Blockchain Papers

Daniele Mazzei, Giacomo Baldi, Gualtiero Fantoni, Gabriele Montelisciani · 7 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Amrita Jyoti

Many existing business processes can be more effective and efficient with blockchain technology to save time, reduce risk and save money. Blockchain is a digital ledger where each block is linked to another block in a time stamped and every block has numbers of transaction with meta data like index, previous Hash and hash of that block. These hash make this digital ledger to an immutable public record of digital transactions. Every new transaction is validated by the other nodes across the distributed network before it is stored in a block. All transaction information once stored on the ledger is verifiable and auditable but not editable. With blockchains, business can establish what they are and then trade items like money, votes, deeds, intellectual property, stocks and bonds, loyalty points, and anything else that has value. One of the biggest divisions in blockchain technology is permissioned versus permissionless blockchains. Permissioned Blockchain is especially useful for the business that have to comply with regulations and wants to complete control of their data. Hyperledger works in this direction that has the aim of improving cross-industry permissioned blockchain technologies. In this paper we explained the some parameter for selecting platform of blockchain for business applications with some use cases and business people can also use Blockchain-as-a-service to deploy their own blockchain app easily that's managed and administered by cloud-based service providers.

Yeray Mezquita, Roberto Casado, Alfonso González‐Briones, Javier Prieto · 5 authors

Internet of Things (IoT) platforms have a great number of vulnerabilities which cyber-attackers can exploit. A possible solution largely contemplated in the state of the art is to make use of blockchain technology in any IoT system to enhance the security of the platform while improving other of its aspects. Although there are valuable benefits of the use of IoT platforms based on blockchain technology, it is worth studying the different alternatives between blockchain technologies, because all of them have their own limitations that are not suitable for every use case scenario. In this work, we listed a number of flaws that blockchain technology has in this respect. We have identified that, most of the flaws can be overcome by adapting the variants of this technology to the specific needs of the IoT platform. Every IoT system based on blockchain technology, should perform a systematic analysis of their needs, identifying what are the blockchain features sought for that scenario, to choose the solution that best meets the needs among the different blockchain technology alternatives.

V. Brindha Devi, R. Skanda Gurunathan, N. Keerthivasan

The rapid growth in the population has lead to generation of large amount of data from each individual. Each and every individual holds several physically signed documents. Currently, the documents, certificates, and contracts are all printed in papers and manually signed. It is difficult for other party say a recruiter, or a government official or any other custom officer to verify the validity of the certificates and other documents of the individual. It consumes a tremendous amount of time for validating and verifying such documents manually. Thus we propose a system to develop a Decentralized application (DApp) for implementing a Blockchain[1] to store and verify the documents. By the nature of blockchain, the documents are securely stored with high integrity, and no further modifications can be done to the blocks in the chain which in turn reduces the creation of forged documents. Also using Distributed Ledger technology(DLT)[5] and IPFS the data is decentralised so that it is readily available with integrity. Also, using MultiSig[3] concepts, the system is more secured by two step authentication. Thus, blockchain creates trust and DLT provides integrity ease of access. And with use of IPFS the DApp is decentralized4]

Ioannis Tsampoulatidis, Dimitrios Bechtsis, Ioannis Kompatsiaris

The smart city concept gives prominence to the use of ICT for enabling the digital transformation of established public services, processes and policies. This roadmap started from the e-Gov 1.0 initiative and spans to the e-Gov 3.0 phase with special focus on interconnected citizens, smart and interconnected devices, big data analytics and cloud computing. As the smart cities initiative flourishes there is an overwhelming need for robust, secure and flexible solutions that will pave the way to citizens’ participation and inclusion. The proposed Blockchain Framework will not only facilitate acceptance of new governance models from the official stakeholders, but it will also dynamically identify, create and propose new policies, regulations and initiatives according to social trends and the citizens’ maturity level. It takes into consideration social, environmental and economic aspects as well as established policies and good practices for proposing solutions to stakeholders.

