There has been much discussion about the potential of blockchain technology to provide security for IoT devices, but few real-world applications so far.

Now two Australian companies – Perth-based engineering services company LVX Group and Melbourne-based cyber security company VeroGuard Systems – have formed a partnership that they say represents a world first application of blockchain to secure IoT devices.

LVX’s managing director and leader of smart city/IoT advisory, Corey Gray, said the application of VeroGuard’s secure ID technology represented “a game-changing enabler for smart city and the IoT” that had not been previously accomplished.

“This has not been done until now. It’s a world first technology,” he said.

Gray said LVX had been active in the IoT advisory space for several years, but adoption had been constrained by the commercial/contractual environment and the heightened awareness of sensitivities and risks around IoT security, to which blockchain represented a solution.

“Appropriate deployment of blockchain will change the way large scale, complex device operation and management can be handled, and VeroGuard will help to speed up and take the risk out of initiatives such as smart contracts,” Gray said.

“[VeroGuard’s] Secure ID technology means that finally our clients can access the full potential of the IoT by protecting their devices from cyber threats. VeroGuard’s solution is unique and even extends itself to resolving some of the most significant issues with Blockchain by providing an identity and security layer to the platform.”

VeroGuard’s chairman and co-CEO Daniel Elbaum said IoT devices needed “ultra-secure connections with irrefutable verification of inbound and outbound communications whether they are with other machines or humans. It is essential the world secures the billions of connected devices and their associated communications we are building reliance on.”

He said this would be central to the accelerated adoption of IoT and “now we can deliver that outcome in a cost effective and scalable form.”

VeroGuard says it has developed a unique technology that enables online authentication and encrypted transmission across fixed and mobile networks with same level of identity security as the ATM network.

It claims to be “the first and only secure open internet based login to the cloud or enterprise networks,” and “a proven ultra-secure technology using an anchored ID and multi-factor authentication providing true digital identity verification.”

According to a blog post on its web site: “At the core of the Vero Systems solution is an un-repudiable identity and security platform in its own right, that can also be used as a complimentary system to secure Blockchain based technologies. By integrating a Vero authentication layer, blockchain technologies can avoid problems such as small block computation pools being poisoned, and provide physically strong storage of cryptographical keys for end users.”