Filament is leveraging the capacity of the university near its headquarters to cultivate its comprehensive enterprise blockchain solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT).

The company is now working with the University of Nevada-Reno’s intelligent mobility initiative to develop a new standard based on blockchain IoT technology for attested data integrity between autonomous vehicles and road infrastructure. The smart city project is being conducted through the university’s Nevada Center for Applied Research (NCAR) and is designed to improve safety and communication between autonomous connected vehicles and surrounding infrastructure with LIDAR and dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) devices mounted at intersections.

“The growth in the number of connected vehicles on roads will lead to an increase in the number of IoT devices, which can potentially create vulnerabilities,” said Carlos Cardillo, director of the Nevada Center for Applied Research, which facilitates the Intelligent Mobility initiative.

“Working with Filament as part of Intelligent Mobility will help us to create and validate secured data generated from the many connected LIDAR devices including those in autonomous vehicles that will soon be a common feature in our cities and towns. We believe this can result in a new set of data integrity standards that others can follow when rolling out their own initiatives,” Cardillo continued.

The university will begin simulated testing of Filament’s Blocklet technology with plans to soon integrate the technology into both an autonomous vehicle and the sensor infrastructure placed along defined routes to deliver a trustworthy record of events, enabling attested data exchange via blockchain transactions.

“We are excited to collaborate with the university’s Intelligent Mobility initiative on advancing this cutting-edge vehicle-to-infrastructure communication innovation. This is an important project for all cities preparing for autonomous vehicles as it will demonstrate how secure distributed ledger technology combined with connected, driverless cars and their surroundings can become a trusted reality,” Filament chief executive officer Allison Clift-Jennings said.

“For the project, the university’s test vehicles will accept only Blocklet-attested data transmissions, protecting them from potential bad actors or man-in-the-middle attacks. And with the data recorded on a blockchain, the shared root of trust is established for transparent exchange and transactions,” Clift-Jennings continued.

Officials insisted the state of Nevada, with the support and commitment of its research universities, industries and startups, has established itself as a premier location for innovative vehicle and transportation technologies. Supported by the governor's Office of Economic Development, the University of Nevada-Reno’s Intelligent Mobility is testing synchronized mobility concepts and gathering data in real-world, “Living Lab” settings.

A vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I, also known as V2X) communication project demonstrating the security of data sent to-and-from autonomous vehicles and street-side infrastructure using blockchain technology is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019.

Filament’s Blocklet products can provide blockchain native tools and technology for enterprises and industrial corporations, enabling them to securely process and record transactions directly from IoT devices, secure RFID tags, vehicles, manufacturing equipment and other connected machines, ensuring digital trust from the edge to drive smart contracts, automation, compliance and new revenue streams.

The company’s solutions are being used by global corporations in the automotive, communications and other enterprise sectors.