6$ cross country IOT device for parcel tracking [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

6$ cross country IOT device for parcel tracking [pdf]

thebitpost.com

9 pointsprabhatkr7 comments

Complete lack of technical details? Check. Nonsense math ($15 per package)? Check. Mention of block chain ledger? Check. Alright boys, pack it up. We got vaporware here.

This seems to be some kind of scam. It leads to "bitpost.com", which has the TLS cert for "abettertrader.com". There's no picture of the actual device. Just clip art.

Such trackers exist, but they start around $50 and need a minimal cellular account. There are various short-range devices like Tile, as well.

Can I buy these individually? Having a 6$ GPS enabled tracker is useful for more than just shipping. Ex. as a replacement for https://www.thetileapp.com/

They didn't do some basic error-checking in their PDF. Should redirect to: www.thebitpost.com not bitpost.com.

Maybe using NB-IoT and a GPS, it could be plausible? Not at $6 now, but maybe $20, and assuming NB-IoT networks exist where your package is going.

No details, so it might be complete hand-wavy vaporware.

Also, rant, I am frustrated with the use of 'blockchain' for things that should be in a database. Makes me think the company is only hype and buzzword-driven.

I'd argue the move to distributed p2p databases (blockchains) backing hardware is a move in a customer-friendly direction. If all your tiny devices can participate in a global p2p network, you no longer have to worry about the company that sold you 500,000 tracking tags suddenly going tits-up, leaving you with a ton of unusable hardware.

So, for my rant, I'd like to state it's frustrating to see people jump to yelling "hype" and "buzzword", instead of pausing for a moment and considering the use cases.

That's true, and I agree that the openness and controlling your own data is important in a general case.

Though I can pretty much guarantee these devices are not directly posting transactions on a blockchain, the cost in CPU power and battery consumption is too high and the devices would cost way more than $6 in that case.

If there is still a server in between making the transactions, does it still make sense to invoke the "blockchain" terminology? To me that is where the hype part comes from.

I agree this specific post lacks any useful detail, and is highly unlikely to be anything more than vaporware.

That said the claim that one could develop a sub-$10 tracker consisting of a GPS receiver, LPWAN tranceiver, and a small ARM for generating signed messages isn't completely absurd -- such a device would have a BOM in the ballpark of $35-40 if cobbled together from retail priced dev modules. It's friggin absurd how cheap hardware has become. Look at the OrangePi Zero as an example. As low as $7 to the end user for a quad core board with WiFi, Ethernet, 512mb ram, and some SPI flash.

I agree with you on the intermediate server issue -- not because a tiny ARM can't directly submit messages, but because most reasonably priced existing LPWAN solutions don't provide internet IP connectivity to devices. If the devices were provided with full IP, there's no reason a blockchain client couldn't run on a cortex m0 -- keep in mind being able to submit messages to a blockchain doesn't mean you have to ever even look at, let alone store or process the chain.

I think it's wise to be sceptical about this project. I'm just less convinced that it's wise to equate blockchains with hype.

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