Nicolás López, Alexander Agbu, Adamson Oloyede, Emmanuel E. Essien · 6 authors
Certain IoT (Internet of Things) device data such as meteorological data are public goods, which are by definition, in high demand by a large user base. Accessibility to these datasets thrives with the use of blockchain technology. However, research has shown that due to the consensus mechanism of existing blockchain platforms, transaction approval delays and high transaction (gas) fees have been a challenge. This paper presents a software tool to integrate and store IoT device data onto a resource-efficient blockchain, with a decentralized proof of stake consensus mechanism, for faster and scalable application, with zero to near-zero transaction fees. • Some small Internet of Things (IoT) data like temperature, pressure, and humidity weather data can be stored on a blockchain. • Node-RED is a tool used by millions of users from large companies like IBM to small hobbyists. • The eosio-push node is custom built to take in IoT and transmit to a blockchain. • It can be run on raspberry pi. • It allows for customization of endpoints and message types. • The software is publicly available on NPM and receives between 10 and 50 downloads per week.
Ethereum is a popular blockchain that facilitates the creation of decentralized applications (dApps) and enables digital transactions to be executed without the need for a central authority. However, as in traditional markets, information asymmetry and market inefficiencies are used to the detriment of ordinary users via trading strategies that exploit “Miner Extractable Value” (MEV). We propose two extensions of Ethereum, one for proof of work (PoW), and one for proof of stake (PoS), that eliminate most forms of MEV by randomizing the execution order of transactions and hiding the content of transactions until their inclusion in a block. We simulate attack scenarios for both settings and provide detailed security properties and proofs.
Cong T. Nguyen, Dinh Thai Hoang, Diep N. Nguyen, Yong Xiao · 6 authors
Due to its security, transparency, and flexibility in verifying virtual assets, blockchain has been identified as one of the key technologies for Metaverse. Unfortunately, blockchain-based Metaverse faces serious challenges such as massive resource demands, scalability, and security/privacy concerns. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel sharding-based blockchain framework, namely MetaShard, for Metaverse applications. Particularly, we first develop an effective consensus mechanism, namely Proof-of-Engagement, that can incentivize MUs' data and computing resource contribution. Moreover, to improve the scalability of MetaShard, we propose an innovative sharding management scheme to maximize the network's throughput while protecting the shards from 51% attacks. Since the optimization problem is NP-complete, we develop a hybrid approach that decomposes the problem (using the binary search method) into sub-problems that can be solved effectively by the Lagrangian method. As a result, the proposed approach can obtain solutions in polynomial time, thereby enabling flexible shard reconfiguration and reducing the risk of corruption from the adversary. Extensive numerical experiments show that, compared to the state-of-the-art commercial solvers, our proposed approach can achieve up to 66.6% higher throughput in less than 1/30 running time. Moreover, the proposed approach can achieve global optimal solutions in most experiments.
B. Subashini, Hemavathi Devarajan, Venkatesh Kaliamoorthy
Blockchains typically employ IPFS for off-chain storage of user information.Centralized management, muddled data, inaccurate data, and the simplicity of building information enclaves plague traditional traceability systems.In this research, blockchain technology is used to record and access data on Non-Perishable (NP) agricultural commodities in the distribution chain to solve the challenges above.The blockchain and IPFS both store public and private data encrypted.This lessens the burden on the blockchain and enhances information search.Blockchain technology enhances farmer-customer relationships and food supply chains by tracking food back to its source.Its secure data storage enables datadriven farming.By storing encrypted files IPFS hashes in smart contracts, IPFS secures agricultural data and addresses the blockchain storage problem.Being deployed in association with connects makes it possible for rapid financial transactions to occur with any changes made to the blockchain's data.This article analyses performance and simulates implementation in Ethereum testnets.The results show that our system protects sensitive data, supply chain data, and real-world applications by increasing the throughput and latency.
Anwar Sadad, Muazzam A. Khan, Baraq Ghaleb, Fadia Ali Khan · 7 authors
Blockchain (BC) and Information for Operational and Tactical Analysis (IOTA) are distributed ledgers that record a huge number of transactions in multiple places at the same time using decentralized databases. Both BC and IOTA facilitate Internet-of-Things (IoT) by overcoming the issues related to traditional centralized systems, such as privacy, security, resources cost, performance, and transparency. Still, IoT faces the potential challenges of real-time processing, resource management, and storage services. Edge computing (EC) has been introduced to tackle the underlying challenges of IoT by providing real-time processing, resource management, and storage services nearer to IoT devices on the network's edge. To make EC more efficient and effective, solutions using BC and IOTA have been devoted to this area. However, BC and IOTA came with their pitfalls. This survey outlines the pitfalls of BC and IOTA in EC and provides research directions to be investigated further.
