Launched by China Mobile, the smart water purifier will collect data based on user behavior – owners are rewarded with blockchain tokens for their data.

China’s telecommunications giant China Mobile has unveiled a smart water purifier that rewards owners with blockchain tokens called PWMC for using it, depending on the length and frequency of usage.

Showcasing how blockchain can be applied to everyday household products, the water purifier is developed by the firm’s fully-owned subsidiary, an Internet of Things (IoT) unit called China Mobile IoT. With a built-in computing chip and an (IoT) module, it will collect data based on user behavior – data highly sought after by the likes of suppliers and manufacturers.

A product marketing director at China Mobile IoT, Xiao Yi, claims that what sets this smart appliance apart from others is that it gives consumers something in return for their data. Moreover, users can use these PWMC tokens to purchase other products or redeem them for replacement filters.

Making Blockchain Closer to Everyone

Coindesk reported (Jan 8) Xiao as saying that the “goal is to also attract those who are not in the cryptocurrency or blockchain community, who may have heard of this technology but not necessarily understand it”.

“To embrace a more mainstream adoption, we need to turn something that appears professional into something that’s very ordinary,” Xiao added.

At the moment, the water purifier is available only through a one-month crowdfunding campaign on Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com.

Just earlier on November 11 2018, China Mobile launched blockchain-enabled TVs that capture data on user behavior, attached with a Bitcoin cloud mining contract to reward TV owners with Bitcoins.

Xiao also stated that the water purifier and the TV are the first steps in its blockchain experiment. China Mobile is said to have more such projects in the near future. The firm has signed a partnership agreement with MOAC, a public blockchain project, to launch a standardized enterprise solution for combining IoT modules and blockchain computing chips.