Blockchains and Smart Contracts for the Internet of Things
TL;DR: The conclusion is that the blockchain-IoT combination is powerful and can cause significant transformations across several industries, paving the way for new business models and novel, distributed applications.
Abstract: Motivated by the recent explosion of interest around blockchains, we examine whether they make a good fit for the Internet of Things (IoT) sector. Blockchains allow us to have a distributed peer-to-peer network where non-trusting members can interact with each other without a trusted intermediary, in a verifiable manner. We review how this mechanism works and also look into smart contracts—scripts that reside on the blockchain that allow for the automation of multi-step processes. We then move into the IoT domain, and describe how a blockchain-IoT combination: 1) facilitates the sharing of services and resources leading to the creation of a marketplace of services between devices and 2) allows us to automate in a cryptographically verifiable manner several existing, time-consuming workflows. We also point out certain issues that should be considered before the deployment of a blockchain network in an IoT setting: from transactional privacy to the expected value of the digitized assets traded on the network. Wherever applicable, we identify solutions and workarounds. Our conclusion is that the blockchain-IoT combination is powerful and can cause significant transformations across several industries, paving the way for new business models and novel, distributed applications.
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01 Oct 2019
TL;DR: The attributes, such as manufacturer and object-specified attribute, are considered in the proposed ADAC for more fine-grained access control in the open and lightweight IoT devices.
Abstract: In IoT, a flexible and trustworthy access control framework is of significance to ensure the security of lightweight IoT devices. The conventional centralized access control framework is no longer fit for the open and large-scale IoT environments. In this paper, we propose an attribute-based distributed access control framework (ADAC) for IoT using blockchain technology. The attributes, such as manufacturer and object-specified attribute, are considered in the proposed ADAC for more fine-grained access control in the open and lightweight IoT devices. Particularly, we design a smart contract system, which includes a subject contract (SC), an object contract (OC), an access control contract (ACC) and multiple policy contracts (PCs), to manage and access attributes of IoT devices for distributed and trustworthy access control (DTAC). SC and OC are responsible for managing subject attribute and object attribute information, respectively. PCs are used to manage access control policies. ACC performs authorization judgment by accessing attributes and policies. Finally, a case study is performed to demonstrate the workflow and show that ADAC could achieve fine-grained and flexible access control for IoT.
23 citations
Cites background from "Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..."
...And with the proposal of smart contract [10], [11], researchers are beginning to realize the greater potential of blockchain in the IoT....
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14 Jul 2019
TL;DR: The design of a reputation management framework, suitable for knowledge-based blockchains, is proposed and it is applied to the detection of malicious nodes and reduce their effect on the probabilistic blockchains' consensus process.
Abstract: Recently, leading research communities have been investigating the use of blockchains for Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, where multiple participants, or agents, collaborate to make consensus decisions. To achieve this, the data in the blockchain storage have to be transformed into blockchain knowledge. We refer to these types of blockchains as knowledge-based blockchains. Knowledge-based blockchains are potentially useful in building efficient risk assessment applications. An earlier work introduced probabilistic blockchain which facilitates knowledge-based blockchains. This paper proposes an extension for the probabilistic blockchain concept. The design of a reputation management framework, suitable for such blockchains, is proposed. The framework has been developed to suit the requirements of a wide range of applications. In particular, we apply it to the detection of malicious nodes and reduce their effect on the probabilistic blockchains' consensus process. We evaluate the framework by comparing it to a baseline using several adversarial strategies. Further, we analyze the collaborative decisions with and without the malicious node detection. Both results show a sustainable performance, where the proposed work outperforms others and achieves excellent results.
23 citations
01 Aug 2019
TL;DR: This work proposes a multi-layer security network model for IoT network based on blockchain technology and implements an open source blockchain platform Hyperledger Fabric to verify the proposed system.
Abstract: The decentralized and distributed nature of the Blockchain technology makes it a suitable solution to improve the device-to-device communication security challenges. This work explores the possible application of blockchain technology to address the IoT security problems under the 5G cellular system. We propose a multi-layer security network model for IoT network based on blockchain technology. The proposed model addresses the problems associated with the actual deployment of the blockchain technology by dividing the IoT network into a multi-layer decentralized system. In the proposed model, we divide the network into K-unknown clusters using Evolutionary Computation algorithms which are Genetic Algorithms (GAs) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). A local authentication mechanism is chosen for authentication and authorization purpose within each cluster handed by each Cluster Head (CH). The high security and credibility assurance of the blockchain technology provides an authentication mechanism for CHs communication with each other and Base Stations (BS) through a local blockchain implementation without a central authority. We also propose a global blockchain implementation for BSs communications. Finally, our proposal implements an open source blockchain platform Hyperledger Fabric to verify the proposed system.