Ahmet Kurt, Abdulhadi Sahin, Ricardo Harrilal-Parchment, Kemal Akkaya
Bitcoin is undoubtedly a great alternative to today's existing digital payment systems. Even though Bitcoin's scalability has been debated for a long time, we see that it is no longer a concern thanks to its layer-2 solution Lightning Network (LN). LN has been growing non-stop since its creation and enabled fast, cheap, anonymous, censorship-resistant Bitcoin transactions. However, as known, LN nodes need an active Internet connection to operate securely which may not be always possible. For example, in the aftermath of natural disasters or power outages, users may not have Internet access for a while. Thus, in this paper, we propose LNMesh which enables offline LN payments on top of wireless mesh networks. Users of a neighborhood or a community can establish a wireless mesh network to use it as an infrastructure to enable offline LN payments when they do not have any Internet connection. As such, we first present proof-of-concept implementations where we successfully perform offline LN payments utilizing Bluetooth Low Energy and WiFi. For larger networks with more users where users can also move around, channel assignments in the network need to be made strategically and thus, we propose 1) minimum connected dominating set; and 2) uniform spanning tree based channel assignment approaches. Finally, to test these approaches, we implemented a simulator in Python along with the support of BonnMotion mobility tool. We then extensively tested the performance metrics of large-scale realistic offline LN payments on mobile wireless mesh networks. Our simulation results show that, success rates up to %95 are achievable with the proposed channel assignment approaches when channels have enough liquidity.
Ajmeera Kiran, Prasad Mathivanan, Miroslav Mahdal, К. В. С. С. С. С. Сайрам · 6 authors
The rapid proliferation of smart devices in Internet of Things (IoT) networks has amplified the security challenges associated with device communications. To address these challenges in 5G-enabled IoT networks, this paper proposes a multi-level blockchain security architecture that simplifies implementation while bolstering network security. The architecture leverages an adaptive clustering approach based on Evolutionary Adaptive Swarm Intelligent Sparrow Search (EASISS) for efficient organization of heterogeneous IoT networks. Cluster heads (CH) are selected to manage local authentication and permissions, reducing overhead and latency by minimizing communication distances between CHs and IoT devices. To implement network changes such as node addition, relocation, and deletion, the Network Efficient Whale Optimization (NEWO) algorithm is employed. A localized private blockchain structure facilitates communication between CHs and base stations, providing an authentication mechanism that enhances security and trustworthiness. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed clustering algorithm compared to existing methodologies. Overall, the lightweight blockchain approach presented in this study strikes a superior balance between network latency and throughput when compared to conventional global blockchain systems. Further analysis of system under test (SUT) behavior was accomplished by running many benchmark rounds at varying transaction sending speeds. Maximum, median, and lowest transaction delays and throughput were measured by generating 1000 transactions for each benchmark. Transactions per second (TPS) rates varied between 20 and 500. Maximum delay rose when throughput reached 100 TPS, while minimum latency maintained a value below 1 s.
Quratulain Arshad, Wazir Zada Khan, Faisal Azam, Muhammad Khurram Khan · 6 authors
Abstract Internet of Things (IoT) vision has astoundingly transcended environmental sensing with integrated computing systems and smart devices, providing seamless connectivity among humans, machines, and their environment to cooperate for convenience and economical benefits. Apart from all the tremendous benefits of IoT, this paradigm still suffers from challenges of security and privacy vulnerabilities and demands a secure system for effective utilization of services in real-world IoT scenarios relying on which the IoT consumers expect secure and trustworthy communications. Trust Management (TM), which is a crucial aspect of security, plays a vital role in ensuring the exchange of information in a secure manner and maintaining the reliability of a system by measuring the degree of trust on IoT devices, reducing the uncertainties and risks involved in the systems. Thus, in recent years, Blockchain technology has been utilized for developing security innovations in TM field for different classes of IoT applications. It can provide tamper-proof data by enabling more reliable trust information and integrity verification, ultimately enhancing its availability and privacy when storing and sharing information. This paper provides a comprehensive survey that aims at analyzing and assessing Blockchain-based decentralized trust management systems (BCDTMS) for IoT. The contributions of this study are threefold; first, we provide the comprehensive and comparative analysis of state-of-the-art BCDTMS devised for different IoT classes such as Internet of Medical of Things (IoMT), Internet of Vehicles (IoV), Industrial IoT (IIoT), and Social IoT (SIoT). To make it an extensive study, we perform a detailed assessment of the existing BCDTMS in the literature in the aspects of Blockchain and TM. Second, we present requirements for developing Blockchain-based TM systems for IoT, and third we have highlighted the challenges in the context of using Blockchain for TM in various IoT applications.
