. This means you will be able to sell your data, and companies will be able to buy it. Although how this works, as we discussed, will depend on who controls the intelligent IoT devices.

Companies want to own and control the data too. But we shouldn’t let them. Because you should own your data. It’s more important (and profitable) than you think.

What does this all mean for me?

Here’s how I’m planning to interact with the intelligent IoT:

I know that decentralization provides me more responsibility—and opportunity. I am responsible for ensuring the security of my personal data, as well as the ability to sell it.

I am totally unwilling to reveal some personal information. While I am happy to share data from my car's sensors, weather sensors, and even coffee machine sensors, I will not disclose or sell any sensitive data, such as my heart rate or anything related to my identification.

I'll be aware that there will be numerous great startup prospects in the IoT business during the next decade. However, I recognize that, given the network effects that will be at play, it is critical to collaborate with partners and companies that are creating the architecture in a way so we can all profit from our data.

Artificial intelligence and distributed technology will help us build an intelligent IoT. It’s our responsibility to manage the risks.

It’s more important than me (and you).

Owning personal data is important to everyone. Owning and controlling your data ought to become a core value of western democracy, like our freedom of speech and right to privacy. Perhaps it should even be a human right.

Our communal trust in Big Tech has waned. Although I question this negative sentiment, as we have many opportunities beyond Google’s and Facebook’s default settings—like the DuckDuckGo search engine, Brave browser, or CTemplar encrypted email.

I believe that tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, like those at DuckDuckGo, Brave, and CTemplar, will build virtuous companies that respect our data and our right to own it. But every entrepreneur needs an ecosystem. So it is up to us as consumers to support the companies we believe in.

We can only vote in a democracy every four years. But we can vote in an economy every day with our dollars and increasingly, our data.

So whatever you do, own your data. It’s more important (and profitable) than you think.