Filament raises $5M to bring the blockchain to the Internet of things (opens in new tab)

Another article on the same topic: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2969396/internet-of-thi...

"Filament looks really interesting. It would be possible to dismiss this fledgling business as a hodgepodge of buzzwords, but the credibility of its investor pool, the novel approach it seems to be taking to the problem, and the very real opportunity that exists for IoT networks all combine to make this an interesting play."

edit: a better written version: http://www.coindesk.com/filament-nets-5-million-for-blockcha...

Filiment looks like a really robust system with what amounts to "eventual consistency" for IoT data, which is great for data which doesn't need to be acted on in near real time.

1. I'd be interested to see a bit more about how they will handle systems with actuators as well as sensors - i.e. controlling things like windows and sprinklers. I think IoT gets really interesting when it's not just about sensors.

2. It will be even more interesting to see if people are wiling to allow their nodes to be used to help a neighbour get their data through the mesh. Clearly your node will use more power if it's relaying more data, so I wonder how willing people (for example farmers) will be willing to share resources like that.

"To build its technology, Filament is using a series of protocols that include the blockchain transaction database behind Bitcoin; BitTorrent, the popular peer-to-peer file sharing software; Jose, a contract management protocol that is also used in the OAuth authentication service that lets people use their Facebook ID to log in and manage permissions to other sites around the web; TMesh, a long-range mesh networking technology and Telehash for private messaging."

As someone who needs sensor data for their product, this looks pretty cool. I'd love to see the API docs.

IBM and Samsung are also working on a similar project using Ethereum, Bittorrent and Telehash:

http://www.coindesk.com/ibm-reveals-proof-concept-blockchain...

https://www.theprotocol.tv/adept-demo-ibm-samsung/

I wonder why they don't just use IPFS, too.