Shayan E Ali, Noshina Tariq, Farrukh Aslam Khan, Muhammad Ashraf · 6 authors
Numerous sensitive applications, such as healthcare and medical services, need reliable transmission as a prerequisite for the success of the new age of communications technology. Unfortunately, these systems are highly vulnerable to attacks like Sybil, where many false nodes are created and spread with deceitful intentions. Therefore, these false nodes must be instantly identified and isolated from the network due to security concerns and the sensitivity of data utilized in healthcare applications. Especially for life-threatening diseases like COVID-19, it is crucial to have devices connected to the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) that can be believed to respond with high reliability and accuracy. Thus, trust-based security offers a safe environment for IoMT applications. This study proposes a blockchain-based fuzzy trust management framework (BFT-IoMT) to detect and isolate Sybil nodes in IoMT networks. The results demonstrate that the proposed BFT-IoMT framework is 25.43% and 12.64%, 12.54% and 6.65%, 37.85% and 19.08%, 17.40% and 8.72%, and 13.04% and 5.05% more efficient and effective in terms of energy consumption, attack detection, trust computation reliability, packet delivery ratio, and throughput, respectively, as compared to the other state-of-the-art frameworks available in the literature.
Pedro Vílchez, Saulo Jacques, Fèlix Freitag, Roc Meseguer
Environmental monitoring is a growing application of the Internet of Things. The low cost of the sensor nodes, LoRa connectivity, and increased awareness of environmental issues have motivated many citizens to participate in open IoT monitoring applications. However, the value of these applications for decision makers is limited since the data from the IoT sensors do not have sufficient guarantees to be trusted. In this paper, we introduce a new concept that attributes value to both IoT data and devices, such as sensor nodes and gateways, and leverage distributed ledger technology to enable a data trust system. A first design decision was to assign Ethereum addresses with their associated public and private key pairs to all actors. This allows the authentication of data senders and hence the accounting for the contribution of each participant. Secondly, we introduce an auditor to validate the received IoT data. The results of these audits increase the trust in the quality of the data. We present the architectural components that we designed to enhance trust in open IoT monitoring applications and present an operational prototype to show the feasibility of the implementation. By achieving both trust in the data and accounting of contributions for giving rewards, open participatory IoT monitoring applications can become both valuable and sustainable. Then, trusted open monitoring may complement commercial solutions as a technical and economic alternative for addressing the increasing environmental monitoring needs of our society.
In this paper, we have presented the design and implementation of a blockchain-based approach for ensuring reliable supply chain management for commodities transported through smart containers. To administer interactions between the sender and receiver, our developed system makes use of the Ethereum blockchain’s smart contract features. Smart containers equipped with Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled sensors are used to monitor shipping conditions to check predefined shipping requirements. Smart contracts on Ethereum are used to automate payments, validate receivers, and give refunds in the case of violation of predefined requirements. We have also implemented our designed front-end decentralized WebApp and wallet that allows the sender and receiver to communicate with Ethereum smart contracts.
As a new type of digital living space that blends virtual and reality, Metaverse combines many emerging technologies. It provides an immersive experience based on VR technology and stores and protects users’ digital content and digital assets through blockchain technology. However, different virtual environments are often highly heterogeneous in terms of underlying architecture and software implementation technology, which leads to many challenges in scalability and interoperability for blockchains serving the Metaverse. Cross-chain technology is an essential technology to realize the scalability and interoperability of blockchain. However, the current cross-chain technologies all have their own merits and demerits, and there is no cross-chain solution that can be fully applied to any scenario. To this end, in the blockchain-based Metaverse, this article proposes a cross-chain transaction scheme based on improved hash timelock, HCNCT. By combining the notary mechanism, this scheme uses a group of notaries to supervise and participate in cross-chain transactions, effectively solving the problem that malicious users create a large number of time-out transactions to block the transaction channel, which exists in the traditional hash timelock method. Besides, this article uses the verifiable secret sharing method in the notary group, which can effectively prevent the centralization problem of the notary mechanism. Moreover, this article discusses the process of key processing, cross-chain transaction and transaction verification of the scheme, and designs the user credibility evaluation mechanism, which can effectively reduce the occurrence of malicious default of users. Compared with existing solutions, our solution has the advantage of effectively addressing time-out transaction attacks and centralization issues while guaranteeing security. The experiments also verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Yuan Feng, Zhangdui Zhong, Xiaofang Sun, Lei Wang · 6 authors
Abstract With the introduction of emerging technologies such as cloud computing, the railway communication network has the characteristics of complex structure and blurred boundaries, which leads to a series of security threats including information leakage and malicious access. Specifically, the third-party cloud services are difficult to be supervised, and network traffic is untrustworthy. To ensure system security, we propose a zero-trust security model in this paper. Then, we introduce blockchain and Merkle tree to build a distributed identity storage scheme for guaranteeing reliable, confidential and efficient data updates, and improving authentication efficiency. Furthermore, the proxy was introduced for two-way authentication with cloud servers, so that internal and external threats could be counteracted. Moreover, reputation assessment mechanism has been adopted to reduce the possibility of nodes accessing malicious cloud services. Performance analysis demonstrated that the proposed security model is able to enhance the security, efficiency and stability of the system, and consequently can guarantee the safety and reliability of railway transportation.
