• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 8, 2018

With marketers still confused by how blockchain will support the advertising industry, research advisory firm Kaleido Insights has put together a detailed report, "The Internet of Trusted Things," that discusses the benefits and challenges of the technology.

Report authors Jessica Groopman and Jeremiah Owyang define blockchain technology as "an advancement in record keeping in which transactions, authentications, and interactions are recorded across, and verified by the network rather than a single central authority," such as a human being.

Making matters more complication is the introduction of IoT devices. These sensors and network-enabled machines become the layer into the product's performance. Sensors like GPS, RFID, NFC, temperature, and others offer previously absent visibility into product interactions.

The report analyzes the enterprise opportunities for blockchain-IoT convergence and how it supports what Groopman and Owyang call "trusted machine identity," as well as interactions and transactions. The findings suggest that blockchain could offer devices running across the internet of things a level of interoperability, transparency, and security currently absent from today’s processes and platforms.

But these interactions create mounds of data that many brands would like to use to target more efficiently and build products.

Companies that manufacture products continue to struggle to adapt and monetize business strategies away from products and toward services. The problem is that basic connectivity, proprietary data and devices –– even if useful –– aren’t enough.

With the introduction of intelligent products and services, the chains that link together these products must be interoperable, contextually aware, proactively improving, and constantly evolving. No business can achieve this alone, according to Groopman and Owyang.

Transparency won't happen overnight. In fact Groopman and Owyang estimate it will take between two and five years to achieve greater transparency across supply chain partners; and increased security and interoperable network management and compliance. This should bring on a reduction in costs associated with reconciliation, monetization of data transparency, and decrease in fraud and counterfeit products.