Project Chip Embraces a Timeline and Blockchain, Here’s why!

Project Connected Home over IP, a standardized smart home connection will begin formal device certification in late 2021, and the standard will prioritize connectivity using Wifi, Thread, and Ethernet. In a surprise yet shocking move, the standards will utilize a blockchain element for device certification and security.

The news from the Project CHIP working group has come in slow drips and drabs which has hindered the progress of further advancements in the connectivity field. The storyline has been the same ever since its initial launch in Dec 2019, when the emphatic players in the smart home ecosystem said they were working on interoperable smart home demand.

In a virtual event, Tuesday hosted by the Zigbee Alliance, which hosts the CHIP working group, members from Apple, SmartThings, Infineon, Tuya, Comcast, Google, and more shared a bunch of details about how the new standard would handle networking, device models, existing gear, security and what devices we can expect to see certified first. In order to understand the working of the device and the software, it is paramount for us to understand the concept of CHIP. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s do a refresher on CHIP.

The standard was developed because the smart home wasn’t working, and the consumers and the manufacturers were left infuriated. Recently, the formulation of CHIP has worked to come out of the problem. CHIP was formed to change the lack of interoperability by creating an IP-based interoperability layer between devices at the application layer. Most smart home devices might interoperate at the networking layer.Still, the network compatibility didn’t mean that a light bulb could communicate with a light switch or a security sensor would communicate with a different platform.