Abstract In the Internet of Things (IoT) vision, conventional devices become smart and autonomous. This vision is turning into a reality thanks to advances in technology, but there are still challenges to address, particularly in the security domain e.g., data reliability. Taking into account the predicted evolution of the IoT in the coming years, it is necessary to provide confidence in this huge incoming information source. Blockchain has emerged as a key technology that will transform the way in which we share information. Building trust in distributed environments without the need for authorities is a technological advance that has the potential to change many industries, the IoT among them. Disruptive technologies such as big data and cloud computing have been leveraged by IoT to overcome its limitations since its conception, and we think blockchain will be one of the next ones. This paper focuses on this relationship, investigates challenges in blockchain IoT applications, and surveys the most relevant work in order to analyze how blockchain could potentially improve the IoT.
Blockchain, the underlying technology of digital currency, such as Bitcoin, has the characteristics of decentralization, stability, security, anonymity, and nontampering. Blockchain is being applied in an increasing number of fields. Supply chain finance is a financing model in which banks connect core enterprises with upstream and downstream enterprises to provide flexible financial products and services. In the traditional supply chain finance, the core enterprises with strong competitiveness and a large scale play an irreplaceable role in managing the supply chain information flow, logistics, and capital flow, which results in inequality and information asymmetry. Fraud in supply chain finance is also very serious. To solve the problems of the traditional supply chain finance, in this article, we build a new type of supply chain financial platform that uses blockchain technology to manage the whole process. This supply chain financial platform solves the problem of nontrust among the participants in the supply chain, improves the efficiency of the capital flow and information flow, reduces costs, and provides better financial services to the relevant parties in the supply chain. To protect users' privacy, we propose a new method of using homomorphic encryption in the blockchain to meet the needs of sensitive data privacy protection in supply chain financial scenarios.
Due to the popularity of blockchain, there have been many proposed applications of blockchain in the healthcare sector, such as electronic health record (EHR) systems. Therefore, in this paper we perform a systematic literature review of blockchain approaches designed for EHR systems, focusing only on the security and privacy aspects. As part of the review, we introduce relevant background knowledge relating to both EHR systems and blockchain, prior to investigating the (potential) applications of blockchain in EHR systems. We also identify a number of research challenges and opportunities.
Abstract This paper proposes a supply chain game that is composed of two firms, one supplier and one retailer. The supplier sells goods to the retailer and sets the service strategy efforts. The retailer determines the optimal quantity to purchase and the selling price. The supply chain can be managed through either a traditional online platform or a blockchain. In the former, firms face business risks due to delivery and service and also pay high transaction costs. In the latter, they work on a blockchain platform, remove all risks over the supply chain, and save the transaction costs. However, the blockchain requires initial implementation investments as well as variable costs. Furthermore, the firms gain in terms of visibility, transparency, and security, which are summarized in tokens. We identify the conditions and the stochastic cases in which the blockchain is not worth implementing. Then, we investigate the suitability of a smart wholesale price contract and a smart revenue sharing contract to better coordinate firms’ relationships and negotiations. We highlight all cases in which the use of smart contracts makes blockchain applications more operationally convenient and economically appealing.
Abstract Blockchain quickly became an important technology in many applications of precision agriculture discipline. The need to develop smart P2P systems capable of verifying, securing, monitoring, and analyzing agricultural data is leading to thinking about building blockchain-based IoT systems in precision agriculture. Blockchain plays the role of pivotal in replacing the classical methods of storing, sorting and sharing agricultural data into a more reliable, immutable, transparent and decentralized manner. In precision farming, the combination of the Internet of Things and the blockchain will move us from only smart farms only to the internet of smart farms and add more control in supply-chains networks. The result of this combination will lead to more autonomy and intelligence in managing precision agriculture in more efficient and optimized ways. This paper exhibits a comprehensive survey on the importance of integrating both blockchain and IoT in developing smart applications in precision agriculture. The paper also proposed novel blockchain models that can be used as important solutions for major challenges in IoT-based precision agricultural systems. In addition, the study reviewed and clearly discussed the main functions and strengths of the common blockchain platforms used in managing various sub-sectors in precision agriculture such as crops, livestock grazing, and food supply chain. Finally, the paper discussed some of the security and privacy challenges, and blockchain-open issues that obstacles developing blockchain-IoT systems in precision agriculture.
Supply chains are evolving into automated and highly complex networks and are becoming an important source of potential benefits in the modern world. At the same time, consumers are now more interested in food product quality. However, it is challenging to track the provenance of data and maintain its traceability throughout the supply chain network. The traditional supply chains are centralized and they depend on a third party for trading. These centralized systems lack transparency, accountability and auditability. In our proposed solution, we have presented a complete solution for blockchain-based Agriculture and Food (Agri-Food) supply chain. It leverages the key features of blockchain and smart contracts, deployed over ethereum blockchain network. Although blockchain provides immutability of data and records in the network, it still fails to solve some major problems in supply chain management like credibility of the involved entities, accountability of the trading process and traceability of the products. Therefore, there is a need of a reliable system that ensures traceability, trust and delivery mechanism in Agri-Food supply chain. In the proposed system, all transactions are written to blockchain which ultimately uploads the data to Interplanetary File Storage System (IPFS). The storage system returns a hash of the data which is stored on blockchain and ensures efficient, secure and reliable solution. Our system provides smart contracts along with their algorithms to show interaction of entities in the system. Furthermore, simulations and evaluation of smart contracts along with the security and vulnerability analyses are also presented in this work.
