In the past few years, cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications has been one of the most rapidly emerging fields of computer science, leading to a strong demand of software applications. Several new projects have been emerging almost daily, with an impetus that was not seen since the days of the dawn of the Internet. However, the need of being timely on the market and the lack of experience in a brand new field led to epic disasters, such as those of DAO in 2016 and of Parity Ethereum wallet in 2017. Also, there have been several hacks successfully performed on cryptocurrency exchanges, the biggest being those of MtGox in 2014 (350 million US$), Bitfinex in 2016 (72 million US$), and Coincheck in 2017 (400 million US$). The application of sound SE practices to Blockchain software development, both for Smart Contract and generic Blockchain software, might be crucial to the success of this new field. Here the issues are the need for specific analysis and design methods, quality control through testing and metrics, security assessment and overall development process. At the same time, Blockchain development offers new opportunities, such as the certification of empirical data used for experiment; the ability to design processes where developers are paid upon completion of their tasks through Blockchain tokens, after acceptance tests performed using Smart Contracts; and more sound techniques enabling pay-per-use software, again using tokens.
Any online transaction that involves digital money is a bit of a challenge these days with the rising threats of hackers trying to steal bank details posted online. This leads to the invention of various kinds of crypto-currency, Bitcoin being one of them. The technology behind using the Bitcoin is popularly called as Blockchain. Blockchain is a digitized, de-centralized, public ledger of all crypto-currency transaction/s. Blockchain tries to create and share all the online transactions, stored in a distributed ledger, as a data structure on a network of computers. It validates the transactions using peer-to-peer network of computers. It allows users to make and verify transactions immediately without a central authority. Blockchain is a transaction database which contains information about all the transactions ever executed in the past and works on Bitcoin protocol. In this analysis paper we discussed what is Blockchain?, SWOT analysis of BC, Types of BC and how Blockchain works along with its advantages and disadvantages.
Privacy and safety are the most needed features while accessing the data in the IoT. Due to the complicated decentralization and heterogeneous environment present in IoT, the security and privacy of the data becomes a challenging job for the developers. The current methods are not suitable for these scenarios where a decentralized and heterogeneous system exists. This paper provides a new method for access control in IoT based on the booming technology "Block Chain," which helps the user in accessing or controlling their data. The contribution consists of a description of the model used to show how a blockchain is used for creating access control methods. To implement the method, the blockchain is taken as the decentralized access manager. The proposed method is validated with respect to the previous related work. Finally, the limitations and future work of the paper are discussed. Access Control Systems are proved to provide access control to critical resources. The right to access the resources is defined by the access control policies that are executed during the access request time.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is stepping out of its infancy into full maturity and establishing itself as a part of the future Internet. One of the technical challenges of having billions of devices deployed worldwide is the ability to manage them. Although access management technologies exist in IoT, they are based on centralized models which introduce a new variety of technical limitations to manage them globally. In this paper, we propose a new architecture for arbitrating roles and permissions in IoT. The new architecture is a fully distributed access control system for IoT based on blockchain technology. The architecture is backed by a proof of concept implementation and evaluated in realistic IoT scenarios. The results show that the blockchain technology could be used as access management technology in specific scalable IoT scenarios.
Blockchains have recently generated explosive interest from both academia and industry, with many proposed applications. But descriptions of many these proposals are more visionary projections than realizable proposals, and even basic definitions are often missing. We define "blockchain" and "blockchain network", and then discuss two very different, well known classes of blockchain networks: cryptocurrencies and Git repositories. We identify common primitive elements of both and use them to construct a framework for explicitly articulating what characterizes blockchain networks. The framework consists of a set of questions that every blockchain initiative should address at the very outset. It is intended to help one decide whether or not blockchain is an appropriate approach to a particular application, and if it is, to assist in its initial design stage.
With the development of marine observation technology and network technology, the volume of marine data growing rapidly. This brings new challenges for data storage and transmission. How to protect data security of marine big data has become an urgent problem. The traditional information security methods' characteristic is centralization. These technologies cannot provide whole process protection, e.g., data storage, data management and application of data. The blockchain technology is a novel technology, which can keep the data security and reliability by using decentralized methodology. It has aroused wide interest in the financial field. In this paper, we describe the concept, characteristics and key technologies of blockchain technology and introduce it into the field of marine data security.
