A Blockchain-based approach to securing data in smart agriculture

Abstract

Digital transformation in the socioeconomic sectors has become a requirement in Algeria, particularly in the agricultural field. Modern agriculture is mainly based on new communication technologies such as IoT, 5G and Cloud/Edge computing, where data can be shared quickly and transparently. Ensuring security to access data in this system is a challenge that has always aroused researchers because of the importance of data reliability to make the right decisions for the advancement and development of any sector. Blockchain's various qualities, including smart contracts, decentralisation, transparency, data immutability, data privacy, and a consensus process, make it suitable for securing data and achieving its integrity from alteration and tampering. This paper proposes a Blockchain strategy to improve agriculture data security, integrity, management and sharing performance. The proposed approach works in three steps, collecting raw agricultural data from greenhouses and storing it in Edge. This data is encrypted and uploaded to InterPlanetary File Systems (IPFS). Then, a transaction is generated by the smart contract and stored in the Blockchain network. The approved transaction cannot be modified. Therefore, our system is guaranteed in terms of security and integrity.