Blockchain and the Internet of Things: Opportunities and Challenges
Ashwag Albakri · 2021
Since the emergence of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency, Blockchain technology has received substantial attention from researchers, businesses, and governments. Due to its distinctive feature in which a Blockchain allows for the creation of a trustworthy ledger of transactions that is shared by all entities in the network; eliminating the need for a third party to manage the transactions. The blockchain utilizes cryptographic mechanisms to protect tampering with the transactions stored in the ledger. With such features, blockchain technology shows a great potential to be applied to domains other than finance. It can be utilized in healthcare, transportation and smart cities in which data generated from great many devices (i.e., sensors, IoTs) needs to be stored and managed in a secure way. Throughout this paper, we will discuss how Blockchain could provide security services in environments that encompass IoT devices. We will further explore the possible integration of these two technologies and challenges.