Adoption and Application of Blockchain Technology in IoT: Survey and Open Issues

Abstract

The massive expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) in various application domains creates a critical need for security and privacy. Blockchain (BC) is a very promising solution that sets up a decentralized mutual trust relationship between the network nodes, resulting in secure and immutable data exchange. However, adopting and applying such technology in IoT environment is still a challenging issue. In fact, the devices that make up this environment are very constrained in terms of computing, storage, and communication capacity, making their security task a real challenge. This paper focuses on the means of integrating Blockchain technology into IoT networks by analyzing a significant number of recent works in this research area. We highlight some of their strengths and weaknesses according to several comparison criteria. This work ends with some important issues that should be addressed toward a lightweight and efficient IoT-BC integration, followed by recommendations for a potential solution.