In this paper, we propose a novel deep learning and blockchain-based energy framework for smart grids, entitled DeepCoin. The DeepCoin framework uses two schemes, a blockchain-based scheme and a deep learning-based scheme. The blockchain-based scheme consists of five phases: setup phase, agreement phase, creating a block phase and consensus-making phase, and view change phase. It incorporates a novel reliable peer-to-peer energy system that is based on the practical Byzantine fault tolerance algorithm and it achieves high throughput. In order to prevent smart grid attacks, the proposed framework makes the generation of blocks using short signatures and hash functions. The proposed deep learning-based scheme is an intrusion detection system (IDS), which employs recurrent neural networks for detecting network attacks and fraudulent transactions in the blockchain-based energy network. We study the performance of the proposed IDS on three different sources the CICIDS2017 dataset, a power system dataset, and a web robot (Bot)-Internet of Things (IoT) dataset.
E. J. De Aguiar, Bruno S. Faiçal, B. Krishnamachari
et al.
Blockchain technology has been gaining visibility owing to its ability to enhance the security, reliability, and robustness of distributed systems. Several areas have benefited from research based on this technology, such as finance, remote sensing, data analysis, and healthcare. Data immutability, privacy, transparency, decentralization, and distributed ledgers are the main features that make blockchain an attractive technology. However, healthcare records that contain confidential patient data make this system very complicated because there is a risk of a privacy breach. This study aims to address research into the applications of the blockchain healthcare area. It sets out by discussing the management of medical information, as well as the sharing of medical records, image sharing, and log management. We also discuss papers that intersect with other areas, such as the Internet of Things, the management of information, tracking of drugs along their supply chain, and aspects of security and privacy. As we are aware that there are other surveys of blockchain in healthcare, we analyze and compare both the positive and negative aspects of their papers. Finally, we seek to examine the concepts of blockchain in the medical area, by assessing their benefits and drawbacks and thus giving guidance to other researchers in the area. Additionally, we summarize the methods used in healthcare per application area and show their pros and cons.
Abstract The ubiquitous use of Internet of Things (IoT) ranges from industrial control systems to e-Health, e-commerce, smart cities, agriculture, supply chain management, smart cars, cyber-physical systems and a lot more. However, the data collected and processed by IoT systems especially the ones with centralized control are vulnerable to availability, integrity, and privacy threats. Hence, we present “PrivySharing,” a blockchain-based innovative framework for privacy-preserving and secure IoT data sharing in a smart city environment. The proposed scheme is distinct from existing strategies on many aspects. The data privacy is preserved by dividing the blockchain network into various channels, where every channel comprises a finite number of authorized organizations and processes a specific type of data such as health, smart car, smart energy or financial details. Moreover, access to users’ data within a channel is controlled by embedding access control rules in the smart contracts. In addition, data within a channel is further isolated and secured by using private data collection and encryption respectively. Likewise, the REST API that enables clients to interact with the blockchain network has dual security in the form of an API Key and OAuth 2.0. The proposed solution conforms to some of the significant requirements outlined in the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. We also present a system of reward in the form of a digital token named “PrivyCoin” for users sharing their data with stakeholders/third parties. Lastly, the experimental outcomes advocate that a multi-channel blockchain scales well as compared to a single-channel blockchain system.
Abstract Identity management solutions are generally designed to facilitate the management of digital identities and operations such as authentication, and have been widely used in real-world applications. In recent years, there have been attempts to introduce blockchain-based identity management solutions, which allow the user to take over control of his/her own identity (i.e. self-sovereign identity). In this paper, we provide an in-depth review of existing blockchain-based identity management papers and patents published between May 2017 and January 2020. Based on the analysis of the literature, we identify potential research gaps and opportunities, which will hopefully help inform future research agenda.
Abstract Life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely used for assessing the environmental impacts of a product or service. Collecting reliable data is a major challenge in LCA due to the complexities involved in the tracking and quantifying inputs and outputs at multiple supply chain stages. Blockchain technology offers an ideal solution to overcome the challenge in sustainable supply chain management. Its use in combination with internet-of-things (IoT) and big data analytics and visualization can help organizations achieve operational excellence in conducting LCA for improving supply chain sustainability. This research develops a framework to guide the implementation of Blockchain-based LCA. It proposes a system architecture that integrates the use of Blockchain, IoT, and big data analytics and visualization. The proposed implementation framework and system architecture were validated by practitioners who were experienced with Blockchain applications. The research also analyzes system implementation costs and discusses potential issues and solutions, as well as managerial and policy implications.
Muhammad Saad, Jeffrey Spaulding, Laurent L. Njilla
et al.
