ABSTRACT
Internet of Things (IoT) has enabled connectivity and intelligence to our day-to-day usage objects with the primary goal of making our lives easier and convenient. IoT consists of networked objects/devices/things that interact with the physical environment to collect, process, analyze and act on data. One major challenge in realizing the full potential of IoT is security. As the number of connected objects is significantly large, providing essential security services like integrity, privacy, authentication, confidentiality and availability becomes even more challenging. The fact that the connected objects have limited processing and power capabilities makes it even more challenging to secure them. The use of cryptographic primitives in blockchain ensures tamper-proof data blocks that are distributed and connected. Blockchain is essentially a decentralized, distributed ledger-based technology that was originally designed for monitoring financial transactions. Apart from security, the other promising features of blockchain include scalability, effective mechanisms to store, manage, track and coordinate multiple devices, reduce operational and maintenance costs and establish trust between anonymous entities. Recently, the extensive focus has been on for developing solutions using blockchain across other domains. One such idea is the use of blockchain for IoT devices. When blockchain is used in IoT, there is a possibility of creating smart devices that can record data in a secure, permanent and verifiable manner. When a network of such devices is created, the devices can autonomously monitor, collect, communicate and make decisions in a secure manner without the need for human intervention. One of the primary design constraints for IoT applications is the over reliance on a centralized cloud infrastructure. Whereas, an approach that accommodates blockchain has no single-point failure as the data are organized and available in multiple blocks. Hence, in this work, the way in which blockchain can be adopted for IoT Security is discussed, starting with the basics of blockchain and the specific requirements of IoT security. The challenges and benefits that can arise when these two technologies are brought together, some guidelines and research directions that will be helpful for researchers and technology enthusiasts who will be developing the applications in the future are also discussed. In this connected era, it is our sincere belief that Security is of at most importance, and combining blockchain with IoT can provide solutions for it.
