Blockchain technology has become an active area of research and a technological option for many businesses and industrial communities. With its distributed, decentralized, and trustless nature, blockchain can provide businesses with new opportunities and benefits through increased efficiency, reduced costs, enhanced integrity and transparency, better security, and improved traceability. Although blockchain’s largest applications have been in the finance and banking sector, we now see experiments and proposed applications in different fields. This paper provides an overview of blockchain technology; it brings together all the key design features, characteristics, and benefits of blockchain that make it a superior and unique technology, and it presents the popular consensus protocols and taxonomy of blockchain systems. Additionally, the paper surveys blockchain-based applications across multiple domains such as in finance, insurance, supply chain management, energy, advertising and media, real estate and healthcare. It aims at examining the industries’ key issues, blockchain solutions and use cases. The paper highlights three broad limitations that blockchain technology presents: scalability, security, and regulation, and shows how these challenges could impact blockchain application and adoption.
Amirhossein Adavoudi Jolfaei, Seyed Farhad Aghili, Dave Singelée
Recently, blockchain-based Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has started to receive more attention in the healthcare domain as it not only improves the care quality using real-time and continuous monitoring but also minimizes the cost of care. However, there is a clear trend to include many entities in IoMT systems, such as IoMT sensor nodes, IoT wearable medical devices, patients, healthcare centers, and insurance companies. This makes it challenging to design a blockchain framework for these systems where scalability is a most critical factor in blockchain technology. Motivated by this observation, in this survey we review the state-of-the-art in blockchain-IoMT systems. Comparison and analysis of such systems prove that there is a substantial gap, which is the negligence of scalability. In this survey, we discuss several approaches proposed in the literature to improve the scalability of blockchain technology, and thus overcoming the above mentioned research gap. These approaches include on-chain and off-chain techniques, based on which we give recommendations and directions to facilitate designing a scalable blockchain-based IoMT system. We also recommended that a designer considers the well-known trilemma along with the various dimensions of a scalable blockchain system to prevent sacrificing security and decentralization as well. Moreover, we raise several research questions regarding benchmarking; addressing these questions could help designers determining the existing bottlenecks, leading to a scalable blockchain.
Hong Su, Bing Guo, Yan Shen, Zhen Zhang · 5 authors
Smart contracts are required to be instantiated in the predeployed stage, which consumes computation resources from then on. It is a big waste in the blockchain whose nodes are composed of IoT devices, as those devices often have limited resources (such as limited power supplies or a limited number of processes to run). Meanwhile, IoT devices are heterogeneous and different smart contracts are required. If those smart contracts are instantiated previously, numerous meaningless addresses are required. In this paper, we propose to delay the instantiation of a smart contract when used and terminate it when not used, which is similar to the life cycle of a variable. Then, a new kind of variable (the wrapping variable) is used to hide details of the instantiation and the address. The smart contract is instantiated in the construction function of the wrapping variable, or even it is delayed to the time when there are requests for it. The smart contract terminates when the variable is out of its scope. Then, different instantiation methods are proposed. Finally, we perform the qualitative comparison between the proposed approach and the predeployment method, and it demonstrates that the proposed methods optimize the life cycle of the smart contract and save calculation resources.
Geetanjali Rathee, Razi Iqbal, Omer Waqar, Ali Kashif Bashir
A smart city refers to an intelligent environment obtained by deploying all available resources and recent technologies in a coordinated and smart manner. Intelligent sensors (Internet of Things (IoT) devices) along with 5G technology working mutually are steadily becoming more pervasive and accomplish users' desires more effectively. Among a variety of IoT use cases, e-voting is a considerable application of IoT that relegates it to the next phase in the growth of technologies related to smart cities. In conventional applications, all the devices are often assumed to be cooperative and trusted. However, in practice, devices may be disrupted by the intruders to behave maliciously with the aim of degradation of the network services. Therefore, the privacy and security flaws in the e-voting systems in particular lead to a huge problem where intruders may perform a number of frauds for rigging the polls. Thus, the potential challenge is to distinguish the legitimate IoT devices from the malicious ones by computing their trust values through social optimizer in order to establish a legitimate communication environment. Further, in order to prevent from future modifications of data captured by smart devices, a Blockchain is maintained where blocks of all legitimate IoT devices are recorded. This article has introduced a secure and transparent e-voting mechanism through IoT devices using Blockchain technology with the aim of detecting and resolving the various threats caused by an intruder at various levels. Further, in order to validate the proposed mechanism, it is analyzed against various security parameters such as message alteration, Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack and authentication delay.
