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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23 Apr 2018
TL;DR: This paper proposes an IoT ledger-based architecture to ensure access control on heterogeneous scenarios and performs performance evaluation focused on access control of IoT devices and on information propagation through peers on a private IoT network scenario.
Abstract: Due to increased number of attacks on the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the security of IoT networks became critical. Some recent researches proposed the adoption of blockchain in IoT networks without a thorough discussion on the impact of the solution on the devices performance. Furthermore, blockchain employment in the context of IoT can be challenging due to the devices hardware limitations. To fill this gap, this paper proposes an IoT ledger-based architecture to ensure access control on heterogeneous scenarios. This research applies conventional devices used on IoT networks, such as Arduino, Raspberry and Orange Pi boards. Finally, we perform performance evaluation focused on access control of IoT devices and on information propagation through peers on a private IoT network scenario.
46 citations
Cites methods from "Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..."
...Despite the application examples evaluated in Christidis’ research, none of them applied blockchain as an identity manager or authentication service....
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...One evaluation of consensus algorithms is presented in Christidis [12] research....
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TL;DR: The topic of integration of differential privacy in each layer of blockchain and in certain blockchain based scenarios is covered and some future challenges and application scenarios in which integration of different privacy in blockchain can produce fruitful results are highlighted.
46 citations
Cites background from "Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..."
...Similarly, the authors in [7] discussed overcoming transactional privacy (e....
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TL;DR: A generalized framework for multi-domain service orchestration using blockchain-based DApps is presented and discussed and proof-of-concept prototype experiments based on best of breed open source components that demonstrate DApp functionalities as candidate enablers of multi- domain network services are showcased.
Abstract: Evolving networking scenarios include multi-administrative domain network services as drivers of novel business opportunities along with emerging operational challenges. As a potential approach to tackle upcoming requirements providing basic primitives to encompass analytics, automation, and distributed orchestration, we investigate blockchain-based decentralized applications (DApps) in the context of operational phases in support of multi-administrative domain networking. We present and discuss a generalized framework for multi-domain service orchestration using blockchain-based DApps and then showcase proof-of-concept prototype experiments based on best of breed open source components that demonstrate DApp functionalities as candidate enablers of multi-domain network services. We then analyze three use case scenarios pursued by ongoing work at standards development organizations, namely MEF, 3GPP, and ETSI NFV, discussing standardization opportunities around blockchain-based DApps.
46 citations
Cites background from "Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..."
...Concerning Internet of Things (IoT), [4] and [11] investigate the use of blockchains to securely facilitate the sharing of services and resources, possibly automating time-consuming workflows and improving operational metrics....
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...Relevant blockchain literature include [4], [5], [6]....
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Proceedings Article•
01 Jan 2017TL;DR: This paper proposes a novel Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) based on a semantic blockchain for registration, discovery, selection and payment, implemented as smart contracts, allowing distributed execution and trust.
Abstract: Generally scarce computational and memory resource availability is a well known problem for the IoT, whose intrinsic volatility makes complex applications unfeasible. Noteworthy efforts in overcoming unpredictability (particularly in case of large dimensions) are the ones integrating Knowledge Representation technologies to build the so-called Semantic Web of Things (SWoT). In spite of allowed advanced discovery features, transactions in the SWoT still suffer from not viable trust management strategies. Given its intrinsic characteristics, blockchain technology appears as interesting from this perspective: a semantic resource/service discovery layer built upon a basic blockchain infrastructure gains a consensus validation. This paper proposes a novel Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) based on a semantic blockchain for registration, discovery, selection and payment. Such operations are implemented as smart contracts, allowing distributed execution and trust. Reported experiments early assess the sustainability of the proposal.
46 citations
Cites background or methods from "Blockchains and Smart Contracts for..."
...To the best of our knowledge no other automated semantic-based discovery approach for blockchain systems exists; we claim it has the potential of a clear improvement in flexibility and quality of discovery w.r.t. existing discovery approaches mutuated from the Domain Name System (DNS) [3]....
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...The simplest approaches rely on transactional ledgers for asset transfer, which grant high troughput with low costs [3]....
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...Emerging distributed file systems, billing services and other blockchain-based tools can be leveraged as an application-agnostic machine-to-machine middleware layer for running IoT resource/service marketplaces with minimal or no human intervention [3]....
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...A wider discussion of blockchain technology is in [3]....
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...The reliability of such a structure comes from the fact that every transaction is trusted by consensus of the majority of entities acting in the system through the execution of smart contracts [3], i....
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Patent•
15 May 2017
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe techniques that use devices with corresponding identity wallet applications that execute on an electronic processor device of the devices, and which identity wallets store identity information and encrypt the stored identity information.
Abstract: Disclosed are techniques that use devices with corresponding identity wallet applications that execute on an electronic processor device of the devices, and which identity wallets store identity information and encrypt the stored identity information. A distributed ledger system, and a broker system that interfaces to the wallet and the distributed ledger are used for various information exchange cases pertaining to access to facilities. In particular, disclosed is a registration process to register an identity wallet with a facility.
46 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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