With the advancements in Internet technologies and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), a new era of the Internet of Things (IoT) is being realized. IoT produces a lot of information which can be used to improve the efficiency of our daily lives and provides advanced services in a wide range of application domains. However, the privacy and the data fusing problems remain major challenges, mainly due to the massive scale and distributed nature of IoT networks and the amount of data collected from IoT increasing at an exponential rate. Thus, a privacy-protected and inter-cloud data fusing platform is needed to the demand for data mining and analytic activities in IoT. In this paper, we propose such a platform based on JointCloud Blockchain and study a novel case of smart traveling based on the proposed platform.
Jieying Chen, Xiaofeng Ma, Du Mingxiao, Zhuping Wang
Medical information are private and medical data are valuable for medical research. Medical information sharing is challenging as the data might be manipulated improperly and revealed during the whole operational process. Medical institutions need shared information for scientific research and develop, on the contrary, privacy issue inhibits the sharing process. In this paper, a new business process and a novel architecture for medical information sharing based on blockchain are proposed. Exploiting the advantage of blockchain in recording transactions, information can be shared and verified among parties like a distributed ledger. On the other hand, medical information can be shared securely between users without an intermediary. The main benefit is that both the information and the traces of the transaction can be distributed stored which avoid manipulation and fraud. Consequently, the value of information can be fully utilized.
While the rapid development of IoT devices is changing our daily lives, some particular issues hinder the massive deployment of IoT devices. For example, current network ID management system cannot handle so many new terminals; there is no agreed security standards for IoT manufacturers to follow when designing their products. The whole IoT industry is expecting the breakthrough in network infrastructure and the development of novel security mechanisms that can enable the flexible, secure and reliable access and management of IoT devices. Bitcoin, first released in 2009, breeds the decentralized Blockchain technology. The decentralization, anonymity and proof of security characteristics of Blockchain can prevent collusion and single point failure of a centralized server. We believe that the application of Blockchain into the IoT system can clear the obstacles facing the development of IoT architecture and security. To this end, we propose an out-of-band two-factor authentication scheme for IoT devices based on Blockchain infrastructure. We implemented the IoT and Blockchain integrated system with Eris Blockchain and equivalent computing devices to emulate IoT devices. The overheads to run Blockchain and smart contract services on the emulator devices are measured. The BeagleBone Black and Raspberry Pi 3 nodes have an average memory usage of 29.5M, and the CPU usage of 29.55% and 13.35%, respectively.
Deepak Puthal, Nisha Malik, Saraju P. Mohanty, Elias Kougianos · 5 authors
The blockchain is emerging as one of the most propitious and ingenious technologies of cybersecurity. In its germinal state, the technology has successfully replaced economic transaction systems in various organizations and has the potential to revamp heterogeneous business models in different industries. Although it promises a secure distributed framework to facilitate sharing, exchanging, and the integration of information across all users and third parties, it is important for the planners and decision makers to analyze it in depth for its suitability in their industry and business applications. The blockchain should be deployed only if it is applicable and provides security with better opportunities for obtaining increased revenue and reductions in cost. This article presents an overview of this technology for the realization of security across distributed parties in an impregnable and transparent way.
This paper is inspired by the project proposal ID 7807232014 submitted for the EU Horizon 2020 topic ICT-11-2017 in April 25, 2017. It aims at applying state-of-the-art ICT technologies, systems and functions such as Cloud/Fog and IoT to enable food supply chain. A new approach will lead to trusted cooperative applications and services within the agro-food chains. Blockchain technologies will enhance the transparency, information flow and management capacity allowing better interactions of farmers with other part of supply chain, especially the consumer. Our research will provide better performing value chains by proposing new food-on-demand business model, based on new Quality of Experience (QoE) food metrics, bridging the gap between subjective experience and objective matrics based on quality standards. Finally, we provided an awareness qustionaire for fresh food products (FFP) and survay for a group of 30 students from the University of Skopje. This study showed that the majority of students are aware and focused just on few common FFP aspects without deeper knowledge of FFP quality.
