As the Internet of Things (IoT) creates new devices for a variety of remote monitoring capabilities, the question naturally arises: how will the costs for these capabilities be covered? A Medium entry offers an example of how a device, the 21 Bitcoin Computer, can pay on demand for a service it provides.
The mining chip integrated into each 21 Bitcoin Computer turns electricity into digital currency by sending a service up to the network (hashing) in return for a stream of bitcoin. Bitcoin-Payable API
The concept of a bitcoin-payable API creates the possibility for machines to provide services over the network in addition to hashing to earn bitcoin. Some services could prove more profitable than mining on a per-watt basis. Others could prove to be preferable to mining by relying on a distinctive property of the machine, or the machine’s operator.
The bitcoin-payable API is explained on the 21 Bitcoin Computer website under the “Marketplace” tab.
An application called Ping21.com is a way to rent machines on the grid for bitcoin.
By renting a group of machines with different IP addresses, it is possible to do things that can’t be done directly from a laptop. When running a website, it can be helpful to know if the website’s performance is uniform for its users. This is why companies like Pingdom run a global machine network — empirical data is the only way to know if a site is working as expected.
The Pingdom.com website notes: “Pingdom has a network of 60+ probe servers to test your website from all over the world, as often as every minute. We always double-check issues to filter out false alerts. When something breaks, you’re immediately alerted. Once alerted, our root cause analysis will help you identify what caused the issue so you can prevent any recurrences.” […]