Yaroslav Meshcheryakov, Anna Melman, Oleg Evsutin, Vladimir Morozov · 5 authors
Cyber-physical systems and the Internet of things (IoT) are becoming an integral part of the digital society. The use of IoT services improves human life in many ways. Protection against cyber threats is an utmost important prospect of IoT devices operation. Malicious activities lead to confidential data leakage and incorrect performance of devices becomes critical. Therefore, development of effective solutions that can protect both IoT devices data and data exchange networks turns in to a real challenge. This study provides a critical analysis of the feasibility of using blockchain technology to protect constrained IoT devices data, justifies the choice of Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) consensus algorithm for implementation on such devices, and simulates the main distributed ledger scenarios using PBFT. In this paper we investigate typical IoT network scenarios that can disrupt system performance. To ensure the adequacy of the models under study, we have analyzed the characteristics of real constrained IoT devices in terms of computing power and data rate. The simulation results demonstrate efficiency of the blockchain technology for constrained devices and make it possible to evaluate applicability limits of the chosen consensus algorithm.
Most IoT devices cannot afford to be a blockchain node due to the high computation and storage loads. Thus, the blockchain is usually deployed on one delegate node, e.g., the edge device or cloud, which may encounters three drawbacks: (1) The delegate node becomes the single failure point when the number of delegate notes are limited. (2) The delegate node replicating the blockchain data can lead to privacy information leak. (3) The delegate node is vulnerable to the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. To tackle these drawbacks, we consider to minimize the redundant of blockchain to make the IoT devices as the specialized blockchain nodes. In this paper, we integrate a permissioned blockchain (HLF), an attribute-based access control (ABAC) and an identity-based signature (IBS) to build a security, lightweight, and cross-domain blockchain-based IoT access control system. Specifically, we divided the IoT system into different function domains, named IoT domains. Then, we establish a local blockchain ledger for each IoT domain to enable more IoT devices as blockchain nodes. The local blockchain ledger records the IoT domain entities' attributes, policy files' digests, and access decisions. Meanwhile, we use the channel technology of HLF to realize cross-domain access and use the IBS to filter the legal access requests for each IoT domain to prevent DDoS attacks. We also design a policy decision point (PDP) selection algorithm that select multiple IoT devices (blockchain nodes) to achieve the real-time distributed policy decisions (off-chain). Finally, we implement and evaluate the proposed system to demonstrate its practicality.
P. G. Shynu, Varun G. Menon, R. Lakshmana Kumar, Seifedine Kadry · 5 authors
Fog computing is a modern computing model which offers geographically dispersed end-users with the latency-aware and highly scalable services. It is comparatively safer than cloud computing, due to information being rapidly stored and evaluated closer to data sources on local fog nodes. The advent of Blockchain (BC) technology has become a remarkable, most revolutionary, and growing development in recent years. BT’s open platform stresses data protection and anonymity. It also guarantees data is protected and valid through the consensus process. BC is mainly used in money-related exchanges; now it will be used in many domains, including healthcare; This paper proposes efficient Blockchain-based secure healthcare services for disease prediction in fog computing. Diabetes and cardio diseases are considered for prediction. Initially, the patient health information is collected from Fog Nodes and stored on a Blockchain. The novel rule-based clustering algorithm is initially applied to cluster the patient health records. Finally, diabetic and cardio diseases are predicted using feature selection based adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (FS-ANFIS). To evaluate the performance of the proposed work, an extensive experiment and analysis were conducted on data from the real world healthcare. Purity and NMI metrics are used to analyze the performance of the rule based clustering and the accuracy is used for prediction performance. The experimental results show that the proposed work efficiently predicts the disease. The proposed work reaches more than 81% of prediction accuracy compared to the other neural network algorithms.
