2.1 WHAT IS THE MACHINE ECONOMY ?
According to Next Big Thing AG [ 1 ], the machine economy is a network of smart , connected , and economically independent devices and machines acting as autonomous market participants , executing economic transactions and other activities with little to no human intervention . This definition shows the potential disruption factors the machine economy brings to IoT . On the one hand , the machine economy addresses the traditional manufacturing and business processes in place in most enterprises and industries . On the other hand , it leverages technologies that enable autonomous transactions between devices or machines .
2.2 KEY ENABLERS OF THE MACHINE ECONOMY
Three key aspects namely enable the machine economy : the Internet of things ( IoT ), distributed ledger technology ( DLT ), and token economics . The relations between the three key enablers are shown in Figure 1 .
2.2.1 THE INTERNET OF THINGS ( IOT )
Figure 1 : The three key enablers of the machine economy
The explosion of smart IoT devices has allowed people and machines to communicate and exchange information anywhere at anytime . Besides consumer-oriented applications , various smart sensors have been integrated into industrial machines to improve factories ' manufacturing processes . All IoT devices are poised to provide real-time information regarding the associated
4 January 2023