Blockchain Papers

Eranga Bandara, Xueping Liang, Peter Foytik, Sachin Shetty · 8 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Chenhao Xu, Jiaqi Ge, Yong Li, Yao Deng · 8 authors

Federated learning (FL) enables collaborative training of a shared model on edge devices while maintaining data privacy. FL is effective when dealing with independent and identically distributed (iid) datasets, but struggles with non-iid datasets. Various personalized approaches have been proposed, but such approaches fail to handle underlying shifts in data distribution, such as data distribution skew commonly observed in real-world scenarios (e.g., driver behavior in smart transportation systems changing across time and location). Additionally, trust concerns among unacquainted devices and security concerns with the centralized aggregator pose additional challenges. To address these challenges, this paper presents a dynamically optimized personal deep learning scheme based on blockchain and federated learning. Specifically, the innovative smart contract implemented in the blockchain allows distributed edge devices to reach a consensus on the optimal weights of personalized models. Experimental evaluations using multiple models and real-world datasets demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves higher accuracy and faster convergence compared to traditional federated and personalized learning approaches.

Rahul Sharma, Mohammad Wazid, Prosanta Gope

No abstract is available for this record.

Mohamad Kassab, Giuseppe Destefanis

Contact tracing mobile applications have been emerging as potentially automating surveillance technology to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) by tracking individuals and those they come into exposure with. The avalanche of these apps left the software security researchers’ with concerns about vulnerabilities in hastily written software. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic has motivated the recent interest of leveraging blockchain for healthcare-related scenarios, including proposing and developing blockchain-based contact tracing apps. Utilizing the cryptographic concepts of blockchain to secure the collected data could help in winning the level of public engagement required to fight the spread of COVID-19. But will blockchain be a panacea to all the challenges accompanying these apps? Motivated by answering this question and following a twofold process, this paper: (i) explores the current landscape of contact tracing mobile apps, (ii) examines how blockchain technology can contribute positively to this landscape, and (iii) reports on the technical and social challenges that still accompany the deployment of blockchain-based contact tracing apps.

Zhihao Yu, Liang Song, Linhua Jiang, Omid Khold Sharafi

Purpose Security is the most important issue in Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart cities and blockchain (BC). So, the present paper aims to detect and organize the literature regarding security in the IoT-based smart cities and BC context. It also proposes an agenda for future research. Therefore, the authors did a statistical review of security in IoT and BC in smart cities. The present investigation aims to determine the principal challenges and disturbances in IoT because of the BC adoption, the central BC applications in IoT-based smart cities and the BC future in IoT-based smart cities. Design/methodology/approach IoT) has a notable influence on modernizing and transforming the society and industry for knowledge digitizing. Therefore, it may be perceived and operated in real time. The IoT is undergoing exponential development in industry and investigation. Still, it contains some security and privacy susceptibilities. Naturally, the research community pays attention to the security and privacy of the IoT. Also, the academic community has put a significant focus on BC as a new security project. In the present paper, the significant mechanisms and investigations in BC ground have been checked out systematically because of the significance of security in the IoT and BC in smart cities. Electronic databases were used to search for keywords. Totally, based on different filters, 131 papers have been gained, and 17 related articles have been obtained and analyzed. The security mechanisms of BC in IoT-based smart cities have been ranked into three main categories as follows, smart health care, smart home and smart agriculture. Findings The findings showed that BC’s distinctive technical aspects might impressively find a solution for privacy and security problems encountering the IoT-based smart cities development. They also supply distributed storage, transparency, trust and other IoT support to form a valid, impressive and secure distributed IoT network and provide a beneficial guarantee for IoT-based smart city users’ security and privacy. Research limitations/implications The present investigation aims to be comprehensive, but some restrictions were also observed. Owing to the use of some filters for selecting the original papers, some complete works may be excluded. Besides, inspecting the total investigations on the security topic in BC and the IoT-based smart cities is infeasible. Albeit, the authors attempt to introduce a complete inspection of the security challenges in BC and the IoT-based smart cities. BC includes significant progress and innovation in the IoT-based smart cities’ security domain as new technology. Still, it contains some deficiencies as well. Investigators actively encounter the challenges and bring up persistent innovation and inspection of related technologies in the vision of the issues available in diverse application scenarios. Practical implications The use of BC technology in finding a solution for the security issues of the IoT-based smart cities is a research hotspot. There is numerable literature with data and theoretical support despite the suggestion of numerous relevant opinions. Therefore, this paper offers insights into how findings may guide practitioners and researchers in developing appropriate security systems dependent upon the features of IoT-based smart city systems and BC. This paper may also stimulate further investigation on the challenge of security in BC and IoT-based smart cities. The outcomes will be of great value for scholars and may supply sights into future investigation grounds in the present field. Originality/value As the authors state according to their knowledge, it is the first work using security challenges on BC and IoT-based smart cities. The literature review shows that few papers discuss how solving security issues in the IoT-based smart cities can benefit from the BC. The investigation suggests a literature review on the topic, recommending some thoughts on using security tools in the IoT-based smart cities. The present investigation helps organizations plan to integrate IoT and BC to detect the areas to focus. It also assists in better resource planning for the successful execution of smart technologies in their supply chains.

