Adamu Sani Yahaya, Nadeem Javaid, Muhammad Umar Javed, Muhammad Shafiq · 6 authors
The rapid deployment of Electric Vehicles (EVs) and the integration of renewable energy sources have ameliorated the existing power systems and contributed to the development of greener smart communities. However, load balancing problems, security threats, privacy leakage issues, etc., remain unresolved. Many blockchain-based approaches have been used in literature to solve the aforementioned challenges. However, they are not sufficient to obtain satisfactory results because of the inefficient energy management methods and time-intensiveness of the primitive cryptographic executions on the network devices. In this paper, an efficient and secure blockchain-based Energy Trading (ET) model is proposed. It leverages the contract theory, incentive mechanism, and a reputation system for information asymmetry scenario. In order to motivate the ET entities to trade energy locally and EVs to participate in smart energy management, the proposed incentive provisioning mechanism plays a vital role. Besides, a reputation system improves the reliability and efficiency of the system and discourages the blockchain nodes from acting maliciously. A novel consensus algorithm, i.e., Proof of Work based on Reputation (PoWR), is proposed to reduce transaction confirmation latency and block creation time. Moreover, a shortest route algorithm, i.e., the Dijkstra algorithm, is implemented in order to reduce the traveling distance and energy consumption of the EVs during ET. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated using peak to average ratio, social welfare, utility of local aggregator, etc., as performance metrics. Moreover, privacy and security analyses of the system are also presented.
Michał Kędziora, Dawid Pieprzka, Ireneusz J. Jóźwiak, Yongxin Liu · 5 authors
The purpose of this paper is to present mechanisms and algorithms implemented for improving Bitcoin cryptocurrency efficiency and security and to examine the block propagation times from a selected period before and after SegWit was introduced. In this paper, Segregated Witness Implementation issues were verified based both on the simulation and real data from the Bitcoin network. Based on the block propagation times calculated in the simulator, as well as bitcoin network real data, the efficiency and safety of Bitcoin have been analysed and validated.
Open access
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Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Fog computing (FC) is the extension of Cloud Computing (CC), from the core of the internet architecture to the edge of the network, with the aim to perform processes closer to end-users. This extension is proven to enhance security, and to reduce latency and energy consumption. Blockchain (BC), on the other hand, is the base technology behind crypto-currencies, yet is implemented in wide range of different applications. The security and reliability, along with the distributed trust management criteria proposed in BC, excited the research community to integrate it with FC, in a step towards reaching a distributed and trusted, Data, Payment, Reputation, and Identity management systems. In this survey we present the up-to-date state-of-the-art of FC-BC integration with a detailed literature review and classification. We discuss and categorize the related papers according to the year of publication, domain, used algorithms, BC roles, and the placement of the BC in the FC architecture. Our research presents detailed observations, analysis, and open challenges for the BC-FC integration. We believe such conclusions may clarify the vision of the BC-FC integration, and calibrate the compass towards open issues and future research directions.
Haya R. Hasan, Khaled Salah, Raja Jayaraman, Raja Wasim Ahmad · 6 authors
Spare parts are essential assets to maintain productivity and operations. A spare part is used for the repair or replacement of failed units. Tracing and tracking of spare parts ownership can help to ensure reliable outcomes in terms of manufacturing operations and service delivery. However, today's spare part inventory systems fall short of providing reliable tracing and tracking of spare parts ownership which poses serious threats to their authenticity. Also, current approaches and systems leveraged for spare part inventory management are vulnerable to the single point of failures. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based smart contract to trace and track the spare parts ownership details from the original equipment manufacturer to the supplier and end-users. We exploit blockchain features to build a secure and trusted spare part inventory system that is tamper-proof, traceable, trackable, accessible immutable, resilient, and reliable. The proposed system integrates decentralized storage of interplanetary file systems (IPFS) to store and share spare parts data. We present algorithms along with their full implementation details. We perform testing and validation of the smart contract. Furthermore, we provide security and cost analysis, and show how the proposed system ensures reliable tracing and tracking of spare parts ownership. We make the smart contract source code publicly available on Github.
