[Read on Medium]

We are excited to announce the open source release of Ockam which is now available in GitHub.

Today’s product launch furthers our goal to make IoT developers’ lives easier with simple tools that tackle their biggest challenges.

The Ockam open source Software Developer Kit (SDK) contains a library for Golang developers and a Command Line Interface (CLI). Additional language support, features, and tools will be included in future releases. The Ockam SDK allows a developer to build Ockam functionality into their applications or embedded software. When a developer adds the Ockam SDK to the firmware in their connected devices they become clients to the Ockam Network, receive a unique Decentralized ID (did:ockam), can share data as a verified claim with another device, and can verify data that they receive from other IoT devices that are registered with the Network.

Why developers love Ockam

It’s simple

The Ockam SDK gives developers an experience that allows them to add identity, trust and interoperability in IoT devices. They do not need to have a deep understanding of secure IoT network architecture or complex cryptographic key identity management to use Ockam.

Interoperability of a service oriented architecture

Ockam is a new backbone for the next generation of high performance IoT ecosystems. Ockam is interoperable and built for multi-party IoT networks.

Serverless experience with simple pricing

Developers interact with the network with simple functions incorporated in their code, and only pay for what they consume.

Ockam is the ‘Twilio of IoT’

Ockam builds upon the proven developer-first model of Heroku/Twilio/Stripe, which abstracted away the technical complexity of cloud, telecommunications & payments. Developers only need to know a couple Ockam functions from the SDK to tune their IoT devices and applications with best practices.

Ockam is the ‘100x better’ solution for an IoT developer

Every developer gets to the point in a project where they must choose how to add identity, trust and interoperability into their IoT devices. Yesterday they could only choose to:

  • Do nothing: this is exceptionally common and leads to botnets and massive security vulnerabilities in devices.
  • Build their own end-to-end IoT infrastructure: this is a massive undertaking and costs million of dollars and requires specific expertise.
  • Buy an IoT platform vendor solution: end-to-end platforms are complex to implement, have high switching costs and lead to vendor lock-in which limits interoperability.

Today, with the Ockam SDK Launch, developers now have a better option: write a couple lines of code to give their device a secure immutable identity that is interoperable with the rest of their technology stack.

How Ockam works

“Ockam is tuned for IoT”

The architecture of Ockam is tuned to meet the complex needs of an IoT system. We eliminate the blind spots for developers so that they don’t need to focus on difficult architecture decisions or go to the expense required to build and maintain their own infrastructure.

Ockam is serverless

A developer only needs the SDK. The technical complexities of the Ockam Network are completely abstracted away. The developer only has to pay on a per use basis.

Ockam is built on rock solid cloud infrastructure

The Ockam network delivers high performance thanks to Azure confidential compute. Microsoft Engineering is a dedicated technical partner, sharing our quest to make life for IoT developers easy.

Ockam is Open Source, and built with Open Standards

Ockam’s founding team are deep Open Source veterans and have seen the magic that OSS delivers. We have curated the Ockam stack with the best features available and believe in a modular open source tech stack.

About the Founders: The right team at the right time

Developer Platforms and Open Source

While at Microsoft, Ockam CEO Matthew Gregory led Azure’s OSS developer platform strategy. He was a core member of the team responsible for Microsoft’s resurgence via Azure’s pivot to open source. He left Microsoft to revolutionize the IoT industry in the same way that the cloud world was revolutionized. See his thesis on the IoT developer stack here.

IoT Innovation and Security

Ockam CTO Mrinal Wadhwa built a full-stack IoT solution as CTO of Fybr. He’s taking the hard lessons learned from building an end-to-end IoT system and is now applying his knowledge to the Ockam architecture — his second IoT network.

Blockchain

Ockam COO Logan Jager is a seasoned Wall Street Veteran and spent the last decade in global credit markets at Citigroup. Logan’s deep experience in regulated financial markets has been instrumental in orchestrating a high level corporate strategy that turns the legal and regulatory considerations of blockchain into a competitive advantage for Ockam.

For more information