Muizz M. Mahdy

An Electronic Health Record (EHR) is an electronic, official health record that contains a systematic collection of health information of a patient, which is maintained by a healthcare provider. EHRs have always been considered as the technology that has the potential to revolutionize healthcare, however, there are some drawbacks that prevents healthcare institutions from adopting them, and patients from supporting them. The main concerns are patients' privacy and their data security, numerous data breaches of hospitals have caused the loss of patients' EHRs. Multiple solutions have been proposed to allow the patients to take control of their EHR data access, but a secure, and private system that would allow for flawless sharing of EHRs does not exist. In this paper, a hybrid distributed system architecture that addresses these drawbacks is proposed. The proposed system utilizes the decentralized systems data storage model in a centralized system to allow for the high data reproducibility and availability of decentralized systems, while allowing for the high security by authorization and authentication of centralized systems; it also utilizes the blockchain which allows for security, patients pseudo-anonymity, patients' EHRs usage consent requirement, and eventual consistency of data among peers, while keeping a ledger of all shared EHRs among healthcare providers.

Jinsu Kim, Namje Park

Abstract Closed circuit television (CCTV) is installed on roads or in facilities for the purpose of filming videos to be used for crime prevention or as evidence for accidents in the future, and the number of CCTVs installed annually is increasing sharply. The videos collected by the devices can be submitted as legal evidence for accidents, which could happen in the future, but the damage to their integrity may cause the loss of reliability. Blockchain, which guarantees the integrity of data by sharing data as a distributed network method on these issues, can be applied as an effective means of data forgery. In general, however, video information contains sensitive data within the image, and sharing it externally can cause many problems. Thus, in this paper, by implementing role‐based approach control based on a block chain that guarantees integrity through sharing of data, a mechanism is proposed to share filmed images but prevent indiscriminate access by third parties.

Célio Márcio Soares Ferreira, Charles Tim Batista Garrocho, Ricardo Oliveira, Jorge Sá Silva · 5 authors

