As more and more devices learn to communicate with each other through mesh networks and Internet of Things (IoT), payment solutions will have to evolve as well. In this regard, the adoption of Bitcoin technology which is perfectly suited for microtransaction will complement the effort of the Internet of Things.
IoT can benefit from Bitcoin technology. Depending on how the information through the Internet of Things network is processed, distributing the validation and verification of all data is paramount. This is where blockchain technology can help as it acts as a distributed ledger to power the Bitcoin network.
Recently, the RedBear Duo which is design as a Bluetooth gateway to the Internet of Things allows you to communicate with your projects both over the web and with your phone, enabling a wide range of cool interactions. With a WiFi based connection, the Duo gives you all the connectivity you’ll need to control, interact, monitor, and play with your awesome new creations. Also, this gadget can be used for a wide variety of blockchain-based applications, such as creating irrefutable time-stamped logs, or serve as a point-of-sale device accepting payments through Bluetooth LE.
The Duo contains both Wi-Fi and BLE capabilities. This means your project can communicate locally with Bluetooth enabled devices and can also connect to your local Wi-Fi network to interact with anything else on the web. The Duo is built around the Broadcom BCM43438, a Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n plus Bluetooth 4.1 (Dual Mode) combined chipset. They share the same 2.4GHz antenna and can run at the same time. This gives you the flexibility to utilize the most suitable wireless technology(s) for your project.
The RedBear Duo gives you four development platforms/languages to choose from:
Arduino IDE – The most popular development platform used by makers, it’s easy to learn and comes with plenty of references guides.
Particle Web IDE, Dev and CLI – A development platform that allows you to program your Duo online and wirelessly. You can be miles away and still be able to do your tweaking of your Duo.
JavaScript – Yes. If you know JavaScript already, you are ready to go! We are porting an open source JavaScript interpreter for microcontroller to the Duo. You could control all the I/Os, Wi-Fi and BLE connections with JavaScript only and without the need of compilation.
Broadcom WICED SDK – An advanced development platform where you can do low-level tweaking. With the WICED SDK, Duo can support Classic Bluetooth which you can build audio or streaming data devices. If you have Apple MFi license, you can even develop your Apple HomeKit project with Duo and WICED.
They also provide sample projects and sample code for both Android and iOS on their website and their GitHub page.
The hardware compositions of the RedBear consists of:
- STMicroelectronics STM32F205 ARM Cortex-M3 @120MHz, 128 KB SRAM and 1MB Flash
- Broadcom BCM43438 Wi-Fi 802.11n (2.4GHz only) + Bluetooth 4.1 (Dual Mode) combo chip
- On-board 16 Mbit (2 MB) SPI Flash
- Integrated chip antenna with the option to connect external antenna
- 18 I/O pins
- RGB status LED
- Small single-sided PCB for easy mounting on other PCB boards
- Duo comes with headers soldered
- 20.5mm x 39mm
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