Chan Kyu Pyoung, Seung Jun Baek

Edge computing is a promising approach for provisioning distributed cloud services to Internet of Things (IoT) systems. Many recent studies propose that edge nodes use blockchain for the decentralized management and access control of IoT data. However, due to the massive volume of data and related transactions, edge servers will eventually run out of space to store the full chain. We introduce scalable and lightweight architecture called LiTiChain, a blockchain of blocks with finite lifetime. In LiTiChain, outdated transactions and blocks, that is, the blocks whose lifetimes are expired, can be safely removed from the chain. Two graphs are merged into the structure of LiTiChain: 1) a tree representing the order of expiry of lifetimes and 2) a linear graph representing the order of block creation. We show that this construction not only ensures the connectivity of the chain after block deletions but also helps to maintain the block height of shortened chain. LiTiChain also supports transactions whose lifetime is unknown at the time of creation. It is possible that some expired blocks need to be retained in the chain, in case they are needed to validate remaining blocks, which incurs additional storage costs. A detailed analysis of such overhead in storage costs is presented for stochastic and worst case scenarios. Extensive simulation is performed on actual and synthetic IoT data so as to gain insights on the storage costs under various lifetime distributions. It is demonstrated that LiTiChain provides a simple yet effective solution to scalability problems in storing blockchains for the IoT ecosystems.

Jianing Chen, Jun Wu, Haoran Liang, Shahid Mumtaz · 8 authors

In industrial automation, numerous devices are interconnected in smart factories for further monitor and control. Various infrastructure devices in industrial automation are usually used for control instruction distribution, data collection, and collaboration of the industrial applications. Recent security threats on industrial automation are more frequent and the industrial control systems lack trust mechanism. Blockchain has been introduced due to its decentralization and security promise, but the election results in the original designs could be biased without collaboration trust, which leads the blockchain-based industry applications invalid. In addition, in existing solutions, neither supernodes nor normal nodes in blockchain can transfer their control authorities for disaster backup. To address the aforementioned challenges, this article proposes a collaborative trust based unbiased control transfer mechanism (CTM), which realizes a dynamic assignment of industrial control. First, a collaborative trust based delegated proof of stake consensus is proposed for determining the authorities of control dynamically and unbiasedly, by designing a lightweight trust propagation protocol. Second, a CTM for checking, alarming, and restarting CTM is devised for the disaster backup. The simulation results demonstrate the CTM, which is feasible and effective for industrial automation security.

Spyros Makridakis, Klitos Christodoulou

Blockchain is a new technology, often referred to as the Internet of Value. As with all new technologies, there is no consensus on its potential value, with some people claiming that it will bring more disruptive changes than the Internet and others contesting the extent of its importance. Despite predictions that the future is perilous, there is evidence that blockchain is a remarkable, new technology that will change the way transactions are made, based on its ability to guarantee trust among unknown actors, assure the immutability of records, while also making intermediaries obsolete. The importance of blockchain can be confirmed by the interest in digital currencies, the great number of published blockchain papers, as well as MDPI’s journal Future Internet which exclusively publishes blockchain articles, including this special issue covering present and future blockchain challenges. This paper is a survey of the fast growing field of blockchain, discussing its advantages and possible drawbacks and their implications for the future of the Internet and our personal lives and societies in general. The paper consists of the following parts; the first provides a general introduction and discusses the disruptive changes initiated by blockchain, the second discusses the unique value of blockchain and its general characteristics, the third presents an overview of industries with the greatest potential for disruptive changes, the forth describes the four major blockchain applications with the highest prospective advantages, and the fifth part of the paper ends with a discussion on the most notable subset of innovative blockchain applications—Smart Contracts, DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and super safe networks—and their future implications. There is also a concluding section, which summarizes the paper, describes the future of blockchain, and mentions the challenges to be overcome.

Dinh C. Nguyen, Pubudu N. Pathirana, Ming Ding, Aruna Seneviratne

The fifth generation (5G) wireless networks are on the way to be deployed around the world. The 5G technologies target to support diverse vertical applications by connecting heterogeneous devices and machines with drastic improvements in terms of high quality of service, increased network capacity and enhanced system throughput. Despite all these advantages that 5G will bring about, there are still major challenges to be addressed, including decentralization, transparency, risks of data interoperability, network privacy and security vulnerabilities. Blockchain can offer innovative solutions to effectively solve the challenges in 5G networks. Driven by the dramatically increased capacities of the 5G networks and the recent breakthroughs in the blockchain technology, blockchain-based 5G services are expected to witness a rapid development and bring substantial benefits to future society. In this paper, we provide a state-of-art survey on the integration of blockchain with 5G networks and beyond. Our key focus is on the discussions on the potential of blockchain for enabling key 5G technologies, including cloud/edge computing, Software Defined Networks, Network Function Virtualization, Network Slicing, and D2D communications. We then explore the opportunities of blockchain to important 5G services, ranging from spectrum management, network virtualization, resource management to interference management, federated learning, privacy and security provision. The recent advances in the applications of blockchain in 5G Internet of Things are also surveyed in various domains, i.e. smart healthcare, smart city, smart transportation, smart grid and UAVs. The main findings derived from the survey are then summarized, and possible research challenges with open issues are also identified. Lastly, we complete this survey by shedding new light on future directions of research on this newly emerging area.