The advent of 5G will bring a massive adoption of IoT devices across our society. IoT Applications (IoT Apps) will be the primary data collection base. This scenario leads to unprecedented scalability and security challenges, with one of the first areas for these applications being Smart Cities (SC). IoT devices in new network paradigms, such as Edge Computing and Fog Computing, will collect data from urban environments, providing real-time management information. One of these challenges is ensuring that the data sent from Edge Computing are reliable. Blockchain has been a technology that has gained the spotlight in recent years, due to its robust security in fintech and cryptocurrencies. Its strong encryption and distributed and decentralized network make it potential for this challenge. Using Blockchain with IoT makes it possible for SC applications to have security information distributed, which makes it possible to shield against Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS). IoT devices in an SC can have a long life, which increases the chance of having security holes caused by outdated firmware. Adding a layer of identification and verification of attributes and signature of messages coming from IoT devices by Smart Contracts can bring confidence in the content. SC Apps that extract data from legacy and outdated appliances, installed in inaccessible, unknown, and often untrusted urban environments can benefit from this work. Our work's main contribution is the development of API Gateways to be used in IoT devices and network gateway to sign, identify, and authorize messages. For this, keys and essential characteristics of the devices previously registered in Blockchain are used. We will discuss the importance of this implementation while considering the SC and present a testbed that is composed of Blockchain Ethereum and real IoT devices. We analyze the transfer time, memory, and CPU impacts during the sending and processing of these messages. The messages are signed, identified, and validated by our API Gateways and only then collected for an IoT data management application.

Can Zhang, Chang Xu, Kashif Sharif, Liehuang Zhu

No abstract is available for this record.

Enes Erdin, Suat Mercan, Kemal Akkaya

Cryptocurrencies redefined how money can be stored and transferred among\nusers. However, independent of the amount being sent, public blockchain-based\ncryptocurrencies suffer from high transaction waiting times and fees. These\ndrawbacks hinder the wide use of cryptocurrencies by masses. To address these\nchallenges, payment channel network concept is touted as the most viable\nsolution to be used for micro-payments. The idea is exchanging the ownership of\nmoney by keeping the state of the accounts locally. The users inform the\nblockchain rarely, which decreases the load on the blockchain. Specifically,\npayment channel networks can provide transaction approvals in seconds by\ncharging a nominal fee proportional to the payment amount. Such attraction on\npayment channel networks inspired many recent studies which focus on how to\ndesign them and allocate channels such that the transactions will be secure and\nefficient. However, as payment channel networks are emerging and reaching large\nnumber of users, privacy issues are becoming more relevant that raise concerns\nabout exposing not only individual habits but also businesses' revenues. In\nthis paper, we first propose a categorization of the existing payment networks\nformed on top of blockchain-backed cryptocurrencies. After discussing several\nemerging attacks on user/business privacy in these payment channel networks, we\nqualitatively evaluate them based on a number of privacy metrics that relate to\nour case. Based on the discussions on the strengths and weaknesses of the\napproaches, we offer possible directions for research for the future of privacy\nbased payment channel networks.\n

Kemal Akkaya, Suat Mercan, Enes Erdin

Cryptocurrencies redefined how money can be stored and transferred among users. However, independent of the amount being sent, public blockchain-based cryptocurrencies suffer from high transaction waiting times and fees. These drawbacks hinder the wide use of cryptocurrencies by masses. To address these challenges, payment channel network concept is touted as the most viable solution to be used for micro-payments. The idea is exchanging the ownership of money by keeping the state of the accounts locally. The users inform the blockchain rarely, which decreases the load on the blockchain. Specifically, payment channel networks can provide transaction approvals in seconds by charging a nominal fee proportional to the payment amount. Such attraction on payment channel networks inspired many recent studies which focus on how to design them and allocate channels such that the transactions will be secure and efficient. However, as payment channel networks are emerging and reaching large number of users, privacy issues are becoming more relevant that raise concerns about exposing not only individual habits but also businesses' revenues. In this paper, we first propose a categorization of the existing payment networks formed on top of blockchain-backed cryptocurrencies. After discussing several emerging attacks on user/business privacy in these payment channel networks, we qualitatively evaluate them based on a number of privacy metrics that relate to our case. Based on the discussions on the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches, we offer possible directions for research for the future of privacy based payment channel networks.

