The Blockchain of Things, Beyond Bitcoin: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a name coined to the digital ecosystem of numerous internet connected devices. It brings the physical world closer to the digital one and as a result, allows for new applications and services. The emergence of Blockchain, a distributed ledger technology, presents a possible solution to ensure trust in decentralized systems. Blockchain brings trust, immutability, and verifiability of a distributed ledger in a decentralized network which could be useful to build trust in IoT. However, the integration of IoT with Blockchain involves a number of challenges. The use of Blockchain within the IoT is a recent and a fast paced topic. Therefore, conducting a systematic literature review is essential to understand what has been proposed on the topic. Recent work has provided a systematic review with a focus on Bitcoin. In this paper, we present a systematic review of more recent work on Blockchain and IoT, with a broader focus on Blockchain platforms beyond Bitcoin. Our work provides an overview of what has been done so far on the use of Blockchain and IoT.