Jiafu Wan, Baotong Chen, Muhammad Imran, Fei Tao · 7 authors
The cyber-physical production system (CPPS), which combines information communication technology, cyberspace virtual technology, and intelligent equipment technology, is accelerating the path of Industry 4.0 to transform manufacturing from traditional to intelligent. The Industrial Internet of Things integrates the key technologies of industrial communication, computing, and control, and is providing a new way for a wide range of manufacturing resources to optimize management and dynamic scheduling. In this article, OLE for process control technology, software defined industrial network, and device-to-device communication technology are proposed to achieve efficient dynamic resource interaction. Additionally, the integration of ontology modeling with multiagent technology is introduced to achieve dynamic management of resources. We propose a load balancing mechanism based on Jena reasoning and Contract-Net Protocol technology that focuses on intelligent equipment in the smart factory. Dynamic resources management for IoT-based manufacturing provides a solution for complex resource allocation problems in current manufacturing scenarios, and provides a technical reference point for the implementation of intelligent manufacturing in Industry 4.0.
This paper introduces some trust issues for blockchain transactions. Such transactions rely on ECDSA signature based on 32 bytes secret keys. Because these keys can be stolen or hacked, we suggest to prevent these risks by using javacard secure elements. We detailed the interface of a Crypto Currency Smart Card (CCSC) designed over a JC3.04 standard platform. We details two use cases. First deals with deployment of the CCSC application in low cost low power object powered by an open hardware (arduino) platform, and integrates sensor data in ethereum transactions. Second proposes the deployment in the cloud of CCSC javacards plugged to RACS servers, in order to enable the remote and safe use of ECDSA signature.
As the Internet of Things (IoT) develops and expands, management of IoT communications becomes a major challenge. A large number of IoT devices may be installed anywhere end users wish, then left unattended and be misused to attack others. In edge networks, it is difficult to properly prevent undesired communication without knowledge of the properties of an IoT service and its devices. In this paper, we argue that application service providers, developers, and network operators should 1) verify and know the authenticity of IoT services, devices, and their communications, and 2) prevent unwanted traffic from IoT devices in a trustworthy, scalable, and distributed manner. This paper proposes a Trust List that represents the distribution of trust among IoT-related stakeholders and provides autonomous enforcement of IoT traffic management at the edge networks by integrating blockchains and Software-Defined Networking (SDN). The principle of Trust List is automating the process of doubting, verifying, and trusting IoT services and devices to effectively prevent attacks and abuses. The proof of concept implementation and experiment of the Trust List using both public and private blockchains reveal its good practice and suggest studies for realistic deployment.
Kei Leo Brousmiche, Thomas Heno, Christian Poulain, Antoine Dalmieres · 5 authors
Nowadays, vehicles odometer fraud is becoming a growing problem internationally, and is costing European consumers between 5.6 to 9.6 billion euros per year. This is partly due to the lack of unified vehicles life-cycle management, and to the fact that vehicles data are currently spread across multiple stakeholders that do not trust each other or collaborate together. In this paper, we propose a Blockchain- backed Vehicles Data and Processes Ledger framework to streamline the management of vehicles life-cycle and data history, and hence to provide more transparency and collaborations between the involved stakeholders. The architecture and lessons learned from the first implementation phase are discussed, followed by future research challenges.
Mikael Asplund, Jakob Lövhall, Simin Nadjm‐Tehrani
The possibility of in-store payments would further increase the potential usefulness of cryptocurrencies. However, this would require much faster transaction verification than current solutions provide (one hour for Bitcoin) since customers are likely not prepared to wait a very long time for their purchase to be accepted by a store. We propose a solution for enabling in-store payments with waiting times in the order of a few seconds, which is still compatible with the current Bitcoin protocol. The idea is based on a payment card in combination with a protocol for ensuring that losing a card does not mean losing the money on it. We analyse the required transaction verification delay and also the potentially added risks that the solution brings compared to current systems.
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques
Some of the appealing characteristics of distributed ledger technology (DLT), which blockchain is a type of, include guaranteed integrity, disintermediation and distributed resilience. These characteristics give rise to the possible consequences of immutability, unclear ownership, universal accessibility and transborder storage. These consequences have the potential to contravene data protection principles of Purpose Specification, Use Limitation, Data Quality, Individual Participation and Transborder Data Flow. This paper endeavours to clarify the various types of DLTs, how they work, why they exhibit the depicted characteristics and the consequences. Using the universal privacy principles developed by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), this paper then describes how each of the consequence causes concerns for privacy protection and how attempts are being made to address them in the design and implementation of various applications of blockchain and DLT, and indicates where further research and best-practice developments lie.