Lei Zhang, Desheng Liu, Meina Chen, Hongyan Li · 7 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Nakhoon Choi, Heeyoul Kim

With the increase of smart factories and smart cities following the recent 4th industrial revolution, internal user authentication and authorization have become an important issue. The user authentication model using the server-client structure has a problem of forgery of the access history caused by the log manipulation of the administrator and unclearness of the responsibility. In addition, users must independently manage the authentication method for each service authentication. In this paper, to solve the above problem, the researchers propose an integrated ID model based on a hybrid blockchain. The proposed model is implemented as two layers of Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric: the former layer is responsible for integrated authentication, and the latter layer is responsible for access control. The physical pass or application for user authentication and authorization are integrated to one ID through the proposed model. In addition, the decentralized blockchain ensures the integrity and transparency of the stored access history, and it also provides non-repudiation of authority and access history.

Prasanth Varma Kakarlapudi, Qusay H. Mahmoud

Blockchain technology was introduced through Bitcoin in a 2008 whitepaper by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. Since its inception, it has gathered great attention because of its unique properties-immutability and decentralized authority. This technology is now being implemented in various fields such as healthcare, IoT, data management, etc., apart from cryptocurrencies. As it is a newly emerging technology, researchers and organizations face many challenges in integrating this technology into other fields. Consent management is one of the essential processes in an organization because of the ever-evolving privacy laws, which are introduced to provide more control to users over their data. This paper is a systematic review of Blockchain's application in the field of consent and privacy data management. The review discusses the adaptation of Blockchain in healthcare, IoT, identity management, and data storage. This analysis is formed on the principles of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) and a process of systematic mapping review. We provide analysis of the development, challenges, and limitations of blockchain technology for consent management.

Edi Surya Negara, A N Hidyanto, Ria Andryani, Deni Erlansyah

Abstract The development of Blockchain and Smart Contract technology provides significant changes in the form of solutions to social technology problems, such as the problem of document forgery on e-government services. In its implementation of government services, there are several challenges faced, such as social technology problems, blockchain mechanisms, virtual machines, and smart contract code levels, and automation of disintermediation. This paper summarizes and discusses the methodology and research results from various recent papers on the state of the use of smart contracts in e-government services and the weaknesses and potential problems in the use of e-government services.

Minha Lee, Lily Frank, Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn

Abstract Cryptocurrencies are proliferating as instantiations of blockchain, which is a transparent, distributed ledger technology for validating transactions. Blockchain is thus said to embed trust in its technical design. Yet, blockchain’s technical promise of trust is not fulfilled when applied to the cryptocurrency ecosystem due to many social challenges stakeholders experience. By investigating a cryptocurrency chatbot (Brokerbot) that distributed information on cryptocurrency news and investments, we explored social tensions of trust between stakeholders, namely the bot’s developers, users, and the bot itself. We found that trust in Brokerbot and in the cryptocurrency ecosystem are two conjoined, but separate challenges that users and developers approached in different ways. We discuss the challenging, dual-role of a Brokerbot as an object of trust as a chatbot while simultaneously being a mediator of trust in cryptocurrency, which exposes the social-technical gap of trust. Lastly, we elaborate on trust as a negotiated social process that people shape and are shaped by through emerging ecologies of interlinked technologies like blockchain and conversational interfaces.

Gianluca Lax, Antonia Russo, Lara Saidia Fascí

No abstract is available for this record.

Arthur Carvalho

No abstract is available for this record.