With the exponential increase in the complexity of network management and configuration, Software Defined Networking (SDN) has emerged as a promising network paradigm. SDN aims to efficiently transform network architecture and operations to be agile, and effectively enrich the functionality of underlying network elements, such as routers and switches, by decoupling the control plane from the data plane. In SDN, the network intelligence is centralized in a software entity so-called SDN controller, which enables network administrators to dynamically manage, secure, and optimize network resources and programmatically shape all entire network traffic pattern. Despite the impressive benefits SDN has brought to network architecture, it introduces new security challenges and prompts different implementation strategies to spread attack vectors. This paper comprehensively describes the utilization of Blockchain technology to secure and protect SDN architecture and discusses the feasibility of integrating the revolutionary technologies of SDN and Blockchain to provide confidentiality, integrity, and availability to network infrastructure.
Security and privacy issues have become a rapidly growing problem with the fast development of big data in public health. However, big data faces many ongoing serious challenges in the process of collection, storage, and use. Among them, data security and privacy problems have attracted extensive interest. In an effort to overcome this challenge, this article aims to present a distributed privacy preservation approach based on smart contracts and Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX). First of all, we define SGX as a trusted edge computing node, design data access module, data protection module, and data integrity check module, to achieve hardware-enhanced data privacy protection. Then, we design a smart contract framework to realize distributed data access control management in a big data environment. The crucial role of the smart contract was revealed by designing multiple access control contracts, register contracts, and history contracts. Access control contracts provide access control methods for different users and enable static access verification and dynamic access verification by checking the user’s properties and history behavior. Register contract contains user property information, edge computing node information, the access control and history smart contract information, and provides functions such as registration, update, and deletion. History contract records the historical behavior information of malicious users, receives the report information of malicious requestors from the access control contract, implements a misbehavior check method to determines whether the requestor has misbehavior, and returns the corresponding result. Finally, we design decentralized system architecture, prove the security properties, and analysis to verify the feasibility of the system. Results demonstrate that our method can effectively improve the timeliness of data, reduce network latency, and ensure the security, reliability, and traceability of data.
Blockchain has emerged as a transformative technology, from its beginning as the basis of cryptocurrencies to wider applications in areas such as property registration and insurance due to its characteristic as a distributed ledger which can remove the need for a trusted third party to facilitate transaction. This spread of the technology to new application areas has been driven by the development of smart contractsblockchain-based protocols which can automatically enforce a contract. One area where the types of problems being considered for blockchain exists is higher education. Students in higher education are increasingly mobile, and in an ever more agile world, the friction and delays caused by multiple levels of administration in higher education can cause many anxieties and hardships for students. Distance learning as a primary platform for higher education promises to open up higher education to a wider range of learners than ever before. In this paper, we review the use of blockchain in higher education and experimental implementations of a blockchain-based university transcript system in order to empower students and better fit today's ever more agile society and then describe some experimental results in using blockchain for higher education transcripts.
Haya R. Hasan, Khaled Salah, Raja Jayaraman, Junaid Arshad · 7 authors
COVID-19 has emerged as a highly contagious disease which has caused a devastating impact across the world with a very large number of infections and deaths. Timely and accurate testing is paramount to an effective response to this pandemic as it helps identify infections and therefore mitigate (isolate/cure) them. In this paper, we investigate this challenge and contribute by presenting a blockchain-based solution that incorporates self-sovereign identity, re-encryption proxies, and decentralized storage, such as the interplanetary file systems (IPFS). Our solution implements digital medical passports (DMP) and immunity certificates for COVID-19 test-takers. We present smart contracts based on the Ethereum blockchain written and tested successfully to maintain a digital medical identity for test-takers that help in a prompt trusted response directly by the relevant medical authorities. We reduce the response time of the medical facilities, alleviate the spread of false information by using immutable trusted blockchain, and curb the spread of the disease through DMP. We present a detailed description of the system design, development, and evaluation (cost and security analysis) for the proposed solution. Since our code leverages the use of the on-chain events, the cost of our design is almost negligible. We have made our smart contract codes publicly available on Github.
Electronic medical records (EMRs) are electronically-stored highly sensitive and private information related to the diagnosis and treatment of patient, and needs to be frequently shared among peers. Sharing of medical records between participants is very challenging because the data might be revealed or tampered during the operational process. To address these challenges, a blockchain-based electronic medical records system is the key solution. In this research, we have discussed how blockchain technology can help in better healthcare data management. We have proposed a blockchain-based records management system for efficient management and sharing of electronic medical records (EMRs). We have implemented a prototype of Electronic Medical Records Management System using permissioned blockchain platform “Hyperledger”. This system ensures privacy, security and easy accessibility and availability of medical records.