Blockchain technology and the application of smart contracts allow for automation of verifiable digital processes between any number of parties. The Internet of Things (IoT) has seen great potential in the past decade to revolutionise our day-to-day lives with the aim of automating physical processes by incorporating Internet-connected devices into commodities. By integrating the IoT with blockchain systems and smart contracts it is possible to provide verifiable automation of physical processes involving different parties. The challenge lies in that due to resource constraints, many of the computational devices used within the IoT are not capable of directly interacting with blockchain implementations. In this paper, we describe and give a reference design and implementation of a split-virtual machine, AlkylVM, which allows for resource constrained IoT devices to interact with blockchain systems.
Public sector and governments have been actively exploring new technologies to enable the smart services transformation and to achieve strategic objectives such as citizens satisfaction and happiness, services efficiency and cost optimization. The Blockchain technology is a good example of an emerging technology that is attracting government attention. Many government entities such as United Kingdom, Estonia, Honduras, Denmark, Australia, Singapore and others have taken steps to unleash the potential of Blockchain technology. Dubai Government is aiming to become paperless by adopting the Blockchain technology for all transactions by 2021. The Blockchain is a disruptive technology that is playing a vital role in many sectors. It's a revolutionary technology transforming the way we think about trust as it enables transacting data in a decentralized structure without the need to have trusted central authorities. Blockchain technology promises to overcome security challenges in IoT enabled services such as enabling secure data sharing and data integrity. However, it also introduces new security challenges that should be investigated and tackled. In this paper, we review the literature to identify the potential use cases and application of Blockchain to enable government services. We also synthesized literature related to the security of Blockchain implementations to identify the security benefits, challenges and the proposed solutions. The analysis shows that is huge potential for Blockchain technology to be used in to enable smart government services. This paper also highlights future research in the areas of concerns that required further investigation.
Internet of Things (IoT) is now in its initial stage but very soon, it is going to influence almost every day-to-day items we use. The more it will be included in our lifestyle, more will be the threat of it being misused. There is an urgent need to make IoT devices secure from getting cracked. Very soon IoT is going to expand the area for the cyber-attacks on homes and businesses by transforming objects that were used to be offline into online systems. Existing security technologies are just not enough to deal with this problem. Blockchain has emerged as the possible solution for creating more secure IoT systems in the time to come. In this paper, first an overview of the blockchain technology and its implementation has been explained; then we have discussed the infrastructure of IoT which is based on Blockchain network and at last a model has been provided for the security of internet of things using blockchain.
Digital banking as an essential service can be hard to access in remote, rural regions where the network connectivity is unavailable or intermittent. The payment operators like Visa and Mastercard often face difficulties reaching these remote, rural areas. Although micro-banking has been made possible by short message service or unstructured supplementary service data messages in some places, their security flaws and session-based nature prevent them from wider adoption. Global-level cryptocurrencies enable low-cost, secure, and pervasive money transferring among distributed peers, but are still limited in their ability to reach people in remote communities. We propose a blockchain-based digital payment scheme that can deliver reliable services on top of unreliable networks in remote regions. We focus on a scenario where a community-run base station provides reliable local network connectivity while intermittently connects to the broader Internet. We take advantage of the distributed verification guarantees of the Blockchain technology for financial transaction verification and leverage smart contracts for secure service management. In the proposed system, payment operators deploy multiple proxy nodes that are intermittently connected to the remote communities where the local blockchain networks, such as Ethereum are composed of miners, vendors, and regular users. Through probabilistic modeling, we devise design parameters for the blockchain network to realize robust operation over the top of the unreliable network. Furthermore, we show that the transaction processing time will not be significantly impacted due to the network unreliability through extensive emulations on a private Ethereum network. Finally, we demonstrate the practical feasibility of the proposed system by developing Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled payment gateways on Raspberry-Pis, a mobile wallet application and mining nodes on off-the-shelf computers.