Trusted IoT Alliance debuts open-source code product
Trusted IoT Alliance has released one of its first open source repositories in its mission to secure the next generation of smart internet of things (IoT) products using blockchain. MQTT-Trusted, or MQTTT, is a modification to the popular MQTT communication protocol used in many IoT applications. It lets MQTTT sign messages using an ethereum account, proving the identity of the sender.

The newly formed Trusted IoT Alliance has announced today “…in alignment with its mission of connecting and securing the next generation of smart IoT products with blockchain technology” the release of one of its first open source repositories, MQTTT or ‘MQTT-Trusted.’

Developed by Oaken Innovations CTO, Shuang ‘Lex’ Liang, MQTTT is a modification to the popular MQTT open source communication protocol widely used in IoT applications today.

This modification allows MQTTT to sign messages utilizing an Ethereum account thereby proving who its sender is. This sender could take the form of a standard Ethereum account or a hardware signer such as Oaken’s ACORN device.

The MQTTT library brings Ethereum identity, trust, and security to the machine to machine communication protocol.

Further developments are planned to add more schema and semantics to the protocol that will help machines to better understand the messages in order to improve interoperability as well as encourage wider adoption of the protocol within the ecosystem.

The MQTTT secure messaging protocol will join the already present Identity Registry as early evidence of the active member contributions within the Alliance, which was formed just last month.

John Gerryts, CEO of Oaken Innovations said:

“Oaken Innovations found a need for such a protocol while developing its Peer2Peer Carshare PoC in collaboration with Toyota Research Institute. The MQTTT protocol allows for near-instant cryptographically secure messaging which Oaken required to maintain a great user experience by both keeping latency low between a mobile app and the unlocking of a vehicle and ensuring that only a valid user would be able to unlock and start the ignition of the vehicle being shared. “We’re also excited to make one of the first member code contributions to the Trusted IoT Alliance. We hope that this is the first in a long list of member contributions in setting the standard for the next generation of the Internet of Things. The team here at Oaken is already working on more tools for the ecosystem.”