From the smartphones in our hands to wearable devices, to embedded sensors on factory floors, in vehicles and even pool pumps, we live in the age of connectivity. According to the latest available data, there are now approximately 15.14 billion connected IoT devices. That number is expected to almost double to 29.42 billion by 2030. These devices and the connectivity they create will generate massive amounts of data, and that data traffic must travel our networks, quickly, efficiently and without loss of integrity to be valuable.
Leveraging existing Bluetooth capabilities in billions of devices, the Nodle network is the most simple and affordable way to connect smart sensors, fitness trackers, and any other IoT device to the global web
Nodle.com, is a low-energy, low-cost global network for IoT connectivity. Launched in 2017 to provide connectivity for low-power, Delay Tolerant IoT devices, such as tracking devices, air sensors, smartwatches and fitness trackers, the Nodle network harnesses the power of smartphones to securely and privately interact with surrounding smart devices, without relying on a dedicated telecom infrastructure such as 5G or LPWAN networks from telecom operators.
Consumers who allow Nodle to transform their smartphones into Edge nodes within the Nodle Network earn financial rewards, called Nodle tokens 9NODL), when their smartphone performs missions on the network, such as communicating with smart devices.
“There is tremendous compute capacity within today’s smartphones that enable them to handle tasks useful for enterprise, for telcos, and for consumers. Our vision has always been to advance the concept of a trusted edge nodes and establish as many trusted environments on as many smartphones as we can,” says Micha Anthenor Benoliel, co-founder and CEO at Nodle.
Beyond the benefits of consumers turning their smartphones into cash-generating nodes on this new form of distributed network, Nodle’s network has huge benefits for the telecom industry.
By leveraging the existing infrastructure of smartphones, logistics companies, IoT startups, and builders can tap into the unused power of these devices at the price of marginal use, instead of having to finance capital-intensive infrastructure or waiting until new telco infrastructure is deployed.
Micha explains, “Manufacturers and operators of electronic devices can utilize our Nodle Network to collect valuable data, connect their remote devices to the Internet and track those devices in real-time.”
He points to a recent use case where a customer, a European insurance company, now provides a beacon to any vehicle owner who purchases insurance through them. That beacon (and the vehicle) can then be tracked via the Nodle Network. The solution has been deployed to 50,000 vehicles so far with the intention of growing to 2.5 million and the insurer was recently able to locate stolen vehicles thanks to the power of the Nodle Network.
In addition to doubling down on the insurance opportunity, Micha sees huge potential for Nodle with micro-mobility companies in the bike or scooter-sharing industry who can utilize the Nodle network to enhance their location tracking capabilities.
“The range of applications in asset tracking can go from consumer tracking devices to Bluetooth tags that can locate pallets, goods, vehicles, and parcels,” says Micha. “The potential is huge.”
The Nodle SDK is distributed through the native Nodle App and through partner mobile app publishers who participate in the Nodle Network.
“We’ll soon be at the point where app developers will be able to send smart missions to nodes in our network leveraging our development environment,” says Micha. They can program a task that they want smartphones to realize. This task can be passive, just using the resources and sensors of the phone, so the user doesn't have to do anything, or it can be a task that you want users actually to complete, for instance answering a question or capturing content at a specific location.”
Nodle is Infrastructure free, high-precision, and programmable
Compared to 5G networks or dedicated Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) provided by telecom operators (which includes technologies such as LoRaWAN, NB-IoT or Sigfox), the Nodle network generates no cost of deploying new hardware infrastructure, thus creating economically viable long term opportunities. This network has worldwide coverage, and high precision from the geolocation of the smartphone, along with the potential of the Nodle virtual machine able to execute code on each node to interact with your devices.
Nodle is connecting the next trillion things
The low cost of manufacturing and deploying a smart device with a BLE chip enables a whole new range of use cases, particularly in urban areas where the network of smartphones has more density. Until now, connecting objects with low value was too expensive. With the Nodle network, pallets, vehicles, packages, meters, containers, actuators, cameras or sensors can be connected. For companies with strong logistics challenges (transportation, delivery, distribution, urban services such as waste management, water or energy supply, traffic monitoring, stock optimization), the Nodle network can unlock new opportunities.
Nodle first dApp is Asset tracking: a managed service demonstrating the first capabilities of the Nodle Network
The first dApp to run on top of the Nodle network is an asset-tracking service provided by the Nodle team, currently in closed beta. Partners of Nodle provision a fleet of smart devices they own, communicating through Bluetooth Low Energy. Each node running the SDK at the edge can access the list of target nodes and scan in the open to find their targeted assets or devices. Once located, the data is sent back to the owner of the asset or device through an API.
Nodle is the future: a decentralized swarm computing network
Beyond asset tracking, the Nodle network will eventually become an open ecosystem for innovation at the edge. Any IoT developer will have the tools to write smart missions on the chain, that will then be executed at the edge by the nodes of the network, enabling complex interactions between smart devices and the nodes through the Nodle Virtual Machine. The company is working towards making the entire network fully autonomous. Ideally, Nodle team should be able to step back and have the network run by itself and governed by its community.
There are currently about half a million active nodes operating on the Nodle Network monthly with a presence all over the world. Penetration is greater in Europe at this time, but the plan is to build out the US market as well. Nodle’s relationship with the 5G Open Innovation Lab is helping pave the way by fostering strategic relationships with mobile network providers.
“Smartphones utilize a 4G or 5G network. But the way our infrastructure is built goes far beyond the smartphone. A node can run on a specific device, it can also run on the decentralized infrastructure of 5G-base stations. So people could be rewarded for a mission where they provide 5G access to the base station. Through 5G Open Innovation Lab (5G OI Lab) we were able to do a trial with one of their mobile network provider partners where they were using Nodle nodes to analyze the coverage and the signal of their cell towers to identify the places where they have weak or blank spots.
That is paving the way towards having standard smart missions dedicated to telcos. For instance, to collect cellular data about signals or leverage smart home devices to increase Bluetooth coverage,” says Micha. “5G OI Lab has the amazing capacity to gather big actors from the telecom space and facilitate introductions, presentations and opportunities to work with these actors and we’re impressed by the doors that have opened for us through this relationship.”
In addition to raising $6 million in seed funding, Nodle also has its own cryptocurrency token which has generated $31 million in revenue, enabling the company to fuel and fund growth.
Says Micha, “We’ve proven it works. We have a growing network of consumer adopters. We have industry customers. And we’ll soon have our own developer network. Now it's just about scaling fast.”
Posted September 21, 2023