Picos and Helium Network

Phillip J. Windley, Ph.D.

Office of the CIO

Brigham Young University

Except they aren’t!

your device

manufacturer

you

your device

manufacturer

you

Temperature Sensor Options

Wifi

(e.g. Wovyn)

Bluetooth

(e.g. SensorPush)

SenseCap Hotspot

• Connects to Helium Network
• Received LoRaWAN signals

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Dragino LHT65

LoraWAN Sensor

• Internal Temperature & Humidity
• 10 year battery life
• External sensors:
• Temperature
• Voltage (ADC)
• Interrupt sensor
• Illumination sensor
• Counting sensor
• 11 byte payload – packed, base64-encoded,

Helium Economy

Hotspots

• Hotspots earn tokens from two sources:
• Proof of coverage
• Data transfer

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Sensors

• Sensors pay for data usage
• Every 24 bytes sent in an uplink or downlink packet cost 1 DC = $.00001.

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Helium uses a dual token model

• HNT and DC
• Mint and burn equilibrium model

picos

Picos are Actors

• decentralized
• heterarchical
• interoperable
• substitutable
• internet-first

1. Distributed transaction processing and applications
2. Peer-to-peer messaging and sharing
3. Autonomous coordination and contracts between peers

device shadows

object + pico �= shadow

Pico as Shadow

Please Play with This: manifold.picolabs.io

Sovereignty defines the source of our authority to act

What is the root of trust?

Bindings Define Architectural Type

Architectures – Administrative Identifiers

Architectures – Algorithmic Identifiers

Architectures – Autonomic Identifiers

Wallets and Agents

DID Exchange Creates DID Relationship

Picos and DIDs

DID Relationship Supports Messaging: DIDCOmm

DID-Based Relationships

DIDComm is a Secure Network Overlay

Portable, Self-Sovereign, Secure Messaging

Daniel Hardman: https://daniel-hardman.medium.com/security-silos-and-sovereignty-522e30bb8eb4

DIDComm Properties

1. Secure
2. Private
3. Interoperable
4. Transport-agnostic
5. Extensible

Tic Tac Toe

Tic Tac Toe Protocol 1.0

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Credential Exchange & DIDComm ProtocolS

• DID Exchange Protocol 1.0 - Aries RFC 0023
• Issue Credential Protocol 1.0 - Aries RFC 0036
• Present Proof Protocol 1.0 - Aries RFC 0037

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Other Possible Protocols

• Delegating
• Commenting
• Notifying
• Buying and selling
• Negotiating
• Enacting and enforcing contracts

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​

• Putting things in escrow (and taking them out again)
• Transferring ownership
• Scheduling
• Auditing
• Reporting errors

The CompuServe of Things

Self Sovereign Internet of Things

Firmware Update

Ownership

Picos and Engines

Customer Support

Relationships for Vehicles

Alice Sells Her Truck

Picos

• Experimenting with SSIoT
• Picos can be agents
• Working on:
• Incorporating DIDComm as primary messaging method
• Explore the use of DIDComm protocols in pico-space
• Pico mobility between engines

See Code, Quickstart and Lessons at http://picolabs.io

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Going Further

• DIDComm Messaging Spec (https://identity.foundation/didcomm-messaging/spec/)
• Aries RFCs (https://github.com/hyperledger/aries-rfcs)
• Picos (http://picolabs.io)
• The Architecture of Identity Systems (https://www.windley.com/archives/2020/09/the_architecture_of_identity_systems.shtml)
• Operationalizing Digital Relationships (https://www.windley.com/archives/2020/11/operationalizing_digital_relationships.shtml)
• DIDComm and the Self-Sovereign Internet (https://www.windley.com/archives/2020/11/didcomm_and_the_self-sovereign_internet.shtml)
• The Self-Sovereign Internet of Things (https://www.windley.com/archives/2020/12/the_self-sovereign_internet_of_things.shtml)
• Relationships in the Self-Sovereign Internet of Things (https://www.windley.com/archives/2020/12/relationships_in_the_self-sovereign_internet_of_things.shtml)

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Quickstart

http://picolabs.io

(click on Documentation)

Picos and Helium

pico engine

Pico engine is

implemented in NodeJS

Open standards

Open source

http://github.com/picolab