Ying Ma, Yu Sun, Yunjie Lei, Nan Qin · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

T. P. Abdul Rahoof, V R Deepthi

No abstract is available for this record.

Osamah Ibrahim Khalaf, Ghaida Muttashar Abdulsahib, Hamed Daei Kasmaei, Kingsley A. Ogudo

This article develops and defines Blockchain technology in its classic format. New suggested proposed algorithms are then analyzed in order to introduce new and modified versions of Blockchain technology. After that, fundamental infrastructure is presented in order to represent its application in new generation of telecommunications. In addition, this article interrogates these algorithms and their efficiency to make secure connections that transfer data packets in any format (boxes or packets of information) in a secure and encrypted method at which sender and receiver of information remain anonymous. Then, this research describes applications of the novel approach in new format of making live stream technology in real world communications. Moreover, according to this new approach, new concepts can be predicted in the new generation of social media based on live communications. Meanwhile, the compatibility is justified for consistency, reliability and flexibility of this new proposed technology with other existing and defined format of technology in today's world. At last, conclusions of this new emerging technology and its superiority compared to other designed technologies in the field of live streaming and telecommunications are discussed.

Utkarsh Saxena, J. S. Sodhi, Rajneesh Tanwar

The idea of smart home existed from 1970's onwards but has come into the knowledge of researchers and data scientist due to the development in the domain of internet of things (IoT) (Kopetz, 2011), but it still suffers from privacy and security vulnerabilities. Conventional security policies or approaches are not applicable to IoT, mainly due to its decentralised topology and the resource constraints of the majority of its devices (Dorri et al., 2017a). This Paper presents an innovative, novel and decentralised approach that can be used to augment the existing security architecture of a smart home network. Our scheme guarantees both trustworthiness and user privacy preservations.

Junhoo Park, Suh-yu Lee, Geun-young Kim, Jae‐Cheol Ryou

No abstract is available for this record.

Omar Dib, Clément Huyart, Khalifa Toumi

No abstract is available for this record.

Jeong Hoon Jo, Jong Hyuk Park

No abstract is available for this record.

Johannes Mittendorfer, Karin Anna Hummel

We study the use of Blockchain in an Internet of Things (IoT) environment where microservices are provided by sensors. Blockchain assures secure and trustworthy transactions, yet it causes high load caused by block creation on the numerous IoT nodes. To mitigate the load, sensor nodes are clustered and block creation is restricted to IoT cluster managers in the distributed Blockchain ledger. The concept is exemplified by a use case describing a neighborhood of smart homes that are equipped with environmental sensors such as dust, temperature, and precipitation sensors. We provide an implementation of the Blockchain IoT system comprising two consensus algorithms, Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS). By means of simulations conducted in Mininet, we derive first results which reveal that -- depending on the sensor polling period -- the service response time can be reduced by clustering. Further, clustering reduces PoW conflicts to about 30% due to creating fewer blocks.

Ada Bagozi, Devis Bianchini, Valeria De Antonellis, Massimiliano Garda · 5 authors

Digital transformation and the adoption of ICT technologies in the factory of the future are growing faster and faster. In particular, data exploration methods and techniques are enabling the development of data-intensive Remote Monitoring Services for anomaly detection and predictive maintenance purposes. Remote Monitoring Services involve different actors across organizations. The Original Equipment Manufacturer explores high volume of data collected by sensors on the monitored machines to provide anomaly detection and predictive maintenance services. Insurance agencies may provide support to sustain maintenance costs. Spare parts suppliers can schedule the delivery of mechanical parts required for maintenance interventions. In this scenario, trust among participants becomes a critical issue. On the one hand, providers of anomaly detection and predictive maintenance services as well as insurance agencies must trust the way machines have been used by collecting and analysing sensors data. On the other hand, owners of monitored machines must trust the use of collected data to implement services, based on which maintenance costs are calculated. The goal of this paper is to leverage blockchain and smart contracts to ensure the required level of trust when implementing data exploration for Remote Monitoring Services. Events occurring on the monitored machines are stored as transactions in a blockchain-based system, to ensure non repudiation. Moreover, trust-demanding services are implemented as smart contracts, to guarantee the required level of trustworthiness among participants. The approach is integrated with a tool for data exploration in the digital factory, and has been validated taking into account performances and cost requirements.

