The driving force behind the development of modern technology is data. It surrounds us everywhere and is continuously generated. However, it’s only accessible to a limited number of people and companies who control its dissemination, rarely sharing it with researchers.
Fortunately, advancements in drones and robots have enabled the automated collection of environmental data, such as air and water pollution levels. Furthermore, the rise of IoT devices and assistant robots has opened up access to user behavior data. Which can be utilized to train machine learning models and applied in fields ranging from marketing to environmental studies.
Ocean Protocol and Robonomics Network have joined forces to create autonomous systems and IoT devices that generate and provide access to data. Their collaboration highlights the potential of modern technology to revolutionize data access and utilization.
What is Ocean
Ocean Protocol is a revolutionary decentralized data system built on Ethereum smart contracts. Its primary function is to facilitate the publication and access of data services. The Ocean Network operates exclusively with metadata and access, while the actual data resides outside the blockchain.
Ocean Protocol Architecture
The Ocean Protocol architecture is composed of several elements, including:
Applications: Marketplaces and applications that enable the broadcasting of services such as data, algorithms, and compute-to-data to the blockchain. They also facilitate the issuing of NFTs and data tokens, storing data tokens in data wallets, searching and exploring data, and buying and selling data tokens at fixed or automatically determined prices.
Libraries: API tools such as ocean.js and ocean.py that enable seamless integration with the Ocean Protocol. It also includes utilities that ensure the smooth operation of the platform. Such as Aquarius – a metadata index that provides quick search results. And Provider – a tool for downloading data and communicating with the compute-to-data infrastructure service.
- The Graph: A third-party utility designed for developers to create their applications and marketplaces on the Ocean Protocol.
Smart Contracts: The Ocean Protocol relies on smart contracts of Ethereum and other supported networks to perform various functions.
How Ocean Protocol works
Ocean Protocol is a decentralized data system that relies on metadata to publish and access data services. The publication of data sets occurs in the form of metadata. Which provides an overview of the information contained in the data and its format. The actual data is not stored on the Ocean network, but the blockchain controls access to it.
The system utilizes two types of tokens: ERC721 (data NFT) and ERC20 (datatoken). The ERC721 token grants exclusive access to data – this is done through the issuance of data tokens. Access to data requires the exchange of one data token with the data provider. This operation is recorded on the blockchain, ensuring that the token cannot be used again by anyone else. The metadata specifies the conditions for accessing data. Such as temporary or permanent access, storage or streaming links, and Compute-to-Data access. This option enables computations to be performed on the data without actually transferring the data, ensuring confidentiality and security for sensitive information.
Ocean Protocol provides a secure and controlled way to access data by utilizing blockchain technology and metadata. The issuance of data tokens through ERC721 tokens ensures exclusive access to data, while the metadata provides crucial information about the data and its accessibility. Compute-to-Data access adds an extra layer of security by enabling computations on the data without transferring it.
Robonomics Network
Robonomics is a platform that aims to establish secure and decentralized communication between IoT devices, robots, and humans while enabling a decentralized economy of robots. The project is built on blockchain technology, allowing for the creation of autonomous robots controlled through a decentralized cloud. With direct access to digital markets through cryptocurrencies. Currently, Robonomics is being developed as a parachain of the Polkadot (Kusama) network. The goal is to create a comprehensive decentralized economy of robots, where they can operate independently. For more information about the project’s philosophy, you can read their White Paper.
The architecture of IoT services based on para chain Robonomics
The architecture of IoT services provided by the Robonomics parachain involves a suite of software tools designed for connecting IoT devices and complex robotic systems using HTTP/MQTT protocols and ROS (Robot Operating System).
The Robonomics web service offers a range of IoT functions. Such as a message broker in a peer-to-peer network based on the IPFS protocol. A service for storing data in IPFS and placing hashes in the blockchain, and device control using commands from a decentralized network to turn on/off, start/stop, and other similar actions.
By storing the digital twin of the device in the blockchain. The real device can be controlled and receive commands while maintaining a single version of data on its state throughout its life cycle. The Robonomics para chain can update the state of the digital twin every 6 seconds.
In addition, during the functioning process, devices generate data about their work or the surrounding environment. And they may require third-party data to complete their tasks. The Ocean Protocol platform enables robots or IoT devices to independently upload, monetize, and access the necessary data using the Robonomics network.
Moreover, robonomics leverages the ROS ecosystem for programming robots and uses the library for ROS called ocean_ros to interact with the Ocean Protocol through the ocean.py API. An interesting case is the integration of Ocean and ROS in obtaining telemetry data tokens from the Spot robot (Boston Dynamics).
Conclusion
The emergence and growth of projects like Robonomics provide a glimpse into the future of a world where cyber-physical systems dominate. So, we can contemplate how a new economy can be created and developed. Which these systems will take part in. Also, the Ocean Protocol, on the other hand, tackles the challenge of creating a straightforward platform for accessing, monetizing, and utilizing data. Both platforms are noteworthy in their own right. And their combination allows us to establish new objectives and devise new ways of achieving them.
So, the implementation of decentralized technologies in these projects demonstrates that blockchain technology has uses beyond acting as a platform for cryptocurrencies.