Inna Romashkova, Mikhail Komarov, Aleksandr Ometov
One of the most promising enablers for the secure distributed operation of the Internet of Things (IoT) systems could be based on a mathematical construct widely known as blockchain that aims to neglect the system’s centralization and scalability properties. This paper aims to map the requirements and features of both systems, highlight the main integration challenges, and technological candidates for smoother integration of IoT and blockchain, as well as highlight the standartization outlook. This work has identified an architectural approach to an integrated solution based on classic literature review methodology aiming to consider the IoT versus blockchain characteristics mapping and outlining related integration challenges. Potential integration challenges of the proposed integrated approach are also identified and classified. Critical solutions to address the integration bottlenecks include moving from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Distributed Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus, adding a Fog overlay to the architecture model, and leveraging the synergies combining the benefits of blockchain and IoT technology are highlighted.
Clement Nartey, Eric Tutu Tchao, James Dzisi Gadze, Eliel Keelson · 7 authors
Digitization and automation have engulfed every scope and sphere of life. Internet of Things (IoT) has been the main enabler of the revolution. There still exist challenges in IoT that need to be addressed such as the limited address space for the increasing number of devices when using IPv4 and IPv6 as well as key security issues such as vulnerable access control mechanisms. Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that has immense benefits such as enhanced security and traceability. Thus, blockchain can serve as a good foundation for applications based on transaction and interactions. IoT implementations and applications are by definition distributed. This means blockchain can help to solve most of the security vulnerabilities and traceability concerns of IoTs by using blockchain as a ledger that can keep track of how devices interact, in which state they are and how they transact with other IoT devices. IoT applications have been mainly implemented with technologies such as cloud and fog computing, and AI to help address some of its key challenges. The key implementation challenges and technical choices to consider in making a successful blockchain IoT (BIoT) project are clearly outlined in this paper. The security and privacy aspect of BIoT applications are also analyzed, and several relevant solutions to improve the scalability and throughput of such applications are proposed. The paper also reviews integration schemes and monitoring frameworks for BIoT applications. A hybrid blockchain IoT integration architecture that makes use of containerization is proposed.
Agricultural food production is projected to be 70% higher by 2050 than it is today, with the world population rising to more than 9 billion, 34% higher than it is now. The farmers have been forced to produce more with the same resources. This pressure means that optimizing productivity is one of the main objectives of the producers but also in a sustainable way. Not only does agriculture face a decline in production, but it has also had to face limitations in data collection, storing, securing, and sharing, climate change, increases in input prices, traditional food supply chain systems where there is no direct connection between the farmer and the buyer, and limitations on energy use. Existing IoT‐based agriculture systems have a centralized format and operate in isolation, leaving room for unresolved issues and major concerns, including data security, manipulation, and single failure points. This paper proposes a futuristic IoT with a blockchain model to meet these challenges. Further, this paper also proposes and novel energy‐efficient clustering IoT‐based agriculture protocol for lower energy consumption and network stability and compares its results with its counterpart low‐energy adoptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) protocol. The simulation results show that the proposed protocol network stability is 23% higher as compared to LEACH as first node of LEACH dies at 168 rounds while IoT‐based agriculture first node dies after 463 rounds. Similarly, IoT‐based agriculture protocol energy consumption is 68% lower than that of LEACH. The proposed protocol also extends the network life to more rounds and demonstrates an increase of 112%.
