21 Inc is one step closer to the Internet of Things, with the first proof of concept launched

After shipping its signature hardware product, the 21 Bitcoin Computer, to customers in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, the bitcoin startup is looking to roll out the next phase of its development — a decentralized network of devices incentivized by bitcoin.

21 The company today announced the launch of a new product, Ping21, a new proof of concept that it envisions as a competitor to website monitoring services Pingdom or AlertFox.

Today, when webmasters use such services, such as Pingdom, they need to pay $13-454 per month for the service.

The 21 network allows Bitcoin computers around the world to implement this function through a command call.

For example, a company's website might be accessible in New York, but may have problems in Florida, Spain, and South Korea. However, with the Ping21 service, webmasters can use a single command to receive uptime and status information for their website in dozens of different countries.

The company says that without having to pay hundreds of dollars in subscription fees, the cost of pinging services will drop significantly. By leveraging 21's recently launched micropayment marketplace, clients can submit a request to the network and pay using bitcoin.

Bitcoin computers using the Ping21 service will automatically perform ping operations, check the website, collect any necessary data, and submit this data to the market.

After its launch, the company is focusing on allowing developers to expand its network with other applications.

21 CEO Balaji S Srinivasan told CoinDesk:

“This proof of concept demonstrates some of the services you can use to perform computations over a decentralized bitcoin-incentivized network, which are fundamentally different from centralized cloud computing services.”

Machine Sharing Economy

According to 21, each 21 computer device will have its own wallet, which can be used to buy and sell data.

Srinivasan explained that in the coming weeks, 21 will announce more information about proofs of concept showing how its network can be used for IoT applications.

Tyler Pate, a software and hardware engineer at 21st Century, echoed this larger vision, predicting that 21st Century's users will be able to explore new ways to monetize data and services.

“We believe the ability to easily monetize data will give individuals and businesses an incentive to scale innovation across connected devices,” he said.

Andrew DeSantis, an engineer at 21st Century Business Herald, explained that the ability to send and receive bitcoins machine-to-machine has the potential to unlock a new type of “machine economy” in which machines can regularly trade data and services for bitcoins.

He said:

“By using bitcoin microtransactions to incentivize machine operators, we can get very accurate real-time data on network conditions around the world.”

DeSantis explained that when the free 21 client is launched, there will likely be thousands of nodes, creating a full network of machines that can be used to buy and sell information, all without a human having to initiate each action.

“It’s not just about human-to-machine interaction, it’s also machine-to-machine interaction,” Pate said.

Free Market

21 views its proof of concept as the first step in its larger vision of creating a free market for bitcoin computers.

For example, DeSantis speculated that in densely populated areas, nodes would have to compete to sell data.

"So in New York, it's going to have a lot of endpoints. There could be hundreds or thousands of people who are selling weather information or providing their ping service to you. Whereas in Nebraska, there are probably fewer endpoints, but that also means those users can be charged more," DeSantis explained.

He also compared this variable pricing method to Uber's pricing method. For example, when there are many cars on the road, the demand for taxis is relatively low and the rate will remain at around 1. However, if it is raining or during rush hour, more people will start to demand this service, so the taxi price multiple will increase accordingly.

With market dynamics of supply and demand, pricing can continue to rise, incentivizing even those who have never thought about connecting to the network.
Pate concluded:

“It would be better if people could sell the information they want to sell, rather than selling information that is automatically collected. This would return the decision-making power to the individual and would not result in their valuable information being sold without their consent.”

Original article: http://www.coindesk.com/21-proof-concept-bitcoin-iot/
By Jacob Donnelly
Translator: Overnight porridge
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/21-proof-concept)