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IBM is hard at work on the problem of ubiquitous computing, and its approach, understandably enough, is to make a computer small enough that you might mistake it for a grain of sand. Eventually these omnipresent tiny computers could help authenticate products, track medications and more.
It’s an evolution of IBM’s “crypto anchor” program, which uses a variety of methods to create what amounts to high-tech watermarks for products that verify they’re, for example, from the factory the distributor claims they are, and not counterfeits mixed in with genuine items.
The “world’s smallest computer,” as IBM continually refers to it, is meant to bring blockchain capability into this; the security advantages of blockchain-based logistics and tracking could be brought to something as benign as a bottle of wine or box of cereal.
Towards Smart Dust ? IBM's smallest computer design may be mistaken for a grain of sand ...
Ubiquitous computing means that what we saw yet no longer understood (hence the Intel pink characters on TV ads a while ago) won't be visible any longer.
Will it also imply that future computing power increases will come from a combination of Moore's Law and a huge increase in volumes produced ? Power will migrate in any case towards the edge of the network, making centralized computing a thing of the past ultimately, with the exception of a few cloud behemoths that will try to leverage the data they manage.