ETHYL
The future of the internet of things.
For the investor with little time on their hands, shortened versions of each section are marked as “In Short”. Ethyl puts you, as a nember, first.
We would also like to provide translations of this document. If you are able to translate (for a few XEMs), please contact us in our telegram chat.
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The Problem
The internet of things is too centralized. Every single device from a manufacturer is often connected to a single point of failure. At some point, the manufacturer may want to stop supporting perfectly working devices due to their age. A single service outage can leave homes without light, even though electricity is still flowing. Or even worse, these servers get hacked (not infeasible and happens often).
At the same time, the internet of things is too decentralized. Buying devices from multiple manufacturers is nearly impossible. Every single new protocol involves a brand new hub to be placed somewhere in the home, an additional point of failure.
In short: The internet of things is an extremely important societal change being done in an extremely risky / “move fast and break things” way.
Luckily, this can be solved without replacing every IoT device that already exists today.
The Solution
Ethyl decentralizes the internet of things using the NEM blockchain. Every building or household installs a single hub that also acts as a decentralized server. As long as electricity is flowing in the home or building, the IoT devices will keep working without relying on internet access or centralized servers. (Except, of course, when chain functionality is required to communicate with or read data from other devices.)
Ethyl supports offerings from a wide variety of vendors. It supports open standards such as Z-Wave, ZigBee, and general RF, as well as IP-based APIs for existing smart home devices.
Note that even though Ethyl is primarily based on the blockchain, most communication happens off chain to eliminate fees during day to day use.
In short: Ethyl safely and securely moves the internet of things onto the NEM Blockchain.
Value
Of course, most people see blockchain as a way to make money, unaware of its actual use cases. As such, marketing Ethyl as a blockchain platform is likely not a good idea.
Instead, Ethyl gives privacy and security to users of the internet of things. Many companies have shown time and time again that they are willing sell or abuse data. By using a blockchain as an encrypted datastore and local networking for the majority of communication (only using “dumb” servers where necessary to circumvent firewalls and NAT, and blockchain for trustless transactions) - the internet of things becomes much less of a privacy issue.
In the United States, 93% of adults say that being in control of who can get information about them is important; 74% feel this is “very important,” while 19% say it is “somewhat important.” (Pew Research)
Only 2% of adults say that they are “very confident” in companies like Google keeping their data secure. (Pew Research)
And not only that, but people are very touchy when it comes to their homes.
People in the US care more about a smart thermostat sharing information than being tracked using facial recognition at work.
The story is similar elsewhere, with 89% of Europeans wanting to keep their calls, messages, and more secure and encrypted.
In Short: Most people care about privacy, almost no major IoT company is willing to give it to them. Ethyl is.
Why not use IOTA?
- Use of Ternary Number System: Computers use something called the binary number system (as in, 10100010). IOTA uses the ternary number system (202001002). As such, every single time you want to do something on IOTA - an IOT device must convert back and forth between binary and ternary (this slows everything down).
- They Use PoW: Right, but they require proof of work to be done on IoT devices (yes, small, underpowered IoT devices) instead. Ethyl has no fees for daily use AND no proof of work, period.
- Custom Crypto: The number one thing any good cryptographer will tell you is not to “roll your own cryptography”. Due to the use of the ternary number system, IOTA has had to build its own new, potentially insecure cryptography.
- Poisoned Open Source: The source code of IOTA had vulnerabilities on purpose in order to kill copycat projects. In this clear act of hostile intent against the community, it is clear that IOTA is not something that can be recommended to anyone as a good project.
In Short: Inefficient, flawed, potentially insecure, developers have proven themselves to be malicious.
Milestones
In Short:
- Make it easy for programmers to use.
- Make it easy for non-programmer, but still tech minded people to use.
- Make it easy to the level of setting up a new game console or a new PC.
