Lightweight layer-1 blockchain Minima will integrate blockchain construction and validation directly into smart devices with the Minima Chip in collaboration with Arm’s Flexible Access Program.
The modern world is built on the seamless flow of data. Keeping data secure, accessible and verifiable is of utmost importance. From industrial automation to smart cities, connected devices are at the heart of every critical operation. Factories rely on IoT sensors to monitor temperature and optimize production. Smart meters help cities regulate energy consumption, and autonomous vehicles depend on real-time data to navigate safely.
In the heart of smart devices powered by Internet of Things (IoT) lies advanced microchips. These tiny integrated circuits serve as the critical computing and storage units that process, relay and safeguard the continuous flow of information within connected devices.
Blockchain to fuel the heart of smart devices
Microchips hold the key to bringing all the benefits of blockchain —security, immutability and decentralization— to potentially any modern device in the world. Aiming to realize this potential, Minima — a layer-1 blockchain known for its lightweight architecture — has joined forces with the global chip designer Arm to integrate blockchain at the heart of smart devices.
This partnership will utilize Arm’s Flexible Access Program to accelerate the development of the ‘Minima Chip,’ supported by Arm’s globally leading semiconductor architecture that is used by all major tech giants, including Apple, Nvidia, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung and Intel.
The chip design will create a “blockchain-on-chip” functionality that will enable devices to construct and validate transactions, check data, and locally issue their own tokens.
On-device validation
The Minima Chip is designed to bring secure, decentralized blockchain capabilities directly into the hardware of countless industrial and electronic devices. By embedding blockchain services into a dedicated chip, Minima enables secure, autonomous operations within industries ranging from automotive and healthcare to manufacturing and smart cities.
Instead of treating security and data verification as add-ons, this approach aims to place them right inside the hardware. A sensor in a factory might then confirm its own measurements, a car’s onboard systems could manage maintenance logs securely, and a home device could authenticate its resource usage data without sending it elsewhere.
By pairing Minima’s lightweight approach to blockchain with Arm’s chip architecture, the aim is to create a hardware design that remains efficient and does not strain the device’s main functions.
When you are working at the bleeding edge of technology, you need the right collaborators to make your vision a reality.
— Minima (@Minima_Global) December 6, 2024
Collaborators like @Arm. There's a reason why:
➡️ 70% of the Worlds population already uses Arm-based products
➡️ 300Bn+ Arm-based chips have shipped to… pic.twitter.com/lENZCxJdID
The partnership will provide Minima with access to Arm’s advanced IP portfolio, including advanced processors and system-on-chip designs. This will help Minima to create a chip that meets the high standards of performance and security required for decentralized operations.
The Minima Chip will leverage Arm’s high-performance optimization and flexible architecture, enabling seamless scalability. In terms of security, all blockchain operations remain isolated from the main system effectively minimizing vulnerabilities and safeguarding sensitive data.
Streamlining the path from prototype to production
The Arm Flexible Access program is “a collaborative framework” that will allow Minima to accelerate the Minima Chip’s development, according to Minima CEO Hugo Feiler.
“This will give Minima the technical foundation to fulfill our promise of blockchain everywhere, embedding secure blockchain nodes into everything from smart appliances and smart cars to industrial machines and IoT devices.”
These hardware-level features will be critical in the emerging fields of autonomous AI agents. Artificial intelligence systems rely on data, and there is ever increasing need to be able to verify the data in real-time, at the source. Similarly, machine-to-machine exchanges, like a vehicle sending verified payment information to a charging station, can become smoother when trust is established right within the device’s own chip.
By working through Arm’s Flexible Access Program, Minima’s approach suggests that blockchain verification does not need to be an external add-on. Instead, it can be woven into the fundamental design of devices, aiming to help ensure that data trustworthiness and secure interactions happen locally and efficiently.
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