The success of blockchain technology in cryptocurrencies reveals its potential in the data management field. Recently, there is a trend in the database community to integrate blockchains and traditional databases to obtain security, efficiency, and privacy from the two distinctive but related systems. In this survey, we discuss the use of blockchain technology in the data management field and focus on the fusion system of blockchains and databases. We first classify existing blockchain-related data management technologies by their locations on the blockchain-database spectrum. Based on the taxonomy, we discuss three types of fusion systems and analyze their design spaces and trade-offs. Then, by further investigating the typical systems and techniques of each type of fusion system and comparing the solutions, we provide insights of each fusion model. Finally, we outline the unsolved challenges and promising directions in this field and believe that fusion systems will take a more important role in data management tasks. We hope this survey can help both academia and industry to better understand the advantages and limitations of blockchain-related data management systems and develop fusion systems that meet various requirements in practice.
In the medical era, wearables often manage and find the specific data points to check important data like resting heart rate, ECG voltage, SPO2, sleep patterns like length, interruptions, and intensity, and physical activity like kind, duration, and levels. These digital biomarkers are created mainly through passive data collection from various sensors. The critical issues with this method are time and sensitivity. We reviewed the newest wireless communication trends employed in hospitals using wearable technology and privacy and Block chain to solve this problem. Based on sensors, this wireless technology controls the data gathered from numerous locations. In this study, the wearable sensor contains data from the various departments of the system. The gradient boosting method and the hybrid microwave transmission method have been proposed to find the location and convince people. The patient health decision has been submitted to hybrid microwave transmission using gradient boosting. This will help to trace the mobile phones using the calls from the threatening person, and the data is gathered from the database while tracing. From this concern, the data analysis process is based on decision-making. They adapted the data encountered by the detailed data in the statistical modeling of the system to produce exploratory data analysis for satisfying the data from the database. Complete data is classified with a 97% outcome by removing unwanted data and making it a 98% successful data classification.
Wajid Rafique, Maqbool Khan, Salabat Khan, Juma Said Ally
The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) connects a huge amount of smart sensors with the Internet for healthcare service provisioning. IoMT’s privacy-preserving becomes a challenge considering the life-saving data collected and transferred through IoMT. Traditional privacy protection techniques use centralized management strategies, which lead to a single point of failure, lack of trust, state modification, information disclosure, and identity theft. Edge computing enables local computation of IoMT data, which reduces traffic to the cloud and also helps in accomplishing latency-sensitive healthcare applications and services. This paper proposes a novel framework (i.e., SecureMed) that uses blockchain-based distributed authentication implemented at the edge cloudlets to enforce privacy protection. In SecureMed, IoMT devices interact with edge cloudlets using smart contracts. It uses trusted edge nodes to implement an authentication algorithm that uses public/private key matching to authenticate IoMT. Experimental evaluation performed using the Pythereum blockchain shows that SecureMed outperforms the traditional blockchain scheme based on latency, bandwidth consumption, deployment time, scalability, and accuracy. Therefore, it can be used to protect the edge-enabled IoMT from privacy attacks and to ensure end-to-end healthcare service provisioning.
