Blockchain, IPv6, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are three rapidly evolving technologies that are changing the way we interact with the digital world. While each of these technologies can be used independently, there are significant benefits to using them together.

This was the focus of a presentation given by IPv6 Forum President Latif Ladid at the recent International Conference on the Internet of Things and Intelligence Systems (IoTaIS 2023) in Bali.

Latif started his presentation by detailing the history of Internet protocols. He discussed the impact IPv6 would have on communication and data transmission by ensuring more efficient and secure communication. This is enabled by its embedded privacy and security features and the ability to connect to other devices without an intermediary or NAT directly.

A decades-long move to the final version of the Internet

IPv4 is the fourth iteration of the Internet Protocol, which was first standardised in 1981. IPv4 uses a 32-bit address space, allowing for a maximum of approximately 4.3 billion unique addresses. In the early days of the Internet, this was considered more than enough to accommodate the number of connected devices.

However, as the Internet grew in popularity and more devices came online, it became clear that the limited number of IPv4 addresses would become a problem. In response, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) developed IPv6 as a successor to IPv4.

IPv6 was first standardised in 1998 and uses a 128-bit address space, allowing for a virtually unlimited number of unique addresses. IPv6 was designed to address the limitations of IPv4 and to meet the needs of a growing number of connected devices, particularly in the era of the Internet of Things.

Despite the clear advantages of IPv6 over IPv4, adoption has been slow, primarily due to the significant infrastructure changes required to support the new protocol. As of 2021, IPv6 adoption is still relatively low, with IPv4 continuing to be the dominant protocol for Internet communication.

Blockchain, IPv6 and IoT 

For Ladid, the current Internet is deficient in many ways, and switching to an Internet solely based on IPv6 can tackle these deficiencies – especially when pairing it with a scalable and secure blockchain like the BSV blockchain.

One of the challenges facing the widespread adoption of IoT is the limited number of IP addresses available under the current IPv4 protocol. IPv6, on the other hand, offers a much larger address space, which is essential for the growth of IoT. With IPv6, there are more than enough IP addresses to accommodate the vast number of IoT devices that are expected to come online in the coming years.

By using blockchain technology and IPv6 together, IoT devices can be securely connected and communicate with each other without the need for a central authority. This can help to streamline data exchange and make it more reliable and efficient.

The BSV blockchain is the world’s only public blockchain capable of scaling to meet the needs of IPv6 implementations thanks to its unbounded scaling capabilities, as well as peer-to-peer structure lending it to IP-to-IP communications.