Cisco has recently filed a U.S. patent application for an invention that it describes as a, “Block Chain Based IoT [Internet of Things] Device Identity Verification and Anomaly Detection.”

The concept has to do with enabling a blockchain-based system that could record changes to the conditions affecting and captured by sensors (i.e., smart objects) in a network and instrumentalize network relationships and the data that the network generates in order to exercise control over those nodes.

The application lists “the smart grid, smart cities, and building and industrial automation” among the types of Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) that might operate more efficiently with the integration of the invention. The smart objects/sensors that could, at least partially, comprise these networks include “lights, appliances, vehicles, HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning), windows and window shades and blinds, doors, [and] locks,” as well as actuators – automated devices that can, for instance, start an engine.