P. Hari Babu, J. Anusha, J. Jaya Prakash, Ch. Krishna Veni · 5 authors
Trust is the main barrier preventing widespread data sharing. The lack of transparent infrastructures for implementing data trust prevents many data owners from sharing their data and concerns data users regarding the quality of the shared data. Blockchain technology proposes a distributed and transparent administration by employing multiple parties to maintain consensus on an immutable ledger. This project presents an end-to-end framework for data trust to enhance trustworthy data sharing utilizing blockchain technology. We also suggest an adaptive solution to determine the number of transaction validators based on the computed trust value.
Md Ariful Islam Mozumder, Tagne Poupi Theodore Armand, Shah Muhammad Imtiyaj Uddin, Ali Athar · 7 authors
Metaverse is the buzz technology of the moment raising attention both from academia and industry. Many stakeholders are considering an extension of their existing applications into the metaverse environment for more usability. The healthcare industry is gradually making use of the metaverse to improve quality of service and enhance living conditions. In this paper, we focus on the potential of digital anti-aging healthcare in the metaverse environment. We show how we can use metaverse environment to enhance healthcare service quality and increase the life expectancy of patients through more confident processes, such as chronic disease management, fitness, and mental health control, in the metaverse. The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain (BC), Internet of Things (IoT), immersive technologies, and digital twin in the metaverse environment presents new scopes for the healthcare industry. By leveraging these technologies, healthcare providers can improve patient outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and create new healthcare experiences for a better life, thus facilitating the anti-aging process. AI can be used to analyze large-scale medical data and make personalized treatment plans, while blockchain can create a secure and transparent healthcare data ecosystem. As for IoT devices, they collect real-time data from patients, which is necessary for treatment. Together, these technologies can transform the healthcare industry and improve the lives of patients worldwide. The suggestions highlighted in this paper are worthy to undergo implementation and create more benefits that will promote a digital anti-aging process for its users for a longer life experience.
Blockchain technology has revolutionized various sectors such as trade finance, education, healthcare, the internet of things (IoT), and user identification with its groundbreaking potential. Its transformative influence on privacy, data integrity, and transactional reliability has significantly enhanced user authentication sharing across industries. Consequently, there is a pressing demand for a robust framework capable of providing seamless authentication between devices, cloud servers, and IoT base stations. This article presents into the critical need for such a framework, meticulously evaluating its feasibility in light of the scarce existing solutions that meet industry guidelines. The proposed framework reconciles two contrasting perspectives, thoroughly examining 11 distinct factors and highlighting key features uncovered through rigorous research. The findings have implications for the future of secure authentication.
Ayei E. Ibor, Edim Bassey Edim, Arnold Adimabua Ojugo
This paper focuses on highlighting the problems that are associated with the absence of privacy and security of medical records in a healthcare system. It seeks to bridge the gap between the currently used security protocols in the management of health information, and encryption algorithms that should be used. Extant health information systems have always been developed with conventional databases. With all the privileges to read, write and execute assigned to the administrator, who has centralised control over all medical records, there is the likelihood of the misuse, distortion and loss of such records in the event that the administrator becomes compromised or inadvertent system failure. To solve this problem, the use of decentralised and distributed databases becomes paramount. Blockchain technology has recently received much attention due to its ability to permit a peer-to-peer network with distributed databases that can be stored locally on each node in the network. Subsequently, all updates on records in a database are communicated to all participating parties, hence addressing the problem of centralised control. In this paper, we propose a health information system on a blockchain to create a trust-free system for both health personnel and patients. From the results obtained, we achieved the decentralisation of the medical records’ database to enhance the security and privacy of data on the modeled peer-to-peer network.
Evrim Tan, Ellen Lerouge, Jan Du Caju, Daniël Du Seuil
The European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) is a major policy initiative of the EU and European Blockchain Partnership, to leverage blockchain to create cross-border services for public administrations, businesses, citizens, and their ecosystems, to verify information and increase trust in services. The EBSI aims to provide a secure and interoperable system infrastructure, utilizing new digital technologies such as digital wallets, verifiable credentials, and decentralized identifiers. These technologies are expected to change the way government services are organized between citizens and service providers. This article presents empirical findings from a cross-border pilot that was the first case to utilize this new blockchain infrastructure, and which tested the institutional, technical, and user-specific requirements for wider adoption. The pilot tested and assessed the verification of education credentials through the EBSI blockchain in a cross-border setting between a Belgian and an Italian university. The research was based on action research with the ICT units of the participating universities, wallet solution providers, the Belgian government, and EBSI officials. The findings highlight the following as key challenges for the wider adoption of the EBSI and verification credential use case: (1) onboarding of the EBSI ecosystem governance, (2) issuance of EBSI-compliant digital wallets and data schemes for transcript validation, (3) interoperability issues concerning digital identity systems.