8 Distributed Ledger Technology
417
8.6.3 Blockchains and IoT
Blockchain technologies have exactly what is needed to fix the weaknesses of
centralized IoT. It is easy to perceive that the decentralized structure, the way that
data is created and stored, and the consensus mechanism used will help overcome
most of the weaknesses of the current IoT systems.
Depending on the use cases, blockchain technologies can be applied to each level
of the IoT systems. Blockchains can be used to store and manage device IDs, encode
and verify data packets on the communication networks, and secure data in the cloud
and data stored in the distributed devices.
Blockchain technologies can be applied at a small and local scale such as smart
homes and smart buildings, or to larger scales such as in smart cities, or even at a
global scale for cross-continent IoT systems.
Blockchain technologies will help reduce IoT operational costs and prevent
threats and attacks. Blockchains are unique and attractive because they have the
following features: transactional privacy, security, data immutability, auditability,
integrity, system transparency, and fault tolerance.
Wired and wireless communication technologies have reached new high levels.
The technologies are still evolving, witnessed by the growing interest of adopting
5G technologies in IoT. It can be predicted that the requirements of data transmission speed by IoT will be up to users’ expectations.
For this reason, privacy, security, and transparency and trust should be at the
center of future IoT system designs. They should be considered right at the
beginning when an IoT system is conceived.
In summary, as an emerging technology, IoT is promising and has a great future.
Current IoT systems use resource-constrained devices which are ideal targets for
cyberattacks. They have poor scalability and have the problem of a single point of
failure. Maintenance is difficult. IoT data are not immutable. Privacy and security
are critical concerns of IoT.
Blockchains can mitigate IoT risks and issues by using a large number of
individual nodes that exchange data on a peer-to-peer (p2p) basis. Data records are
immune to tampering and corruption. The consensus mechanism of blockchain can
prevent malicious nodes from joining the IoT network, rejecting the data they send,
and ensuring data integrity.
Among the various blockchains, practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT)based blockchains appear to be especially suitable for IoT, due to their abilities to
defend against attacks from malicious nodes, work in asynchronous systems, and
have low overhead time and low latency.
The other promising blockchain IoT platform is IOTA. It was designed specifically for the Internet of Things. IOTA is blockless and does not use computationintensive mining algorithms. Instead, users verify the transactions of other users.
The main advantage of IOTA is greater scalability.
417
8.6.3 Blockchains and IoT
Blockchain technologies have exactly what is needed to fix the weaknesses of
centralized IoT. It is easy to perceive that the decentralized structure, the way that
data is created and stored, and the consensus mechanism used will help overcome
most of the weaknesses of the current IoT systems.
Depending on the use cases, blockchain technologies can be applied to each level
of the IoT systems. Blockchains can be used to store and manage device IDs, encode
and verify data packets on the communication networks, and secure data in the cloud
and data stored in the distributed devices.
Blockchain technologies can be applied at a small and local scale such as smart
homes and smart buildings, or to larger scales such as in smart cities, or even at a
global scale for cross-continent IoT systems.
Blockchain technologies will help reduce IoT operational costs and prevent
threats and attacks. Blockchains are unique and attractive because they have the
following features: transactional privacy, security, data immutability, auditability,
integrity, system transparency, and fault tolerance.
Wired and wireless communication technologies have reached new high levels.
The technologies are still evolving, witnessed by the growing interest of adopting
5G technologies in IoT. It can be predicted that the requirements of data transmission speed by IoT will be up to users’ expectations.
For this reason, privacy, security, and transparency and trust should be at the
center of future IoT system designs. They should be considered right at the
beginning when an IoT system is conceived.
In summary, as an emerging technology, IoT is promising and has a great future.
Current IoT systems use resource-constrained devices which are ideal targets for
cyberattacks. They have poor scalability and have the problem of a single point of
failure. Maintenance is difficult. IoT data are not immutable. Privacy and security
are critical concerns of IoT.
Blockchains can mitigate IoT risks and issues by using a large number of
individual nodes that exchange data on a peer-to-peer (p2p) basis. Data records are
immune to tampering and corruption. The consensus mechanism of blockchain can
prevent malicious nodes from joining the IoT network, rejecting the data they send,
and ensuring data integrity.
Among the various blockchains, practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT)based blockchains appear to be especially suitable for IoT, due to their abilities to
defend against attacks from malicious nodes, work in asynchronous systems, and
have low overhead time and low latency.
The other promising blockchain IoT platform is IOTA. It was designed specifically for the Internet of Things. IOTA is blockless and does not use computationintensive mining algorithms. Instead, users verify the transactions of other users.
The main advantage of IOTA is greater scalability.