Ricardo S. Alonso, Inés Sittón-Candanedo, Óscar García, Javier Prieto · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Shaoan Xie, Zibin Zheng, Weili Chen, Jiajing Wu · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Nithuna Pramod, Sriram Sankaran

Smart cities can deliver innovative solutions by leveraging technologies such as Internet of Things(IoT) and Blockchains. Driver profiling is of paramount importance in smart cities to monitor driving patterns, traffic violations, and resolve legal issues. However, preserving confidentiality of driver records while continuously monitoring their activities is a major challenge. Traditional mechanisms for driver profiling involve manual intervention and has a higher risk of exposure to being tampered. Thus it becomes necessary to equip smart cities with a tamper-resistant and a decentralized driver profiling system which is capable of storing driver records. In this work, we propose a Blockchain based framework for driver profiling in smart cities which enables secure collection and storage of driver and event records. The framework is composed of various services such as: 1) Driver registration and identity validation using Authentication service 2) Provide driver with a unique time-based token for recording event based data to ensure data authenticity. Finally, we evaluate the system by measuring the performance and power consumption and analyzing power-performance trade-offs. Our proposed framework is generic in that it can be utilized by online transportation networks for driver behavior tracking and profiling.

Koushik Roy, Nur Islam, Tarango Khan, Mohammad Monirujjaman Khan

Unlike long ago information storage in recent times heavily relies on technology. Physical representations like paper-based documents of data have minimized to a negligible amount. But relying on technology has also its drawbacks. These drawbacks can essentially be in terms of security and security breaches can result in compromising data worth a lot of money. In order to tackle this problem, this research looks into the state-of-the-art cryptographic algorithms and data storing paradigms, more specifically focus on the form of data storage known as Blockchains. Currently no such system is available where the user has the capability to create dynamic schemas to store their data in Blockchains along with the its integration with their existing system. Leveraging the concepts of Smart Contracts and Blockchain, on this paper a novel data storing engine by which users can create dynamic data schemas is proposed and also the data query abstractions to manage the data, integration of this system with the users existing system will also be an unchallenging problem. Finally, the results are presented by building an application which is built using the proposed engine and thus evaluate the solution.

Sara Benouar, Abderrahim Benslimane

Due to the vast, increasing number of devices connected to the internet, their high connectivity, diversity, heterogeneity, and the fact that these devices are incapable of carrying a strong security protocols, a number of security and privacy challenges arise. Thus, the IoT- BlockChain brings a lot of benefits, yet still several challenging issues of security, storage and privacy are being faced. Therefore, this present research work proposes a new architecture with an objective to provide robust security with unlimited storage capability that can be adapted to the IoT resources constraints by introducing the new component Security and Storing Manager (SSM) added to the BlockChain. The concept behind the SSM mechanism is based on both encrypting the main data which will be stored in the locked blocks scattered on the internet and storing only the hash of these data in the BlockChain. Through this process, the SSM achieves a role like burial of the data in an unknown place with an unknown name. Also, the access to the BlockChain is restricted by using the smart contract in the new proposed architecture which allows the BlockChain to manage the data access policy. We evaluated the performance of the proposed architecture using various performance measures. The results of our evaluation show that performance is improved by reducing the size of the BlockChain and achieving the security goals. Consequently, SSM paves the way to make our BlockChain smart.

Bidi Ying, Wen Sun, Nada Radwan Mohsen, Amiya Nayak

Due to existing issues (e.g., complexity/ invisibility on share data for multiple parties, patient's privacy's leak) in the pharmaceutical supply in health-care systems, we proposed the architecture for a prescription drug supply using blockchain. This architecture could provide an efficient authentication among un-trusted parties to prevent an illegal agent from knowing sensitive drug transactions. Besides, dynamic identity is employed to protect users' anonymity and privacy. What's more, secure drug transactions are designed to guarantee share data to be confidentiality, integrity, and non-repudiation by using blockchain. Security analysis shows that our protocol successfully mutually authenticates in addition to being resistant to user impersonation attacks, smart card loss attacks, denial of attacks, database compromised attacks. Furthermore, our protocol can provide reliable service as well as protecting patient's privacy. Performance analysis illustrates our scheme to be competitive in comparison to existing schemes relative to the added security benefits it provides.