The IOTA Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing the IOTA and Tangle architecture, and ENGIE Lab CRIGEN, a corporate research center focused on gas, new energy source, and emerging technologies, have partnered together to drive innovation in the distributed ledger technology (DLT) and smart energy ecosystem. According to a blog post announced in July, both organizations signed a memorandum of understanding to experiment with the IOTA Tangle network for the Internet of Things (IoT) and energy sectors.
IOTA Tangle to Explore IoT and Energy Sectors
The blog post mentioned that since Nov. 2017, the IOTA Foundation has been operating a data marketplace designed to enable a truly decentralized marketplace that can provide access to data for everyone. Plans for the marketplace began in 2015, as claimed by the company on a Nov. 2017 blog post. The Data Marketplace is regarded as one of IOTA’s most comprehensive pilot study so far. ENGIE Lab CRIGEN (CSAI Lab) and several other industrial and IT companies have been heavily participating in the IOTA Data Marketplace project.
ENGIE Lab CRIGEN, the corporate research center of ENGIE Group, an energy service provider for electricity and natural gas, has also been exploring and experimenting around with blockchain and DLT for a period of time. After using the IOTA Tangle network and being an active participant in IOTA’s Data Marketplace, ENGIE Lab CRIGEN became interested in further use cases of the IOTA Tangle. The interest opened up new conversations with other entities also involved in the IOTA network.
ENGIE Lab Keen to Strengthen Ties With the IOTA Foundation
Philippe Calvez, research lab manager from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAI Lab), noted that since ENGIE Lab CRIGEN was interested in collaborating with IOTA, it would be highly beneficial to strengthen their existing ties with the IOTA Foundation. Many proofs of concept have been already conducted in the Lab, and ENGIE Lab CRIGEN is keen to be further involved in larger projects internationally to test new and innovative use cases of DLT that are offered by IOTA that could be beneficial to ENGIE.
The IOTA Foundation similarly expressed its intention to strengthen its links with ENGIE Lab CRIGEN. Said Wilfried Pimenta de Miranda, head of business development of the IOTA Foundation:
“The IOTA Foundation is excited to team up with ENGIE Lab to further accelerate the technology development and prototyping cycle through concrete pilots and international collaboration within the Power & Utilities industry. The IOTA team very much looks forward to scaling this cooperation.”
Miranda further mentioned that ENGIE Lab’s knowledge and leading expertise in the smart energy industry and its eagerness in exploring digital technologies are real benefits to the IOTA network.
ENGIE Lab CRIGEN will, therefore, work with IOTA to explore several different use cases of the IOTA Tangle to improve ENGIE’s existing systems and business processes and products in the energy sector, especially when it comes to smart cities, mobility and smart buildings. The blog post noted that such experimentation would be done through proofs of concept and participation in IOTA initiatives. There was, however, no specific launch dates listed for the IOTA–ENGIE partnership.
