Blockchain Technology and Its Growing Role in the Internet of Things

Abstract

The complicated environment of IoT represents a rich surface for attackers to exploit its vulnerabilities and disclose its assets. The ownership of IoT devices considers as one of the main assets that ordinarily managed by the centralized entity. The centralized entity can become a potential site of attack or become an attacker itself. The proposed approach aims to address the central authority issue by utilizing the advantage of the blockchain and Ethereum smart contract. Our approach involves playing the role of controlling the ownership functions during the device lifecycle, such as transferring the ownership, as well as, getting a trusted log of device owners from the current owner back to the origin. Our analysis shows that our solution is viable and offers a significant degree of transparency, anonymity, immutable, and non-repudiation.