The potential of blockchain technology is immense and is currently regarded as a new technological trend with a rapid growth rate. Blockchain platforms like Bitcoin are public, open, and permission-less. They are also decentralized, immutable, and append-only ledger; those ledgers can store any type of data and are shared among all the participants of the network. These platforms provide a high degree of anonymity for their users’ identity and full transparency of the activities recorded on the ledger while simultaneously ensuring data security and tamper-resistance. All nodes on the network collectively work to validate the same set of data and to achieve group consensus. Blockchain platforms like Ethereum have the ability to develop smart contracts and embed business logic. This allows the use of blockchain beyond cryptocurrency as a business management solution. Besides the issues of scalability and the expensive nature of most blockchain systems, many attributes of traditional public blockchain are not desirable in a business or enterprise context such as anonymity, full transparency, and permissionless. Permissioned blockchain platforms like Hyperledger Fabric are designed and built with enterprise and business in mind, retaining the desirable qualities of blockchain for enterprise while replacing the qualities of blockchain that are undesirable for the enterprise. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review on the Hyperledger enterprise blockchain technologies.
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Trusted decentralized applications based on distributed ledger technologies provide many potential opportunities to 5G applications and verticals, as well as in fifth generation mobile network (5G) enabling technologies, systems, and services. Apart from the tamper-proof exchange of transactions, distributed ledgers can provide a software environment for the trusted execution of smart contracts. In this article, we explore the security aspects of decentralized applications and, in particular, the security of smart contracts. Distributed ledger characteristics impose distinct requirements on smart contract design, implementation, deployment, and management. We briefly present the approach to the development of secure smart contracts, and highlight key smart contract vulnerabilities and the developer tools supporting smart contract security. We developed a secure, upgradeable modular multi-contract platform. It combines per-contract Smart Contract Tunnels and per-user-based access control to minimize vulnerabilities. The smart contract platform is comprised of service-agnostic, auxiliary, and service-specific smart contracts. It can be therefore easily adapted to different 5G application verticals. For illustration and evaluation, we elaborated on the proposed solution on a case of smart electric charging. During the design and development, state-of-the-art code analysis was applied. Finally, we propose an architecture for the integration of the secure multi-contract platform into a 5G architecture. The integration proposal utilizes hybrid private-public blockchain networks for possible security, scalability, performance, and transaction cost optimization.
Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technology-based information system (IS) can be used to improve tracking of goods and services in offering and build a collaborative operating environment among the business-partners of the manufacturing industry. In this process IS architecture plays an important role in storing, processing, and distributing data. Despite contributing to the rapid development of IoT applications, the current IoT-centric architecture has led to a myriad of isolated data silos that hinder the full potential of holistic data-driven decision-support applications with the IoT because of technical issues (e.g., standalone IoT applications suffer from security and privacy-related problems). This chapter presents a proof of concept of a hybrid enterprise information system architecture, which consists of IoT-based applications and a blockchain-oriented distributed-ledger system to support-transaction services within a multiparty global manufacturing (e.g., textile and clothing business) network.
In recent years, under the background that the rapid development of traffic volume makes the current traffic lights far from meeting the urban traffic demand, intelligent traffic lights based on the centralized architecture began to appear. However, in the traffic network with complex structure and private data flow, there are many malicious attacks against the centralized architecture, such as Sybil and ghost car attacks, which undoubtedly brings great security risks to the traditional intelligent traffic lights. Blockchain technology is a popular security framework nowadays. Based on its outstanding characteristics in the distributed architecture and the development of Edge Intelligence (EI) technology, this paper proposes a distributed security architecture scheme based on blockchain technology for the existing intelligent traffic light system. At the same time, based on the model cutting technology proposed by EI, the smart contract is improved to achieve redundant cutting of ledger data in the process of block consensus, which greatly reduces the pressure of blockchain ledger data transmission. In the end of this paper, the superiority of this scheme compared with the traditional intelligent traffic light scheme in communication cost and time cost is demonstrated by simulation experiment.