Milestone One “Foundations” (Q1 2018) 150k XEM
- Release Project Structure / Technical Reference
- Release Apostille Tool
- Develop Core Libraries
- Develop Amazon Echo Compatibility
- Develop MQTT Compatibility
- Develop Z-Wave Compatibility
- Test Compatibility
- Release Protocol Documentation
In Short: The goal of milestone one is to create a stable base set of documentation and code that works with existing IoT devices. The end product (to show off) of milestone one is a cli app for the protocol that programmers will be able to configure.
Milestone Two “Rough Cut” (Q2-3 2018) 135k XEM
- Release Raspberry Pi OS
- Release RPi 315/433Mhz Support
- Release RPi Z-Wave
- Release RPi ZigBee
- HomeAssistant Middleware
- Implement all features from core.
- Create, sell part kit for technical people.
- Make setup reasonably simple.
- (Flash SD Card, Plug it In, Config File Edits)
- Potential support for other boards, time permitting.
- Develop and Test Barebones Android + iOS support.
In Short: The goal of milestone two is to create a product that semi-tech oriented people will be able to install and play with. The end product is a $50-75 part list that someone can put together in a day to have a cheap, working home automation system on the NEM blockchain.
Milestone Three “Final Cut” (Q4 2018) 140k XEM
- Create and refine the UI.
- OpenHAB Middleware
- Make setup easy.
- (Plug in Card, Plug into Wall, GUI Config Tools)
- Everything at this point is a GUI tool with sane defaults.
- Full Android + iOS support.
In Short: The goal of the third milestone is to create the “real deal”. Anyone with the technical capability of setting up a game console or new PC should be able to get going with blockchain IoT.
Purpose for Funding
- Salary (All team members have other income sources, and we have agreed to not sell for a reasonable timeframe.)
- We are connecting the devices to the chain for free! This requires some XEM to pour back into the chain as fees. (This benefits harvesters, as well as all users of the NEM ecosystem due to increased activity.) We hope to do this for as long as possible.
- Namespace/Mosaic related cost - with the release of catapult, some new features will have the best user experience when combined with namespaces and mosaics. Instead of directly using XEM, these mosaics can represent energy credits on a local grid or similar.
- Website/Software/Hosting/etc costs, will not exceed $500/month.
- Hardware Costs, if possible hardware can be purchased with XEM due to an agreement with the manager of a local (to our office) computer store. Ensuring compatibility with leading IoT products is a top priority for us, which requires the purchase of IoT devices to test with.
In effect, a large portion of the funding goes back to harvesters in the form of blockchain fees. Another large (but not as large) portion of funds stays within the network. What does need to be (unfortunately) sold for fiat to cover business expenses is strictly limited.
Future (Q1 2019+)
- Past the milestones, Ethyl is prepared to put up a kickstarter-like page to sell ready to go IoT kits.
- Partnerships with leading IoT brands for a secure ecosystem of smart things (all powered by the NEM blockchain).
How does this help NEM?
Although it has been touched on a little bit earlier, this is an easy to reference section describing how this project will help the NEM Ecosystem.
- Open Source Apps/Protocols: Anyone will be able to look at the code and build noncommercial implementations using it.
- NEM Marketing: We are built on NEM, the best blockchain platform, and we’re proud of it.
- Higher Transaction Volume: Less empty blocks, more transactions in the network.
- Partnerships: Ethyl encourages large IoT vendors, governments, homebuilders, and more to use our platform and further fuel the NEM Ecosystem.
- Case Study: We’re building a blockchain IoT platform without smart contracts? People who have only heard of Ethereum will begin to understand the superiority of the NEM blockchain.
Voting
Information on voting is coming soon! If you would like to vote, be sure to join our telegram chat and announcement channel.
Voting is now open!
To vote YES:
Send a 0 XEM transaction to NA53GN-TZYEQZ-NOZDEA-TQXJZI-EHNGHT-JJ7IIK-MFYT.
To vote NO:
Send a 0 XEM transaction to NDUMQFLIHYVP44VZJI6TTUGQMDI5QUDXF6QE4UJZ.
Feedback
We’d love feedback on what you’d like to see in Blockchain IoT. We can discuss in our telegram chat telegram chat.
Edits:
- Updated milestones to reflect community feedback. Thank you!
