What is the economy?
The M2M, or machine-to-machine, economy is one in which intelligent, autonomous, networked, and economically independent machines or devices act as participants, performing the necessary activities of production, distribution, and allocation with little or no human intervention. This evolving ecosystem will be made possible by the growing number of internet of things devices (IoT).
Key points to remember
- The M2M (machine-to-machine) economy refers to a system of interdependent and networked devices that appear to conduct some sort of economic activity on their own.
- The M2M economy is an important concept for understanding the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain-based platforms that need a way to allocate and distribute the network and bandwidth of treatment.
- Although still in its infancy, industry experts predict that the M2M economy will become a trillion-dollar pursuit in the years and decades to come.
Understanding the M2M economy
The Internet has changed the way we exchange information and communicate with each other, as well as with machines. It has also enabled a whole new ecosystem to flourish in which physical objects, such as household appliances, automobiles, industrial machinery and infrastructure equipped with smart sensors, actuators, memory modules and processors , are able to exchange real time information across systems and networks. Thanks to the concept of IoT, such an M2M ecosystem will result in increased efficiency, economic benefits and a limited need for human intervention to carry out many major activities.
The number of IoT devices reached over 22 billion in 2018 and the figure is expected to reach 38.6 billion devices by 2025.The annual IoT revenue in the global market is expected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, indicating the growing potential of the M2M economy.Another report from the McKinsey Global Institute suggests that the IoT has the potential to create an economic impact of $2.7 to $6.2 trillion per year by 2025, reports Entrepreneur.
How IoT Devices Help Power the M2M Economy
The processing power of these IoT devices and the heaps of data they generate can be of great value.
For example, a person with a water purifier installed in his house no longer has to worry about the intricacies and step-by-step monitoring of the purification process. Depending on the hardness of the incoming water, the microprocessor-equipped purifier can program the purification cycle and let the water be treated to a specified hardness level. The same device can also be equipped with sensors to assess the residual quality of the purification cartridge and is also capable of sending alerts to the service center to request a replacement.
In addition, the data generated by these devices offers great value. It can help assess consumption behavior and usage patterns and will also serve to inform macro-level tasks such as urban planning and assessing water quality and demand in an area. Additionally, device owners can voluntarily sell selected data points for monetary rewards.
Beyond this basic device operation and automated communication over a network of installed devices, many block chainCloud-based projects are being launched to harness the power of these commonly used devices. For example, the processors and memory modules built into these IoT devices can be used to cryptocurrency mining and transaction authentication activities. projects like IOTAIoT Chain and IOTW are trying to harness the power and resources of their blockchain projects, which sit idle most of the time.
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