Distributed ledgers and blockchain technologies can improve system security and trustworthiness by providing immutable replicated histories of data. Blockchain is a linked list of blocks containing digitally signed transactions, a cryptographic hash of the previous block, and a timestamp stored in a decentralized and distributed network. The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the application domains in which security based on blockchain is discussed. In this article, we review the structure and architectures of distributed IoT systems and explain the motivations, challenges, and needs of blockchain to secure such systems. However, there are substantial threats and attacks to blockchain that must be understood, as well as suitable approaches to mitigate them. We, therefore, survey the most common attacks to blockchain systems and the solutions to mitigate them, with the objective of assessing how malicious these attacks are in the IoT context.
Die Möglichkeit, Computerberechnungen mit einem Beweis für deren korrekte Ausführung zu hinterlegen, scheint in Zeiten der oft genannten ‘Digitalisierung’ ein vielversprechendes Mittel zu sein, um es Parteien, die einander nicht trauen, zu ermöglichen sich auszutauschen. Diese Korrektheitsbeweise sind gerade im Themengebiet der Blockchain interessante und vielversprechende Kandidaten, um dortige Probleme zu adressieren. In dieser Arbeit untersuchen wir formal, was eine Blockchain im Sinne Nakamotos auszeichnet, und inwiefern sogenannte ‘Privacy Enhancing Technolgies’ in diesen dezentralen Systemen Anwendung finden. Das Hauptaugenmerk legen wir dabei auf ‘pairing-based preprocessed zero knowledge succinct non interactive arguments of knowledge’ (zkSNARKs). Wir untersuchen deren mathematische Grundlage und entwickeln unsere eigene zkSNARK Konstruktion. Diese basiert auf einer Erweiterung der gängigen F-arithmetischen Schaltung, die neben arithmetischen Operationen auch die der skalare Gruppenexponentiation auf elliptischen Kurven unterstützt. Die Implementierung ist in der Sprache Golang verfasst und unter einer GPL3.0 Lizenz auf Github zugänglich gemacht. Das Programm übersetzt eine eigens dafür entwickelte Programmiersprache in die Form eines ‘QuadraticArithmetic Programs’ und kann daher über unsere Arbeit hinaus in Beweissystemen basierend auf F-arithmetischen Schaltungen eingesetzt werden.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network that integrates a variety of heterogeneous nodes, such as connected devices (sensors, robots, and smart phones ...), connected cars, smart homes, etc. These smart objects communicate and collaborate in distributed and dynamic environments that are facing several security challenges. Trust management is one of the most important challenges in IoT. Existing trust management solutions do not meet the new requirements of IoT such as heterogeneity, mobility, and scalability. In this article, we propose a hierarchical and scalable blockchain-based trust management protocol with mobility support in massively distributed IoT systems. In our protocol, mobile smart objects disseminate trust information on service providers to the blockchain. Thus, all the objects will have a global view on each service provider in the architecture, which speeds up the trust evaluation process. In addition, our protocol is resilient against the most known malicious attacks such asbad-mouthing,ballot-stuffing, andcooperative attacks. We confirm the efficiency of our proposal through theoretical analysis and extensive simulations. Finally, we show that it outperforms existing solutions, especially in terms of scalability, mobility support, communication, and computation costs.
Jun Wu, Mianxiong Dong, Kaoru Ota, Jianhua Li · 5 authors
Currently, IoT has become an important carrier of blockchains, which not only makes blockchain more ubiquitous but also improves the security of IoT. Consensus is the core component of blockchains with various forms, which raises the following challenges. Dynamic management and configuration of the consensuses in a blockchain are required because IoT applications have high dynamics. Moreover, an IoT node is usually reutilized by various applications in different blockchains, which means the IoT node should be switched frequently to cross consensuses in different blockchains. To address this, a software-defined blockchain architecture is proposed to realized the dynamic configurations for blockchains. Then a consensus function virtualization approach with application-aware work flow is proposed, which can abstract and manage various consensus resources. Next, a transfer-learning-based intelligent scheme is designed to implement the application- layer packet analysis and perform the efficient management of virtualized consensus resources. Experiment results indicate the feasibility of the proposed scheme. This work is significant in enhancing the flexibility and extendibility of blockchains in IoT.