IoDLT December 2019 Community Update
Hello NEM Community!
Here is our update for December. As we were last month, we are in the development phase and beginning to think about our plan to market for 2020. We also worked on refactoring some of our technology to be more scalable and receptive to new changes.
Tech Progress with IoDLT December 2019
In the last couple of weeks, we have been focusing on getting our own version of a public, Catapult testnet hosted. We believe that this serves as a dual purposed initiative:
- Allow us to think about larger scale, custom blockchain networks.
- Put the application of a higher traffic network into practice, which also serves as a portfolio piece for clients.
This deployment also includes wallet, faucet, and explorer builds. We are happy to report that the testnet is live, with already some of the community hosting nodes and interacting with it. The repo for the setup can be found here. We plan on open sourcing more useful tools (such as a GUI setup wizard) for Catapult deployment.
We have invested a lot of time doing this and understanding the ins-and-outs of scalable Catapult deployment. We believe this can be a major selling point for our company, especially with having something out in production.
Block Explorer: http://devnet.iodlt.com/
Faucet: http://faucet.iodlt.com/
Beacon Nodes: Friendly Node and Friendly Node
Axon currently has the following features in the testing phase: ownership, commands, identity, and encrypted communications. As always, all of these features use Catapult. These features are integral to Axon’s core functionality. Axon’s physical appearance has not changed since the last month’s update. These features will mark Axon in an “Alpha” stage. We will work on a better physical look once the software is stable and working.
Axon now has a solid, working Arduino SDK, which allows for very easy and versatile programming of IoT applications with Catapult at a microcontroller level. In the program below (in the screenshot), for example, Axon is programmed to send data every time the Arduino loops, as well simultaneously watch for new incoming data (a command to turn on an LED) on pin 13. This can easily be used in a custom function to send custom data periodically upon a certain condition, which is entirely up to the programmer. This information comes to and from Catapult. There is also a very handy debug mode that outputs useful log and error messages, which is typically not found in lower level SDKs. A simple notification system lets the developer know Axon’s latest status, and also logs messages for debugging. The SDK is quite light on the Arduino’s limited resources as well.
Join the discussion about the IoDLT December 2019 Update on the NEM Forum!
The provisioning of our own testnet as greatly helped in gathering insight into the optimal configuration for our IoT Nodes, and will help in testing different configurations.
After extensive testing, we have found a solution to combat the portable IoT Node’s power bug. We are currently designing a board to further solve the power issue. It is essentially a board that plugs on to the node’s GPIO to offset any peaks and valleys in the power that batteries generate, allowing for smooth transitions from wall power to battery power. We are also exploring further energy features, such as solar powered nodes to charge the battery.
Sales / Partnerships progress
We are still in contact with several promising opportunities, and are pursuing them.
Articles / PR
We are set to release another demonstrative article soon, “Best of the Future Meets Best of PAST: Using NEM’s Catapult & IoDLT’s AXON to create a Gold-Backed cryptocurrency”. In it, we detail the concept of using XRF authentication machine that verifies precious metals items against the blockchain. Building on this concept, we also introduce the idea of a gold “vending” and authentication machine that exchanges gold for crypto and crypto for gold. IoT (XRF and other sensor technology) and Catapult are used along the way to verify all aspects of every transaction and ensure legitimacy. It also illustrates the concept of how the “old” economy can meet and benefit from the “new” economy.
Our drone article was translated into Japanese.
Our most recent article, “The Future Of Data – Swarm Learning, The Catapult Blockchain and Edge Computing”, is pending publication on IoT For All.
As always, we are very grateful for the support and consulting from Ventures and the community.
Happy New Year!
IoDLT Team
