Nordic Semiconductor and NTNU in Norway Explore IOTA and the Data Marketplace

The IOTA Data Marketplace initiative was launched in Q4 2017 as a joint Proof of Concept (PoC) and open innovation ecosystem. The platform simulates future data exchange and data trading by enabling connected devices to be paid via zero-fee micropayments for data they share securely in real-time over the web. The first phase of this PoC development is finished from IOTA’s end and provides for a growing number of dedicated organisations the possibility to demystify IOTA through a simple experiment.

Nordic Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor company. The company specializes in ultra-low power performance wireless System-on-Chip (SoC) and connectivity devices for the 2.4 GHz ISM band, with power consumption being one of the main focus areas.

Nordic Semiconductor collaborated with NTNU, the Norwegian Science and Technology University in Trondheim, to integrate the Nordic Thingy:52 on the data marketplace:

“As students, we highly appreciate these kinds of projects as it forces us to experiment with different solutions and learn from mistakes. We would like to thank Nordic Semiconductor, Bouvet Norway and the IOTA Foundation providing a great learning platform and collaboration.” —NTNU Students

The project itself is introduced and explained in the following video:

The business case for the project

The user is a company that wants to collect air quality sensor data from different areas to sell it. The company wants to collect data (temperature, CO2, humidity, air pressure, and VOC) from locations such as meeting rooms, bus stops, classrooms, and cafes. The company wants to make money by selling the data they collect on an open marketplace. Their customers are:

the owners of the locales and their competitors,
the users of these locales,
start-ups who innovate with the data,
news organizations,
the local authorities,
scientists, and
other actors which might be interested in air quality.

The Nordic Thingy:52 is a compact, power-optimized, multi-sensor development kit

To do this, the company needs sensors to record air quality data. They also need a way to collect, and sell it, while maintaining data integrity. It is important for the company that the system is light, mobile, and easy to use. The company needs to be able to record, collect, and sell data. For this to be cost-efficient, the setup must be fast and cheap, so changes can be made on the fly to meet customer needs.

“Nordic Semiconductor and NTNU have a long and close history of close collaboration together. The IOTA initiative is yet another example of this close collaboration. The Nordic Thingy:52 is a multi-purpose sensor dev kit using Bluetooth Low Energy, it has been used in all sorts of scenarios, but we believe this is the first time we’ve seen it in a Blockchain type project. Exciting stuff.” —Nordic Semiconductor

Next steps

“We are very excited to see Nordic Semiconductor onboarding the data marketplace and exploring IOTA’s potential. Involving Academia in this exploration is a winning scenario for all as new IT talent is needed by all industries undergoing digital transformation. With IoT and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), the Smart revolution is a massive opportunity of national stakes which we ought to shape together.” —Wilfried Pimenta, Head of Business Development at the IOTA Foundation

IOTA Foundation and Nordic Semiconductor will continue their efforts to bring the Nordic Thingy:52 in the hands of developers and will look into sharing access to this as part of a developers kit for incoming initiatives. IOTA is eager to continue involving this NTNU team and the rest of the students interested in IoT, DLT and new digitally enabled business models.

Many thanks to the NTNU team members involved with the project including: Edvard Gjessing Bakken, Lavrans Grønseth, Odd Kristian Kvarmestøl, Lars Møster, Maria Midjo Rønning, Fredrik Johannes Gillebo Sørmo, and Silje Marie Tyrihjell.

Useful resources:

GitHub repositories for the integration on the data marketplace: