The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is coming online at a rapid pace. And with it a growing number of devices and security concerns.

Each device and the communications that flow through it create new attack vectors. One common issue is device spoofing. Device spoofing is the act of a impersonating a device most often in an effort to send malicious transactions or gain access to sensitive data.

Things Protocol is an SDK to have IoT devices authenticate themselves in a trusted, secure way to prevent spoofing. While this historically is achieved with a centralized database management system, it puts a large security risk on devices and the data that flows through them. With a centralized backend, a single weak point can have damaging effects. Due to this, Things Protocol decided to look towards the future and building a decentralized solution.

With a public ledger, Things Protocol is able to have stronger protection and minimize single points of failure. To manage the authentication of devices, Things Protocol required a high-throughput, low-latency public ledger solution. This led them to Hedera. Beyond the low-latency, guaranteed finality, and security of Hedera, Things Protocol takes advantage of multiple features.

Developers using Things Protocol SDK can easily establish a cryptographically secure Hedera account for each device. This account effectively is the device's identify. The developer can configure the account to support advanced signature types like multiple signatures or hierarchical signatures for stronger security levels.

By doing so the encrypted data is only able to be accessed by the essential devices and users. When a device attempts to talk to another device that uses Things Protocol it verifies its credentials in real-time. Things Protocol achieves this with a method similar to a zero knowledge proof, meaning that device A does not need to know the private key or identity of device B, but is still able to securely authenticate and authorize the device's transactions.

By using Things Protocol, a device's credentials can be made securely and seen transparently throughout the connected IoT network. Things Protocol believes this will assist in reducing the liability and impact of fraudulent or tampered with devices. Things Protocol is in active development and currently in a trial phase.