IoT (Internet of Things) devices are becoming ubiquitous in enterprise operations and our daily lives, yet as distributed networks of devices and information grow, their centralized operations open up scalability, privacy and security risks. IoTeX has built a privacy-centric and scalable IoT blockchain network running on the fastest and most secure blockchain architecture to create a decentralized trusted fabric for IoT. EPNS is pleased to announce the launch of a pilot program to provide decentralized push notifications to the users of the IoTeX blockchain to help them more deeply integrate IoT blockchain solutions into their business.

IoTeX and EPNS Partner to Power IoT Blockchains

Known as the Internet of Trusted Things, IoTeX has built a truly business-ready blockchain. Enterprises do not have to spend large amounts of time and money to seamlessly connect their physical and digital worlds and improve operational efficiencies. Built-in services include asset tracking and supply chain management with Pebble Tracker, video cameras to manage data ownership and control, and multi-stakeholder collaboration of trusted data.

The IoTeX blockchain powers real devices, allowing for real world use cases in supply chain management, healthcare, DeFi, and other industries. Currently, 6,666 devices are connected to the blockchain. Devices include the first blockchain-powered home security camera Ucam and the multi-sensor IoT data oracle Pebble, which converts real world phenomenon into blockchain-ready data. This is made possible by the IoTeX network of hierarchically arranged blockchains and subchains, allowing for the concurrent running of many interoperable blockchains.

The blockchain IoT market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 45.1 percent to 2.4 billion USD between 2020 to 2026 as enterprises migrate to IoT blockchains for increased operational efficiency and security. As the blockchain IoT platform streamlines and decentralizes complex networks of devices, all stakeholders in the network will be highly dependent on notifications to optimize operations. These users rely on notification services to deliver important information, including:

• Customizable notifications based on user-defined thresholds for streaming data from Pebble Tracker, which captures real world data and sends it to IoTeX smart contracts.
• Daily notifications of rewards received from the IoTeX staking ecosystem (>10k unique stakers).
• Notifs any time a proposal starts/ends as part of the decentralized governance via snapshot (http://gov.iotex.io/) initiative.

Unfortunately, IoTeX users are currently reliant on email, Telegram, Twitter and other social media channels to receive alerts. A push notification service would allow all platform users to receive and take timely action on data while still protecting data privacy as smart contract users interact with internal and external data sources.

The EPNS Solution

The EPNS decentralized push notification service sends timely notifications through a single source of communication, the investor’s wallet. All notifications go directly to the user’s wallet where they can take immediate action. EPNS is the first native, on-chain notification solution to stream all crucial time-sensitive information to a user’s wallet. The partnership benefits to IoTeX users include:

• EPNS will send all data notifications directly to IoTeX user wallets.
• The EPNS and IoTeX teams will adapt the highly customizable EPNS protocol to meet the various push notification needs of DeFi data users and markets.
• EPNS channels and users can customize their notification settings for different data notification requirements.

How EPNS Will Support IoTeX and IoT Blockchains

Under this pilot program, EPNS is building a dedicated channel for IoTeX (see the EPNS litepaper for definitions of channels, services, and more). IoTeX users can subscribe to the IoTeX channel to receive customized notifications to their wallets. Through collaboration with the IoTeX team, we will gain insight into the push notification needs of users of IOT blockchain services and what they want from the EPNS protocol.

Decentralized notifications will allow enterprises to actively respond to real world data interactions with IoT devices and smart contracts, receive notifications of IoTeX staking rewards, and reply in a timely manner to governance notifs. Meanwhile, all users can continue to operate within the private, secure ecosystem of IoTeX across different chains, without having to deal with integration pains across many different device and data services. Likewise, all push notifications will now be integrated into the IoTeX ecosystem.

[“A key driver of the value proposition of IoT is the quality of the interaction and coordination across devices, systems, and data. We are excited to be providing decentralized push notifications to the IoT blockchain and adding an important communications dimension to the Trusted Internet of Things”, commented Harsh Rajat, Founder and Project Lead of the Ethereum Push Notification Service.]

Looking forward, we foresee many new EPNS notification channels being introduced within IoTeX in particular, and IoT blockchain markets in general. The decentralized IoT blockchain is freeing devices and data from centralized control, and therefore will open up more innovation and opportunities for interoperable IOT networks. Push notifications will be essential to enabling future IoTeX users to take advantage of the improved performance and communication tools in IoT ecosystems. Thus, we view decentralized push notifications as an important service that will accelerate the mass adoption of IoT blockchains. Since IoTeX is at the forefront of new interoperable IOT blockchains, we expect our partnership to yield many new useful notification services and features for the IOT market.

The long-term goal of the pilot program is to develop a notification system for future versions of IoTeX. Users — who can easily integrate the EPNS protocol into a wallet — will expect push notifications to be an integral service. Going forward, we also expect to work closely with IoTeX users to create new messaging solutions to meet their evolving push notification needs.

We are pleased to be collaborating with the IoTex IoT blockchain platform and anticipate EPNS push notifications becoming an indispensable tool in decentralized data markets.

About IoTeX

Founded as an open source platform in 2017, IoTeX is building the Internet of Trusted Things, where all physical and virtual “things” — humans, machines, businesses, and DApps — can exchange information and value at global scale. Backed by a global team of 30+ research scientists and engineers, IoTeX combines blockchain, secure hardware, and decentralized identity innovations to empower intelligent IoT networks and machine economies. By serving as a decentralized trust fabric for IoT, IoTeX will empower the future decentralized economy by “connecting the physical and digital worlds, block by block”.