Blockchain of Things for Securing and Managing Water 4.0 Applications

Abstract

The design of a smart water monitoring and control system in urban areas plays a pivotal role in providing efficient distribution mechanisms to reduce leakage, especially in regions facing water scarcity and limited resources. The convergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technology to improve the system’s performance, enhance its security, and provide a decentralized and tamper-proof environment presents an excellent opportunity to evolve the system further and form a state-of-the-art Water 4.0 ecosystem. The proposed Blockchain of Things (BCoT) water system is introduced as a pilot to explore its potential in delivering and managing Water 4.0 applications. An Ethereum platform formed the heart of the BCoT system, while a Raspberry Pi 4 acted as a node to the blockchain that collected data from various sensors and microcontrollers via MQTT programmed by Node-Red. LabVIEW software also provided supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA). The BCoT system was tested, and its functionality was verified, showing good promise to take smart water systems to a new level of innovation that may resolve the many challenges faced by countries with limited water resources and address the challenges of the 21st-century “Water 4.0” ecosystem.