Yogesh N. Patil, Arvind W. Kiwelekar, Laxman D. Netak, S. B. Deosarkar
Administering standardized examinations is a challenging task, especially for those universities for which colleges affiliated to it are geographically distributed over a wide area. Some of the challenges include maintaining integrity and confidentiality of examination records, preventing mal-practices, issuing unique identification numbers to a large student population and managing assets required for the smooth conduct of examinations. These challenges aggravate when colleges affiliated to universities demand academic and administrative autonomy by demonstrating best practices consistently over a long period. In this chapter, we describe a model for decentralized and autonomous examination system to provide the necessary administrative support. The model is based on two emerging technologies of Blockchain Technology and Internet of Things (IoT). We adopt a software architecture approach to describe the model. The prescriptive architecture consists of {\em architectural mappings} which map functional and non-functional requirements to architectural elements of blockchain technology and IoT. In architectural mappings, first, we identify common use-cases in administering standardized examinations. Then we map these use-cases to the core elements of blockchain, i.e. distributed ledgers, cryptography, consensus protocols and smart-contracts and IoT. Such kind of prescriptive architecture guide downstream software engineering processes of implementation and testing
Xianjia Yu, Jorge Peña Queralta, Jukka Heikkonen, Tomi Westerlund
Autonomous systems are becoming inherently ubiquitous with the advancements of computing and communication solutions enabling low-latency offloading and real-time collaboration of distributed devices. Decentralized technologies with blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) are playing a key role. At the same time, advances in deep learning (DL) have significantly raised the degree of autonomy and level of intelligence of robotic and autonomous systems. While these technological revolutions were taking place, raising concerns in terms of data security and end-user privacy has become an inescapable research consideration. Federated learning (FL) is a promising solution to privacy-preserving DL at the edge, with an inherently distributed nature by learning on isolated data islands and communicating only model updates. However, FL by itself does not provide the levels of security and robustness required by today’s standards in distributed autonomous systems. This survey covers applications of FL to autonomous robots, analyzes the role of DLT and FL for these systems, and introduces the key background concepts and considerations in current research.
Volker Ziegler, Peter Schneider, Harish Viswanathan, Michael Montag · 6 authors
A comprehensive set of security technology enablers will be critically required for communication systems for the 6G era of the 2030s. Trustworthiness must be assured across IoT, heterogenous cloud and networks, devices, sub-networks, and applications. The 6G threat vector will be defined by 6G architectural disaggregation, open interfaces and an environment with multiple stakeholders. Broadly decomposed into domains of cyber-resilience, privacy and trust and their respective intersection, we explore relevant security technology enablers including automated software creation and automated closed-loop security operation, privacy preserving technologies, hardware and cloud embedded anchors of trust, quantum-safe security, jamming protection and physical layer security as well as distributed ledger technologies. Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) as a key technology enabler will be pervasive and of pivotal relevance across the security technology stack and architecture. A novel vision for a trustworthy Secure Telecom Operation Map is developed as part of the automated closed loop operations paradigm.
Elham Shammar, Ammar T. Zahary, Asma A. Al-Shargabi
Blockchain has recently attracted significant academic attention in research fields beyond the financial industry. In the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain can be used to create a decentralized, reliable, and secure environment. The use of blockchain in IoT applications is still in its early stages, particularly at the low end of the computing spectrum. As a result, the future roadmap is hazy, and several challenges and questions must be addressed. Several articles combining blockchain technology with IoT have recently been released, but they are limited to shallow technological potential discussions, with very few providing an in- depth examination of the complexities of implementing blockchain technology for IoT. Therefore, this paper aims to coherently and comprehensively provide current cutting-edge efforts in this direction. It provides a literature review of IoT and blockchain integration by examining current research issues and trends in the applications of blockchain-related approaches and technologies within the IoT security context. We have surveyed published articles from 2017 to 2021 on blockchain-based solutions for IoT security, taking into consideration different security areas and then, we have organized the available articles according to these areas. The surveyed articles have been chronologically organized in tables for better clarity. In this paper, we try to investigate the vital issues and challenges to the integration of IoT and blockchain, and then investigate the research efforts that have been conducted so far to overcome these challenges.