23 citations
Cites background from "Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..."
...Since then considerable research has been devoted to developing blockchain idea and technology beyond cryptocurrencies considering IoT security and applications [10, 11], e-government [12], government services [13], and many more....
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TL;DR: This study provides solid contributions to understanding blockchain innovation and presents some main features and guidelines for how to boost blockchain implementation in industry and presents five enablers that can foster prompt adoption in industry.
Abstract: Supply chain management is considered one of the main sectors of development for blockchain technology. This study provides solid contributions to understanding blockchain innovation and presents some main features and guidelines for how to boost blockchain implementation in industry. As explorative research, this paper presents a grounded theory analysis based on 18 expert interviews. The pool of interviewees is composed of academics and business and institutional representatives with relevant technological knowledge on blockchain and innovation management. Renowned worldwide experts provided us with powerful input to run this analysis and with a general overview of the current situation. Blockchain development of course impacts supply chains, but currently, the analysis shows that it does not seem to be a disruptive technology. In accordance with C.M. Christensen, blockchain presents all the features to be a sustaining innovation rather than disruptive. For this reason, as outcomes, we present five enablers that can foster prompt adoption in industry.
23 citations
Cites background or methods from "Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..."
...Other fundamental assets of blockchain in industry are tokens [67] and smart contracts [3], [9], [68]....
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...These can generate new digital business models, according to the definition in [68]: ‘‘Smart contracts...
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23 Apr 2018
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the proposed distributed energy exchange system can perform the peer-to-peer transaction with the real-time electricity price aligning with the EV power demand trend without requiring a third-party intermediary.
Abstract: The electricity market is undergoing a transformation with increasing number of electric vehicles (EV). This paper studies the current charging and discharging schemes for EV and the feasibility of the decentralized transactional energy market. In order to adapt the high volume of EV integration and fully decentralize the grid system, the blockchain technology is introduced to serve as an envision for the next generation grid. Furthermore, we propose a blockchain technology enabled electricity exchange market to enable EVs’ autonomy in trading energy with secured distributed energy transactions. The constructed exchange market is price competitive platform where the best bid price is modelled via the jump-diffusion process to enable users to participate in the trading process. We demonstrate that our proposed distributed energy exchange system can perform the peer-to-peer transaction with the real-time electricity price aligning with the EV power demand trend without requiring a third-party intermediary.
23 citations
Cites background from "Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..."
...Furthermore, in [16], the authors provided the insight of the smart contract to allow the automation of multi-step processes to self-execute the distributed and heavy workflows, which is envisaged in the energy industry and the Internet of things....
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References
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TL;DR: The Albanian Generals Problem as mentioned in this paper is a generalization of Dijkstra's dining philosophers problem, where two generals have to come to a common agreement on whether to attack or retreat, but can communicate only by sending messengers who might never arrive.
Abstract: I have long felt that, because it was posed as a cute problem about philosophers seated around a table, Dijkstra’s dining philosopher’s problem received much more attention than it deserves. (For example, it has probably received more attention in the theory community than the readers/writers problem, which illustrates the same principles and has much more practical importance.) I believed that the problem introduced in [41] was very important and deserved the attention of computer scientists. The popularity of the dining philosophers problem taught me that the best way to attract attention to a problem is to present it in terms of a story. There is a problem in distributed computing that is sometimes called the Chinese Generals Problem, in which two generals have to come to a common agreement on whether to attack or retreat, but can communicate only by sending messengers who might never arrive. I stole the idea of the generals and posed the problem in terms of a group of generals, some of whom may be traitors, who have to reach a common decision. I wanted to assign the generals a nationality that would not offend any readers. At the time, Albania was a completely closed society, and I felt it unlikely that there would be any Albanians around to object, so the original title of this paper was The Albanian Generals Problem. Jack Goldberg was smart enough to realize that there were Albanians in the world outside Albania, and Albania might not always be a black hole, so he suggested that I find another name. The obviously more appropriate Byzantine generals then occurred to me. The main reason for writing this paper was to assign the new name to the problem. But a new paper needed new results as well. I came up with a simpler way to describe the general 3n+1-processor algorithm. (Shostak’s 4-processor algorithm was subtle but easy to understand; Pease’s generalization was a remarkable tour de force.) We also added a generalization to networks that were not completely connected. (I don’t remember whose work that was.) I also added some discussion of practical implementation details.
