IBM to Unveil BTC Blockchain Internet of Things Proof-of-Concept at CES

[Raystonn]

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/ibm-unveil-bitcoin-blockchain-internet-of-things-proof-concept-ces-2015/

What this means is we've been grossly underestimating the number of potential users of Bitcoin.  We've restricted it so far only to humans, based on old models of non-digital currency.  That is a huge miscalculation.  Now "things" will own Bitcoins as well, and use them to interact with each other.  The number of "things" in the world is massively larger than the number of people.  In terms of Bitcoin price, this is huge.

[efreeti]

They will probably pattern it and kill future innovation based on this concept in the US.

[podyx]

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/ibm-unveil-bitcoin-blockchain-internet-of-things-proof-concept-ces-2015/

What this means is we've been grossly underestimating the number of potential users of Bitcoin.  We've restricted it so far only to humans, based on old models of non-digital currency.  That is a huge miscalculation.  Now "things" will own Bitcoins as well, and use them to interact with each other.  The number of "things" in the world is massively larger than the number of people.  In terms of Bitcoin price, this is huge.

ELI5

[Thomas-s]

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/ibm-unveil-bitcoin-blockchain-internet-of-things-proof-concept-ces-2015/

What this means is we've been grossly underestimating the number of potential users of Bitcoin.  We've restricted it so far only to humans, based on old models of non-digital currency.  That is a huge miscalculation.  Now "things" will own Bitcoins as well, and use them to interact with each other.  The number of "things" in the world is massively larger than the number of people.  In terms of Bitcoin price, this is huge.

ELI5

1 million/BTC in 2 years.

[biggus dickus]

I've been hoping people will pump up the price again, but I never considered "things" might pump up the price.

[indiemax]

I've been hoping people will pump up the price again, but I never considered "things" might pump up the price.

willy pumped it up

[BldSwtTrs]

So the IBM guys understands the project needs to be open source.

Next step: they will understand there is no need to reinvent the wheel with another chain and another monetary unit to secure it. Just put the whole thing in the BTC chain.

[infofront]

Some of you don't seem to realize IBM is creating a competing blockchain. If anything, I think this is bad news for BTC.

[neilol-real]

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/ibm-unveil-bitcoin-blockchain-internet-of-things-proof-concept-ces-2015/

What this means is we've been grossly underestimating the number of potential users of Bitcoin.  We've restricted it so far only to humans, based on old models of non-digital currency.  That is a huge miscalculation.  Now "things" will own Bitcoins as well, and use them to interact with each other.  The number of "things" in the world is massively larger than the number of people.  In terms of Bitcoin price, this is huge.

ELI5

Basic Examples:

Load a cellphone with BTC and have bits subtracted whenever you text, call, use data etc. This decouples the phone from your personal information and costly legacy payment networks. Push rather than pull billing.

An elderly (or lazy) person's fridge will have the ability to scan bar-codes on objects inside and take a daily inventory of your food. The IoT fridge will automatically order groceries for delivery based on what is needed. The fridge could act as a hardware wallet, paying the delivery person.

Car pays for gas and maintenance when performed, automatically negotiates lowest price with available maintenance shops - Pays parking meters when you pull up to them. You could auction off your parking spot to other cars driving by as you walk to the car. These sorts of things would quickly become more complicated if you need to share personal financial information for each transaction.

[neilol-real]

Some of you don't seem to realize IBM is creating a competing blockchain. If anything, I think this is bad news for BTC.

You're right, but they are just building a PoC... as soon as transferring value comes into the picture, the Bitcoin blockchain becomes the obvious choice because of security

[ssmc2]

Does this mean they would effectively create a sidechain for what they're doing?

[Raystonn]

That's one way to do it and still reap the benefit of Bitcoin's network.  This project is just a wakeup call that we are not thinking big enough when estimating adoption figures.

Another example: Spam-Free Email.  If you had to pay 10 bits (0.00001BTC) to send an email to a spam-free address, spammers would go broke.  Normal users wouldn't be affected as they'd receive about the same amount of BTC as they sent.  This can thus be used to affect send/receive ratios.

[Raystonn]

Can you imagine the adoption numbers if each email address was associated with its own BTC address, and held a small balance?

[byronbb]

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/ibm-unveil-bitcoin-blockchain-internet-of-things-proof-concept-ces-2015/

What this means is we've been grossly underestimating the number of potential users of Bitcoin.  We've restricted it so far only to humans, based on old models of non-digital currency.  That is a huge miscalculation.  Now "things" will own Bitcoins as well, and use them to interact with each other.  The number of "things" in the world is massively larger than the number of people.  In terms of Bitcoin price, this is huge.

ELI5

Someone answered it already but to expand this to the sci-fi edge of possibility, there has been talk of non-human intelligence programs being able to remain alive by performing a task to exchange for bitcoin. Like an autonomous taxi that performs a service for bitcoins then buys gas and maintenance in order to continue it's hard-coded "purpose". 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu4PAMFPo5Y
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Agents