Nowadays, data are generated in a continuous streaming manner as the inputs of various applications. The sources of such generated data can be wired or wireless sensor networks commonly used in various fields of geographical, traffic, Internet of Things (IoT), financial tickers, Web2 and Web3, e-commerce, social networks, and online communities. The high volume, high variety, and high velocity of data have recently posed the challenge of 3Vs to this field, also known as the Big Data Problem. The 3Vs dimensions of complexities for the big data entails high-speed storage, scalability of database systems, suitable data models, real-time responsiveness and so on. Data model, as the representation schema of data is an essential issue since many others (e.g., DBMS systems’ design, DB languages, etc.) rely on. So, the study of data models is a key and fundamental aspect in structuring, organizing, storing, and manipulating big data. It is also the essence in various areas of cloud migration, web-scale, and so forth. In this paper, we have systematically reviewed different types of data models, the rationale behind them, their applications and support capabilities, and the technologies to switch from one model to another. To address the user needs in various fields, a systematic review method is adopted to classify and present different types and characteristics of data models.
The demand for IoT systems in healthcare services is increasing widely and the data generated from these networks should be transferred and stored in a highly secure manner. Blockchain technology helps in maintaining the privacy and integrity of the electronic health records (EHR) data with the help of smart contracts that authenticate the users and maintain confidentiality in the network. Integrating blockchain into IoT systems improves the overall security of the network. In this paper, we propose an architecture based on Hyperledger Fabric which is a private blockchain platform that is used for storing the EHR data which are collected from various IoT sensors. The deployed smart-contract helps in performing some of the basic database functionalities onto the blockchain.
The dramatic rise in internet-based service provisioning has highlighted the importance of deploying scalable access control methods, facilitating service authorization for eligible users. Existing centralized methods suffer from single-point-of-failure, low scalability, and high computational overhead. In addition, in these methods, users pay for the service provider as well as the network provider independently for a specific service, imposing extra cost for the user. New business models are needed to resolve such shortcomings. The realization of these models calls for sophisticated access control methods which consider the requirements of all parties who want to: 1) access a service; 2) provide that service; and 3) provide the network connection. Blockchain is an enabling technology that provides unprecedented opportunities to novel distributed access control methods for new business models. We propose an Attribute-based access control solution by leveraging Blockchain to share network providers' and service providers' resources. Our solution offers access flexibility based on the requirements of the parties while fulfilling reliability, accountability, and immutability. Besides, it decreases the overall service cost which is beneficial for each party. Our solution makes it possible for service providers to outsource their access control procedures without requiring a trusted third party. The experiments confirm that our solution can provide a fast, comprehensive, and scalable access control mechanism.
Blockchain has been increasingly used as a software component to enable decentralisation in software architecture for a variety of applications. Blockchain governance has received considerable attention to ensure the safe and appropriate use and evolution of blockchain, especially after the Ethereum DAO attack in 2016. However, there are no systematic efforts to analyse existing governance solutions. To understand the state-of-the-art of blockchain governance, we conducted a systematic literature review with 37 primary studies. The extracted data from primary studies are synthesised to answer identified research questions. The study results reveal several major findings: 1) governance can improve the adaptability and upgradability of blockchain, whilst the current studies neglect broader ethical responsibilities as the objectives of blockchain governance; 2) governance is along with the development process of a blockchain platform, while ecosystem-level governance process is missing, and; 3) the responsibilities and capabilities of blockchain stakeholders are briefly discussed, whilst the decision rights, accountability, and incentives of blockchain stakeholders are still under studied. We provide actionable guidelines for academia and practitioners to use throughout the lifecycle of blockchain, and identify future trends to support researchers in this area.
