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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07 Mar 2019
TL;DR: This paper lays out an architecture for incorporating a concept similar to Blockchain - the technology that underpins the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies to provide decentralized security and privacy for IoT devices.
Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) devices currently rely on centralized, brokered communication models which call for a number of security flaws and threats. Privacy & security remain a challenge owing to the existing systems being centralized - creating a single point of failure. In this paper, we lay out an architecture for incorporating a concept similar to Blockchain - the technology that underpins the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies to provide decentralized security and privacy for IoT devices. Currently, the issue with most IoT devices is that they lack the processing power, storage and computational overhead to run consensus algorithms to be an active part of the Blockchain network. The current issue with the blockchain on the other hand, is its low scalability and low number of transactions per second. We present an innovative approach using a technology called IOTA. This addresses some of the most important problems with existing blockchain infrastructure such as being able to run on lightweight devices with constrained memory. We eliminate transaction fees and the concept of mining which requires a large amount of processing power to compete with other miners. IOTA's main component is the Tangle, a guided acyclic graph (DAG) for transaction storage. We discuss creation of two IoT applications on the tangle - a smart utility meter system and a smart car transaction system which are connected to internet through Low Power Wide Area IoT networks.
54 citations
Cites background from "Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..."
...In [16], there is a discussion of combining IoT with blockchains, but this does not specifically focus on the privacy and security challenges of 2019 6th International Conference on Signal Processing and Integrated Networks (SPIN)...
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TL;DR: It is argued that the QoS measurement of IoT-based services would be decentralized and the trusts be built from collectively trusted subnetworks, and the blockchain technologies (BCT) with a multi-agent approach to warrantee the trustiness of real-time data for the measurement of QoS in the IoT environment.
Abstract: Owing to the exponential growth of Internet of Things (IoTs), ensure that the Quality of Service (QoS) over IoT becomes challenges at the network edge or on cloud. The traditional mechanisms for QoS measurements rely on the centralized trusted third parties who use specialized agents to collect data and measure the performances of services. However, these mechanisms are ineffective to deal with highly dynamic and distributed nature of IoT-based services. Moreover, the dynamism of QoS needs to collect, update, and access reliable quality relevant data frequently, while lacking trust becomes a major hurdle for data utilization. It is our argument that the QoS measurement of IoT-based services would be decentralized and the trusts be built from collectively trusted subnetworks. In this paper, we propose to integrate the blockchain technologies (BCT) with a multi-agent approach to warrantee the trustiness of real-time data for the measurement of QoS in the IoT environment. The proposed approach is verified by some demonstrative examples in addressing QoS specification patterns commonly found in service-based applications (SBAs), where qualitative analyses are conducted for the evaluation of the patterns.
54 citations
Additional excerpts
...Christidis and Michael [35] emphasized the broadness...
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...Christidis and Michael [35] emphasized the broadness of potentials BCT in IoT from technological and business perspectives....
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TL;DR: This work provides a conceptual framework for the different ways business can play a role in facilitating measurement of SDGs, and trust in these measurements, by harnessing technology.
54 citations
TL;DR: A stochastic blockchain scheme to limit the number of cooperative nodes and distribute the load to IoT edge nodes and propose a lightweight mining process to make only the IoT edge node compete for block generation and share the block with other nodes.
Abstract: This paper proposes a blockchain-based data checking scheme to protect data integrity in Internet of Things (IoT). Traditional data integrity schemes such as symmetric key approaches and public key infrastructure (PKI) suffer from the single-point of failure and network congestion due to the centralized architecture. Motivated by the distributed data authentication in blockchain, we propose to adopt blockchain to ensure the data integrity in IoT networks. However, the existing blockchain scheme cannot be directly applied to IoT nodes with limited computing and network resources. Hence, we develop a stochastic blockchain scheme to limit the number of cooperative nodes and distribute the load to IoT edge nodes. In our scheme, the IoT data are broadcast by randomly selected cooperative nodes, thereby introducing uncertainty to the attacker and improving the system security level. Finally, we propose a lightweight mining process to make only the IoT edge nodes compete for block generation and share the block with other nodes. If our scheme is used in the case of having 9,000 legitimate nodes and 1,000 compromised nodes, only three cooperative nodes can achieve the probability of successful defense over 99 percent.
54 citations
Cites background from "Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..."
...The authors of [13] discussed the potential of blockchain-IoT combination for smart contracts....
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TL;DR: HyperNet, a novel decentralized trusted computing and networking paradigm, is proposed, to meet the challenge of loss of control over data and has the potential to transform the current communication-based information system to the future data-oriented information society.
Abstract: With the development of the Internet of Things, a complex CPS system has emerged and is becoming a promising information infrastructure. In the CPS system, the loss of control over user data has become a very serious challenge, making it difficult to protect privacy, boost innovation, and guarantee data sovereignty. In this article, we propose HyperNet, a novel decentralized trusted computing and networking paradigm, to meet the challenge of loss of control over data. HyperNet is composed of the intelligent PDC, which is considered as the digital clone of a human individual; the decentralized trusted connection between any entities based on blockchain as well as smart contract; and the UDI platform, enabling secure digital object management and an identifier-driven routing mechanism. HyperNet has the capability of protecting data sovereignty, and has the potential to transform the current communication-based information system to the future data-oriented information society.
54 citations
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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