IOTA Works With Jaguar and Others on IOTA Access for Shared Devices

The team behind the IOTA (MIOTA) network has launched its distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based, open-source framework for granting or revoking conditional access to physical devices.

IOTA is now working with Jaguar Land Rover, STMicroelectronics, NTT Data, EDAG, RIDDLE&CODE, ETO Gruppe, and BiiLabs in order to “bring a secure, highly-configurable, and permission-less framework to smart devices around the globe.”

This framework they’re working on is called IOTA Access, which allows consumers to grant access to any physical device or data stream remotely, in a permission-less and auditable manner, automatically and without the user’s input, based on specified conditions.

“In effect, users can manage shared devices by setting rules for use,” said the IOTA Foundation press release. “For example, your roommate can only borrow your car between certain hours of the day, otherwise access is revoked. It’s a simple but functional way to add a layer of security to connected devices.”

The framework works with any IoT resource, be it a vehicle, smart lock, or sensor embedded in another object, said the team.

The IOTA Foundation stated that the IOTA Access, on IOTA’s Tangle protocol, works for both small and larger tasks, such as lending somebody a laptop or limiting screen time for children, as well as “controlling entire buildings, granting access to employees or tenants based on time of day, employee ID, or clearance level”, and it’s only allowing access after these individuals meet specific conditions.

IOTA co-founder Dominik Schiener commented that managing contracts in business “often falls under the control of entire departments or legal teams. With IOTA Access, we manage the bulk of this work from embedded devices, platforms, or even a smartphone app,” he said.

Co-founder David Sønstebø added that a layer of transparency is added to the framework. All users have access to the terms to all entries to the ledger, including past usage, changes to the agreement, and sent and received payments.

Meanwhile, the year, for which the Foundation had had many hopes, didn’t start well for IOTA: in February, the mainnet was “paused” because of the hacked Trinity wallet. It stayed closed for nearly a month, while Sønstebø stated that he will personally repay the victims.

Since then, per their website, IOTA released lightweight node Hornet version 0.4.0, as the first in a series of protocol updates known as Chrysalis (IOTA 1.5) which is the intermediate stage before Coordicide and IOTA 2.0 – the removal of the Coordinator, a node run by the IOTA Foundation for network protection and transaction confirmation.

In June, they launched decentralized testnet for IOTA 2.0, called Pollen, as the first phase in IOTA’s three-part release strategy towards the coordinator-less IOTA 2.0.

And in August, IOTA announced that the Phase 1 of Chrysalis is live. Chrysalis Phase 2 is slated for release later this year, and it will conclude the development of IOTA 1.5.

The Foundation also joined ENSURESEC, a collaborative Innovation Action project awarded by the European Commission to a consortium of 22 different partners.

At pixel time (14:17 UTC), MIOTA, ranked 28th by market capitalization, trades at USD 0.27 and is down by 1.6% in a day, trimming its weekly gains to almost 9%. The price is down by 25.5% in a month and is almost unchanged in a year.

As reported, in 2019, IOTA partnered with Jaguar Land Rover and was testing a new service that would allow drivers to to earn cryptocurrency and make payments on the move.