Convergence of Blockchain and Physical Unclonable Functions: An Exploratory Review

Abstract

Blockchain and Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) are two transformative technologies that have gained significant attention in recent years. Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that ensures secure, transparent, and tamper-proof transactions without the need for a central authority, making it indispensable across various industries. PUFs, on the other hand, leverage the inherent randomness in physical devices to generate unique identities for authentication and security, particularly in applications requiring low-cost, scalable solutions. The convergence of blockchain and PUFs promises to address critical security challenges, particularly in device authentication, data integrity, and privacy-preserving mechanisms. This research explores the synergy between blockchain and PUFs, aiming to identify commonalities in methodologies, key findings, limitations and future directions in existing literature. A total of 12 peerreviewed papers, each with over 10 citations, were selected based on their academic rigour and impact, representing the most influential studies published between 2019 and 2024. By employing thematic analysis, this research synthesises the past literature across three main objectives: methods, key findings, and both limitations and future work, identifying 8 distinct themes within these categories. The majority of the papers reviewed indicated a strong focus on authentication and access control within their methodological approaches. These studies frequently utilised enhanced cryptographic techniques and conducted security analyses as part of their frameworks. A common finding among the papers was their emphasis on security and efficiency, with many solutions being specifically applied to the Internet of Things (IoT) domain. However, there was a notable lack of comprehensive discussion regarding the limitations of the approaches. Furthermore, the papers often proposed that future research should address the development of novel consensus mechanisms. This study suggests that prospective research should focus on integrating smart contracts and further advancing scalable, decentralised solutions, extending beyond the IoT domain.