Partnering with global universities, the not-for-profit aims to standardise the ‘Internet of People’ through membership-led pilot projects.

Fermat, the decentralised, blockchain and graphchain-enabled open source project developing the Internet of People (IoP), today launched the IoP Consortium. Headquartered in Budapest, Hungary, the Consortium aims to standardise the ‘Internet of People’ by building an active community of academics and researchers while developing IoP use cases through partnerships with university-led pilot projects worldwide.

Launched in April 2016, Fermat is building an infrastructure with an open social graph, a direct, peer-to-peer access channel to individual people, and a direct device-to-device communication layer. The Internet of People is designed to remove unnecessary intermediaries, promising to make transactions of the future inherently less expensive and more secure.

“In order to deliver the ‘Internet of People’ vision, standardisation will be essential. Our graphchain technology brings endless business opportunities because of the additional network components and methodologies added on top of blockchain technology. The IoP Consortium was formed in response to the need for concrete and developed use cases demonstrating this value,” said Daniel Csendes, Director of the IoP Consortium.

Csendes is an economist, investor and entrepreneur who began his career at Cemex, a multinational building materials corporation. Responsible for the cost control of cement factories in Poland Csendes was a key driver in adopting next generation technologies under the guidance of Dagoberto Pedraza Ladino, former head of the highly vaunted “Cemex Way.” Later, Csendes became Country Manager at Acronis, an enterprise-class software and secure data provider, and served as Sales Director of Analogy, an artificial intelligence startup.

The Consortium will provide opportunities to universities and research institutions to develop and participate in exclusive and innovative projects. These projects will be driven by corporations looking for insight into how the Internet of People technology can revolutionise their industry.

“Initiating a project via the IoP Consortium opens many doors for corporations. Not only can they gain access to our unified user base of over 2,000 experts across many fields, it also enables them to use our innovative infrastructure while taking advantage of the talent and knowledge of the institutions involved,” added Csendes.

In March 2017, the Consortium launched their first pilot project through a Research Lab at ELTE, the largest and one of  the most prestigious universities in Hungary, in cooperation with the EIT Digital Internet of Things Open Innovation Lab. With committed university students guided by senior developers, the ELTE project focused specifically on the shipping industry. Researchers discovered that technology which removes unnecessary intermediaries and creates a decentralised system improves privacy for both senders and receivers, allows on-demand contractors to better monitor failure situations, and helps smaller shipping companies enter the market.The study found that with disintermediating technology, multinational companies in a wide range of verticals could significantly increase effectiveness and reduce costs.

“Our first project has already delivered important findings on the power of IoP technology. Though the study focused on the shipping industry, the technology developed could improve the logistics industry as a whole,” added Csendes.

Current members of the IoP Consortium include ELTE, Infota, Virtual Planet and Cyber Services PLC. Board members include Luis Fernando Molina, founder of Fermat, and FerencFrész, CEO of Cyber Service PLC. Dr.Ferenc Kiss, Director of R&D, Foundation for Information Society (INFOTA) has joined in an advisory role in the organisation.

Both the technology and driving force behind the Internet of People opens up a tremendously large area for cyber security research and the development of innovative cyber security products for next generation applications. With over 20 years of professional experience, Cyber Services wants to not only participate in this growing movement but contribute to its success. We are delighted to join the IoP Consortium as a member,” said FerencFrész, CEO of Cyber Services PLC, a European cybersecurity provider.

“The architecture behind the IoP is revolutionary and has the power to connect people worldwide, enabling closer interaction and more easily accessible trade opportunities. For our company, IoP opens up endless possibilities and new ways to develop applications in a more efficient way. We were immediately drawn to this project because of its focus on not just technology but on how it will impact people,” said Adam Gelencser, CTO, Virtual Planet Hungary.

“We joined the consortium because we believe in the end goal which is not only to further advance new digital services and IT applications but to change the way we interact with one another,” said Dr. Kiss, Director of Research and Development at INFOTA.

“In 2017, it is our aim to significantly grow our membership globally, establish further university partnerships, and oversee critical projects with our members to completion. Looking further ahead, we will be working to reach a critical mass of graphchain users in order to accelerate the growth of the IoP ecosystem,” concluded Csendes.