1

Studying about the Ethereum blockchain I realized that it is ideal for my project. I intend to develop a blockchain to exchange electric energy between consumers on a smart grid. The mining nodes of my network would be the smart meters that exist in every house connected to blockchain, but the smart meters do not have storage modules. Because of the knowledge I have about blockchains, they must be decentralized, that is, they must be stored in the mining nodes of the network. Based on this scenario described, my doubts are:

  • In an application for IoT scenarios, where there are no storage modules, the blokchain should be stored in which location?

  • Could I use a database to store the blockchain, and use the smart meters for the mining process? But that would make the blockchain centralized, something that escapes the main idea of blockchain, correct?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

I suggest you to do an analysis of existing projects (Grid+, PowerLedger) and blockchain, it will help you refine your idea and be clear on points like public vs private blockchain, PoW vs others etc. I could come up with a more precise answer but assuming you want to build a Dapp on Ethereum:

  1. You really don't have to store the blockchain on IoT modules, you can use services Infura or run your node on a cloud service.
  2. If you are going to build a Dapp on a public blockchain, storing IoT related data on blockchain is not a good idea considering each record will cost fee. And IoT modules are definitely not a good choice of mining equipment.
Improve this answer
5
  • Reading about the grid + project, I realized that they develop a hardware that is responsible for the mining process of their blockchain. In my understanding, each of the nodes that make the mining process store the blockchain in themselves. My main question now is: If I don't want to use an external hardware to do the mining process but rather use the IoT devices to do this (i.e. Smart Meter), I could have the processing power but would have no where to store the blockchain, then I want to store the blockchain in a centralized database.
    – Iago
    Aug 31, 2018 at 13:35
  • That is, it wouldn't store on all nodes of the network where there are miners, but only in one place of the network. That would make the blockchain centralized right?
    – Iago
    Aug 31, 2018 at 13:35
  • Grid+ is running on Ethereum blockchain. You really don't have to store and/or mine unless you have your own private blockchain, then thats a different story. Try to take a detailed look into Dapp development.
    – heildever
    Aug 31, 2018 at 15:08
  • Now I understand, grid+ blockchain runs on the ethereum platform, so every transaction of it has cost as its is put into the blockchain of the ether, correct? This means that if I make an application that uses the blockchain of ethereum, the transactions will be stored in the ether blockchain itself. My main question now is: Can a blockchain be centralized, or does it have to be decentralized to be considered a blockchain?
    – Iago
    Aug 31, 2018 at 21:35
  • No, they don't have a blockchain of their own, their app(Dapp) is running on Ethereum, which has its nodes and miners. Yes, transactions have to be verified by miners and thats where the transaction cost comes in (called gas). Yes, a blockchain can be centralized e.g private/permissioned blockchains.
    – heildever
    Sep 1, 2018 at 16:48

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.