5,208 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a group of generals of the Byzantine army camped with their troops around an enemy city are shown to agree upon a common battle plan using only oral messages, if and only if more than two-thirds of the generals are loyal; so a single traitor can confound two loyal generals.
Abstract: Reliable computer systems must handle malfunctioning components that give conflicting information to different parts of the system. This situation can be expressed abstractly in terms of a group of generals of the Byzantine army camped with their troops around an enemy city. Communicating only by messenger, the generals must agree upon a common battle plan. However, one or more of them may be traitors who will try to confuse the others. The problem is to find an algorithm to ensure that the loyal generals will reach agreement. It is shown that, using only oral messages, this problem is solvable if and only if more than two-thirds of the generals are loyal; so a single traitor can confound two loyal generals. With unforgeable written messages, the problem is solvable for any number of generals and possible traitors. Applications of the solutions to reliable computer systems are then discussed.
4,901 citations
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TL;DR: It is shown that, without a logically centralized authority, Sybil attacks are always possible except under extreme and unrealistic assumptions of resource parity and coordination among entities.
Abstract: Large-scale peer-to-peer systems face security threats from faulty or hostile remote computing elements. To resist these threats, many such systems employ redundancy. However, if a single faulty entity can present multiple identities, it can control a substantial fraction of the system, thereby undermining this redundancy. One approach to preventing these "Sybil attacks" is to have a trusted agency certify identities. This paper shows that, without a logically centralized authority, Sybil attacks are always possible except under extreme and unrealistic assumptions of resource parity and coordination among entities.
4,816 citations
"Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..." refers background in this paper
...Because of the Sybil attack [15], consensus in public networks is costly...
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...anyone can join though, this would be catastrophic because of the Sybil attack [15]: a single entity could join with multiple identities, get multiple votes, and thus influence the network to favor this entity’s interests....
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22 Feb 1999
TL;DR: A new replication algorithm that is able to tolerate Byzantine faults that works in asynchronous environments like the Internet and incorporates several important optimizations that improve the response time of previous algorithms by more than an order of magnitude.
Abstract: This paper describes a new replication algorithm that is able to tolerate Byzantine faults. We believe that Byzantinefault-tolerant algorithms will be increasingly important in the future because malicious attacks and software errors are increasingly common and can cause faulty nodes to exhibit arbitrary behavior. Whereas previous algorithms assumed a synchronous system or were too slow to be used in practice, the algorithm described in this paper is practical: it works in asynchronous environments like the Internet and incorporates several important optimizations that improve the response time of previous algorithms by more than an order of magnitude. We implemented a Byzantine-fault-tolerant NFS service using our algorithm and measured its performance. The results show that our service is only 3% slower than a standard unreplicated NFS.
3,562 citations
"Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..." refers background or methods in this paper
...5If more than 3f + 1 nodes are used, then the quorum thresholds listed in [26] may lead to forks....
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...Tendermint vs PBFT—Tendermint....
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...Sieve [38], a mechanism used in the HyperLedger Fabric project, augments the PBFT algorithm [26] by adding speculative execution and verification phases, inspired by the execute-verify architecture presented in [39]....
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...Tendermint [32] provides BFT tolerance and is similar to the PBFT algorithm; however it provides a tighter guarantee with regards to the results returned to the client when more than one third of the nodes are faulty, and allows for a dynamically changing set of set of validators, and leaders that can be rotated in a round-robin manner, among other optimizations [33]....
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...PBFT works on the assumption that less than one third of the nodes are faulty (f ), which is why say that it requires at least5 3f + 1 nodes....
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Proceedings Article•
19 Jun 2014TL;DR: Raft is a consensus algorithm for managing a replicated log that separates the key elements of consensus, such as leader election, log replication, and safety, and it enforces a stronger degree of coherency to reduce the number of states that must be considered.
Abstract: Raft is a consensus algorithm for managing a replicated log. It produces a result equivalent to (multi-)Paxos, and it is as efficient as Paxos, but its structure is different from Paxos; this makes Raft more understandable than Paxos and also provides a better foundation for building practical systems. In order to enhance understandability, Raft separates the key elements of consensus, such as leader election, log replication, and safety, and it enforces a stronger degree of coherency to reduce the number of states that must be considered. Results from a user study demonstrate that Raft is easier for students to learn than Paxos. Raft also includes a new mechanism for changing the cluster membership, which uses overlapping majorities to guarantee safety.
1,811 citations
"Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..." refers methods in this paper
...popular Raft algorithm [30], is used as a consensus mechanism in Juno [31]....
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