Sensing-as-a-Service (SaaS) is an emerging Internet of Things (IOT) business model pattern. To be technically feasible and to effectively allow for broad adoption, SaaS implementations have to overcome manifold systemic hurdles, specifically regarding payment and sensor identification.

In an effort to overcome these hurdles, the authors of this paper propose Bitcoin as protocol for Sensing-as-a-service network. To lay the groundwork and start the conversation about disruptive changes that Bitcoin technology could bring to SaaS concepts and IOT in general, this paper identifies and discusses the core characteristics that could drive those changes. The authors present a conceptual example and describe the basic process of exchanging data for cash using Bitcoin.

The digital transformation of market exchanges is the focus of this research. The study arguably provides a rare glimpse of a currency currently undergoing a profound transformation. Currency, which broadly entails the systematic use of any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context, is conventionally backed, produced, and secured by state governments.

However, the internet’s decentralised nature has created the conditions conducive for the development of a standalone currency regulated solely by market forces and independent of direct government oversight (C4ss 2012). The most successful digital currency of this type, though not the first, is bitcoin. This paper explores how SaaS and Bitcoin go in hand.