Blockchain technology, a version of distributed ledger technology, has been grabbing a huge amount of attention in fields beyond its roots in crypto-currencies: blockchain and finance, blockchain and logistics, blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain and cybersecurity, and the list goes on. Blockchain (there are actually many blockchains, and it’s not limited to the technology that powers bitcoin), has been mentioned by virtually every research study firm as a rapidly accelerating evolution, and it’s not just about financial services companies, the domain in which we first discussed blockchain outside of its cryptographic roots (i.e., FinTech or financial technologies). The converging of blockchain and the Internet of Things is actually on the table for many companies and there are existing deployments, solutions and initiatives in several areas outside of IoT and financial services as well. Combine blockchain and IoT, and you have two bigger-than-Internet businesses that need each other for many reasons that we explain in this IoT blockchain overview.
With the recent advancements in the networking realm of computers as well as achieving real-time communication between devices over the Internet, IoT (Internet of Things) devices have been on the rise; collecting, sharing, and exchanging data with other connected devices or databases online, enabling all sorts of communications and operations without the need for human intervention, oversight, or control. This has caused more computer-based systems to get integrated into the physical world, inching us closer towards developing smart cities. The automotive industry, alongside other software developers and technology companies have been at the forefront of this advancement towards achieving smart cities. Currently, transportation networks need to be revamped to utilize the massive amounts of data being generated by the public’s vehicle’s on-board devices, as well as other integrated sensors on public transit systems, local roads, and highways. This will create an interconnected ecosystem that can be leveraged to improve traffic efficiency and reliability. Currently, Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) communications, all play a major role in supporting road safety, traffic efficiency, and energy savings. To protect these devices and the networks they form from being targets of cyber-related attacks, this paper presents ideas on how to leverage distributed ledger technologies (DLT) to establish secure communication between vehicles that is decentralized, trustless, and immutable. Incorporating IOTA’s protocols, as well as utilizing Ethereum’s smart contracts functionality and application concepts with VANETs, all interoperating with Hyperledger’s Fabric framework, several novel ideas can be implemented to improve traffic safety and efficiency. Such a modular design also opens up the possibility to further investigate use cases of the blockchain and distributed ledger technologies in creating a decentralized intelligent transportation system (ITS).
Raja Wasim Ahmad, Khaled Salah, Raja Jayaraman, Ibrar Yaqoob · 5 authors
Smart cities have the potential to overcome environmental problems caused by improper waste disposal by improving human health, protecting the aquatic ecosystem, and reducing air pollution. However, today’s systems, approaches, and technologies leveraged for waste management are manual and centralized. This fact makes them vulnerable to manipulation and the single point of failure problem. Also, a large portion of the existing waste management systems within smart cities fall short in providing operational transparency, traceability, audit, security, and trusted data provenance features. In this paper, we explore the key role of blockchain technology in managing waste within smart cities as it can offer traceability, immutability, transparency, and audit features in a decentralized, trusted, and secure manner. We discuss the opportunities brought about by blockchain technology in various waste management use cases and application scenarios, including real-time tracing and tracking of waste, reliable channelization and compliance with waste treatment laws, efficient waste resources management, protection of waste management documentation, and fleet management. We introduce a framework that leverages blockchain-based smart contracts to automate the key services in terms of waste management of smart cities. We compare the existing blockchain-based waste management solutions based on important parameters. Furthermore, we present insightful discussions on several ongoing blockchain-based research projects and case studies to highlight the practicability of blockchain in waste management. Finally, we present open challenges that act as future research directions.
