Before blockchain, another “world-shaking” disruptor has been changing the ways many industries operate. Namely, it was the Internet of Things, which we use in our everyday life, sometimes without paying much attention to it.

Then came Blockchain, and it changed our image of the technological revolution again. But has it substituted IoT in that transformative endeavor? Well, no. Though both technologies serve the sole purpose of making our lives better, they approach the issue differently. IoT ensures the seamless connection between dispersed devices while blockchain automates and secures processes.

But can they work together to maximize the end user’s value? Without delay, we should say: yes, they can. To prove it, we collected several use cases for today’s talk.

Traceable Luxury Goods

The partnership of Louis Vuitton, Moët Hennessy, ConsenSys, and Microsoft Azure brought us a DLT-based project, AURA. It was designed specifically for tracking luxury goods’ provenance.

AURA became a part of the Track&Trace program by LVMH, launched to combat counterfeiting in supplies. Each product in the supply chain has an IoT-connected tag that sends data to a blockchain. When purchasing the product, customers can see its “proof-of-authenticity” as a validated supply chain from raw materials to the point of sale.

“Smarter” Smart Homes

Samsung and IBM jointly launched a blockchain IoT system, ADEPT, that uses smart contracts for p2p messaging. The primary use case for the solution is smart homes, where, say, a vacuum cleaner or even the whole electricity system may become practically autonomous. In the case of malfunction, the corresponding IoT-connected home appliance installs the required updates and, if necessary, notifies the homeowner.

Smart devices are more “energy-efficient;” for instance, a dishwasher may turn off while the TV set is working, to perform dishwashing after it switches off. The homeowner always receives notifications about all the current activities. Blockchain, in turn, serves for better security of the data transferred between devices.

Transparent Logistics

The global food producers Carrefour and Nestlé work with IBM to “legalize” sales of purée Mousseline, their brand-new product. The mashed potato mix packages are marked with trackable barcodes each, and these barcodes transfer data to IBM’s blockchain network.

Using a mobile app, consumers could see the production history of each package and see if its ingredients had been grown in France, the place of their true origins.

Carrefour and Nestlé see great potential in blockchain to establish full transparency in food production and logistics in general. More consumers grow concerned about the quality of what they eat, and IoT-powered barcodes coupled with the blockchain database can guarantee them that while bringing autonomy.

Blockchain-powered SIM Cards

Since March of the last year, SIM cards from 1NCE, a tier-one provider, can be configured with blockchain protocols to prevent possible security breaches.

The new solution’s idea suggests that private blockchain keys protect the IoT data from a SIM card. The encrypted information is stored on a blockchain, and one can appeal to it at any moment to verify. In this way, the processing of each SIM chip gets automated through the supply chain.

Frictionless Real Estate Brokerage

While still a nascent industry, strides have been made to implement blockchain with physical real estate brokerage. By representing real estate as NFTs, homeowners and buyers can benefit from near-instant transactions, digital provenance on Ethereum, and significantly reduced fees when compared to traditional real estate brokerage. In a recent partnership with Roofstock, Origin Protocol sold an NFT home for $175,000, located in Columbia. The buyer paid in USDC, and he was able to get financing for the home using Ethereum's blockchain via the Teller protocol.