In this paper, we systematically explore the attack surface of the Blockchain technology, with an emphasis on public Blockchains. Towards this goal, we attribute attack viability in the attack surface to 1) the Blockchain cryptographic constructs, 2) the distributed architecture of the systems using Blockchain, and 3) the Blockchain application context. To each of those contributing factors, we outline several attacks, including selfish mining, the 51% attack, DNS attacks, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, consensus delay (due to selfish behavior or distributed denial-of-service attacks), Blockchain forks, orphaned and stale blocks, block ingestion, wallet thefts, smart contract attacks, and privacy attacks. We also explore the causal relationships between these attacks to demonstrate how various attack vectors are connected to one another. A secondary contribution of this work is outlining effective defense measures taken by the Blockchain technology or proposed by researchers to mitigate the effects of these attacks and patch associated vulnerabilities.
Abstract The growth in the use of blockchain technology in healthcare is remarkable and has a significant impact on the healthcare industry. In this work, the gap between the healthcare industry and blockchain technologies was addressed by evaluating previous activities. Bibliometric analysis of dataset distribution, venues, keywords and citations was conducted to identify the trend of blockchain technology in healthcare. Case studies of telecare medicine information system and E-health were also reviewed and evaluated in terms of security and privacy. This study discussed potential future challenges such as scalability and storage capacity, blockchain size, universal interoperability and standardisation. This work highlighted the motivations of employing blockchain technology in the healthcare industry. Prospects in health data and sharing process, clinical trials, the pharmaceutical industry, big data, artificial intelligence, 5 G ultrasonic device, security and privacy were highlighted.
Effective supply chain traceability is indispensable for ensuring food safety, which is a significant social issue. Traditional traceability systems are mostly based on centralized databases, relying on a single entity or organization and facing problems such as insufficient transparency and the risk of data tampering. To address these issues, many studies have adopted blockchain technology, which offers advantages such as decentralization and immutability. However, challenges such as data credibility and insufficient protection of private data remain. This study proposes a multi-channel architecture based on Blockchain (Hyperledger Fabric in this study), in which data is partitioned and managed across dedicated channels to strengthen the protection of sensitive information. Furthermore, a trust and incentive design is implemented, featuring a trust-value calculation function and a reward–penalty mechanism that encourage participants to upload more truthful data and improve the reliability of data before it is recorded on the blockchain. In this paper, the design and implementation of the proposed system are explained in detail, and its performance is examined using Hyperledger Caliper, a blockchain performance benchmark framework. Functional evaluations indicate that the proposed system can be correctly implemented and that it correctly supports supply chain traceability, trust- and incentive-related, privacy protecting and other functions as designed, while performance evaluations indicate that it can maintain stable performance under higher workloads, suggesting that the proposed approach is practical and applicable to food supply chain traceability scenarios.
ABSTRACT Blockchain is emerging as a trust substrate for multi‐operator communication networks where centralised control can hinder auditability, settlement, and cross‐domain security. This survey consolidates blockchain fundamentals relevant to telecom (consensus, cryptography, smart contracts, and governance) and synthesises how these primitives enable secure logs, automated roaming/settlement, decentralised identity, resource trading, and 5G/6G slicing and edge computing. The authors introduce an end‐to‐end taxonomy that maps blockchain mechanisms to network functions and cross‐cutting constraints and provide comparative evidence from representative studies on performance (latency/throughput), operational cost, and deployment maturity. A structured literature search and screening process over major digital libraries yields a curated corpus spanning 2015–2025, with emphasis on recent advances in permissioned and hybrid designs suited to low‐latency networking. The review identifies persistent gaps – scalability under high churn, energy and hardware overhead, interoperability across chains and legacy control planes, and regulatory compliance – and distils actionable research directions, including AI‐assisted consensus, cross‐chain orchestration for multi‐domain slicing, and privacy‐preserving accountability. Finally, case studies illustrate practical design trade‐offs and highlight when blockchain provides a net benefit over conventional databases.
Abhijeet Ghadge, M. Bourlakis, Sachin S. Kamble
et al.
Research on Blockchain implementation in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chains (PSC) is lacking despite its strong potential to overcome conventional supply chain challenges. Thus, this study aims to provide critical insight into the nexus between Blockchain and PSC and further build a conceptual framework for implementation within the pharmaceutical industry. Following a systematic literature review and text mining approach, 65 interdisciplinary articles published between 2010 and 2021 were studied to capture the decade long developments. Descriptive and thematic analysis showcases nascent developments of Blockchain in PSC. The drivers and barriers to adoption, implementation stages, and applications identified through the thematic analysis guide in setting the agenda for future research, primarily focussing on the use of Blockchain for drug counterfeiting, recall issues, along with other sector-specific challenges such as patient privacy, regulations and clinical trials. Research on Blockchain for PSC has been slow compared to other sectors, but has accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic. Identified influential factors, implementation process and apparent applications are expected to influence researchers and practitioners in developing a roadmap for adopting Blockchain in the pharmaceutical industry. The proposed conceptual framework is novel and provides valuable directions to producers, regulators and governments to implement Blockchain in the pharmaceutical industry.