Anichur Rahman, Md. Jahidul Islam, Antonio Montieri, Mostofa Kamal Nasir · 10 authors
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Blockchain are leading technologies used worldwide to establish safe network communication as well as build secure network infrastructures. They provide a robust and reliable platform to address threats and face challenges such as security, privacy, flexibility, scalability, and confidentiality. Driven by these assumptions, this paper presents an optimized energy-efficient and secure Blockchain-based software-defined IoT framework for smart networks. Indeed, SDN and Blockchain technologies have proven to be able to suitably manage resource utilization and to develop secure network communication across the IoT ecosystem. However, there is a lack of research works that present a comprehensive definition of such a framework that can meet the requirements of the IoT ecosystem (i.e. efficient energy utilization and reduced end-to-end delay). Therefore, in this research, we present a layered hierarchical architecture for the deployment of a distributed yet efficient Blockchain-enabled SDN-IoT framework that ensures efficient cluster-head selection and secure network communication via the identification and isolation of rouge switches. Besides, the Blockchain-enabled flow-rules record keeps track of the rules enforced in the switches and maintains the consistency within the controller cluster. Finally, we assess the performance of the proposed framework in a simulation environment and show that it can achieve optimized energy-utilization, end-to-end delay, and throughput compared to considered baselines, thus being able to achieve efficiency and security in the smart network.
Smart cities achieved digital transformation of patients’ health records through the use of new technology in IoT healthcare industry. Such technologies of using IoT and remote patient monitoring systems have become dramatically fundamental to reduce the movement of patients, and hence reducing the risk of spreading Covid-19 infection. The Ministry of Health in the Kingdom of Bahrain strives to achieve digital transformation in the healthcare industry, where the National Health Information System (I-SEHA) was launched to provide higher-quality health services. The system interconnects the public healthcare institutes, allowing access to patient’s data from any location without the hassle of moving the files physically. Digitization of medical data of patients and sharing some of the data with other institutions outside the protected networks may lead to major privacy and integrity concerns. This paper introduces Blockchain-based Zero-Knowledge Proof (BZKP) model, which is an IoT-based patient-centric model that fuses a zero-knowledge proof solution to be developed for protecting patient’s privacy, and ensures patients prior consent on any access to their data including their health status and account balance. The proposed model is developed to provide a robust and scalable architecture for data sharing, which protects the privacy of sensitive data while maintaining high availability. It also provides strong trust and integrity of data by using the immutability features of the blockchain. BZKP is based on pre-approved blockchain access tokens to address challenges of accountability and privacy in Bahrain smart cities. As a result, the model provides a secure and trusted access model between different stakeholders to share patient data while maintaining privacy, trust, and high availability. The zero-knowledge proof can be used with the smart contracts, which provides programmable actions that can be used for automating the prescriptions dispensation process for private pharmacies in a decentralized manner with high confidence. Finally, it recommends enhanced electronic key (eKey) procedures used by eGovernment of the Kingdom of Bahrain to update the smart card which stores the personal keys for protecting patient’s privacy and provide better consent.
Manpreet Kaur, Mohammad Zubair Khan, Shikha Gupta, Abdulfattah Noorwali · 6 authors
As Blockchain innovation picks up popularity in many areas, it is frequently hailed as a sound innovation. Because of the decentralization and encryption, many imagine that data put away in a Blockchain is and will consistently be protected. Among various abstraction layers of Blockchain architecture, the consensus layer is the core component behind the performance and security measures of the Blockchain network. Consensus mechanisms are a critical component of a Blockchain system's long-term stability. Consensus forms the core of blockchain technology. Therefore, a range of consensus protocols has been introduced to maximize Blockchain systems' efficiency and meet application domains' individual needs. This research paper describes the layered architecture of Blockchain. A comprehensive review of mainstream consensus protocols mainly Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Stake (PoS), Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), Proof of Activity (PoA) is presented in the paper. These mainstream consensus protocols have been explained and detailed performance analysis of these consensus protocols has been done. We have proposed a performance matrix of these consensus protocols based on different parameters like Degree of decentralization, Latency, Fault Tolerance Rate, Scalability, etc. Consensus protocols being the core of a strong fault-tolerant secured blockchain system, the proposed work intends to help inappropriate protocol selection and further research on strengthening trust and ownership in the technology. Depending upon different parameters like decentralization which is low in POA compared to other protocols, whereas POW is non-scalable, so depending on the priority of a particular performance parameter, the paper will help in the selection of a specific protocol.