Vodafone has launched a Digital Asset Broker (DAB) that allows machines to make purchasing decisions of behalf of their users.
The Internet of Things (IoT) platform will be one of the world’s largest with at least 140 million connections to help Vodafone customers benefit from the new ‘Economy of Things’.
In Vodafone’s vision businesses in any industry sector will convert their physical goods into tradable digital assets. These assets will then use the DABs system to compete in new ‘disruptive online markets’.
Today’s connected devices and sensors collect and send information via the Internet. This new DABs system allows verified connected devices, vehicles, smart street furniture and machines to transact seamlessly and securely without human intervention, but with full owner control, says Vodafone.
Vodafone says there will be 30 billion connected devices by 2025, all capable of feeding intelligence to clients. The DABs system will take advantage of Vodafone’s global reach and automatically offer any business an instant comprehensive system which can easily assign any device a unique digital identity.
Taking care of time-consuming and fiddly complexities, which have an endless capacity to go wrong when you are doing them for the first time, would save the organisations a fortune. Once in place the DABs system can then communicate and transact securely with other devices using wallet and payment technology secured by the mobile SIM.
In addition to putting devices on its global IoT platform, Vodafone will provide secure links to many other third-party platforms and their associated device ‘eco-systems’. The target markets for 2022 mentioned in Vodafone’s official release are the automotive, energy, manufacturing and supply chain logistics industries.