This layer includes applications running on top of the IoT network.
This layer can consist of many applications depending on the requirements such as transportation, healthcare, financial, insurance, or supply chain management.
A Complete Guide to Understanding This Blockchain Concept (Part 2)
This list, of course, is not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination; there is a myriad of IoT applications that can fall into this layer.
With the availability of cheap sensors, hardware, and bandwidth, IoT has gained popularity in recent years and currently has applications in many different areas including healthcare, insurance, supply chain management, home automation, industrial automation, and infrastructure management.
Moreover, advancements in technology such as the availability of IPv6, smaller and powerful processors, and better internet access have also played a vital role in the popularity of IoT.
The benefits of IoT range from cost saving to enabling businesses to make vital decisions and thus improve performance based on the data provided by the IoT devices.
Even in domestic usage IoT equipped home appliances can provide valuable data for cost saving.
For example, smart meters for energy monitoring can provide valuable information on how the energy is being used and can convey that back to the service provider.
Why This Matters for Blockchain Technology
Raw data from millions of things (IoT devices) is analyzed and provides meaningful insights that help in making timely and efficient business decisions.
The usual IoT model is based on a centralized paradigm where IoT devices usually connect to a cloud infrastructure or central servers to report and process the relevant data back.
This centralization poses certain possibilities of exploitation including hacking and data theft.
Moreover, not having control of personal data on a single, centralized service provider also increases the possibility of security and privacy issues.
Key Points to Remember
- Application layer This layer includes applications running on top of the IoT network.
- This layer can consist of many applications depending on the requirements such as transportation, healthcare, financial, insurance, or supply chain management.
- This list, of course, is not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination; there is a myriad of IoT applications that can fall into this layer.
- With the availability of cheap sensors, hardware, and bandwidth, IoT has gained popularity in recent years and currently has applications in many different areas including healthcare, insurance, supply chain management, home automation, industrial automation, and infrastructure management.
Going Deeper: Advanced Concepts
While there are methods and techniques to build a highly secure IoT ecosystem based on the normal IoT model, there are specific much more desirable benefits that blockchain can bring to IoT.
A blockchain-based IoT model differs from the traditional IoT network paradigm.
According to IBM, blockchain for IoT can help to build trust, reduce costs, and accelerate transactions.
Additionally, decentralization, which is at the very core of blockchain technology, can eliminate single points of failure in an IoT network.
Conclusion
Application layer represents one of the many innovative layers that make blockchain technology so powerful and transformative. As distributed systems continue to evolve, a solid understanding of these core concepts becomes increasingly valuable — not just for developers, but for anyone building, investing in, or working alongside blockchain-powered systems.
Whether you are just starting your blockchain journey or deepening existing expertise, mastering these fundamentals gives you the tools to think clearly about decentralized systems and make smarter decisions in this rapidly evolving space.