Arnab Mukherjee, Mamatha Balachandra, Chetana Pujari, Soham Tiwari · 6 authors

Since the last decade, Smart home systems achieved popularity due to their increase in comfort and improvement in quality life. Smart homes with the integration of Internet of Things devices by embedding intelligence into sensors and actuators, data, and services can be communicated efficiently and in a more secure manner. In a Smart home environment, there can be several users who will need to access services from various Smart home devices at any point in time either individually or concurrently. In an Internet of Things, it is possible to process and exchange data without human intervention. Therefore, because of this full autonomy, these entities need to recognize, authenticate entities and ensure the integrity of their exchanged data. In a conventional smart home system, every device has to authenticate separately using credentials. Such authentication is not required in a trusted environment. The same account can be shared across different devices and when shared, the authentication process can be reduced to a consent-based process. In this research, assuming that there are multiple smart devices connected to each other and to the cloud via the hub. Also, there can be multiple sets of users accessing the same set of smart devices and related services through different accounts. The problem with conventional authentication is no common authentication or authorization system to avoid redundant logins. In this regard, Blockchain has been considered for its potential to provide a framework for decentralized-based applications based on the concept of Smart Contracts. By combining the power of Blockchain technology and public-key cryptography it is possible to ensure secure authentication and identification of people and devices. This work avoids the duplicate authentication for accessing the same service and does the communication in a limited latency. Most of the important security goals such as authentication, authorization, confidentiality, and integrity are met.

Zice Sun, Yingjie Wang, Zhipeng Cai, Tianen Liu · 6 authors

With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and fifth-generation (5G) networks, which have led to a surge in data processing and increased data transfer time, traditional cloud computing could no longer meet the needs of workers, so edge computing has emerged. Edge computing could meet the demand for low time consumption by processing data at the edge of the network and then transmitting it to a third-party platform. However, since the credibility of the third-party platform is unknown which can easily leak the privacy of workers. For the transparent mechanism of blockchain, a two-stage privacy protection mechanism based on blockchain is proposed to solve this problem. In the first stage, this paper proposes a double disturbance localized differential privacy (DDLDP) algorithm to disturb the location information of workers. In the second stage, all the sensing data are uploaded to the blockchain through edge nodes, processed by the edge cloud, and fed back to the requester. Blockchain technology not only guarantees the integrity of sensing data, but also prevents the possibility of third-party platforms from leaking workers' privacy. Through extensive performance evaluation and comparative experiments on real data sets, the DDLDP algorithm could effectively protect the privacy of workers and has higher service quality and data availability.

Lelio Campanile, Mauro Iacono, Fiammetta Marulli, Michele Mastroianni

No abstract is available for this record.

Aarthi Iyer, Rubasri Sundar, Umadevi K.S.

Nowadays the whole world is immersed in data. Starting from creating the data, using the data, sharing the data, everyone has control of their respective data. Even the companies rely highly on data as all of their storage and analysis have been computerized. In most traditional methods, the database which is being deployed is deemed trustworthy. But the threat always persists no matter how secure the database is. Attackers perform various types of attacks possible to gain access, tamper or perform any kind of compromising action on the database which will hamper the working of a company/individual.So, the goal is to achieve security against those attacks and additionally avoiding users to obtain information which they are not authorized to.However, there exists a series of relational data such as medical databases where there are two or more parties involved in a database and the trust factor automatically takes a hit. In this paper, I propose a model, that provides authorization, confidentiality, accessibility and privacy for a healthcare database. \n\n

Zhiyan Chen, Claudio Fiandrino, Burak Kantarcı

No abstract is available for this record.

Michelle Poelman, Sarfraz Iqbal

Blockchain is a relatively new technology which needs to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when processing personal data. In this study, the researchers focus on the issue of whether or not a blockchain that processes personal data can comply with the GDPR. Subsequently, it is important to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using a blockchain from a civilian's point of view, since it is their personal data that will be processed. Finally, the results of a literature research and multiple interviews, show that there is no unequivocal answer to the compliancy issue regarding blockchains. This study contributes by extending the ongoing discussion on the topic of GDPR compliance on blockchain by showing that two different tendencies exist: purists and fundamentalists. Purists believe that public blockchains are the only `real' blockchains and because of the characteristics those possess, it can never comply with the GDPR. Furthermore, all technical measures that try to comply with the principles of the GDPR will compromise the very existence of that blockchain. On the other hand, fundamentalists argue that it is possible to take certain technical measures to meet the requirements of the GDPR and these will not jeopardize the blockchain1.