Implementation of a Smart Contract on a Consortium Blockchain for IoT Applications

Abstract

Advancements in cryptography and computer science have given birth to blockchain technology. One of the most exciting evolutions of blockchain is the advancements in smart contract technology. Smart contracts can be used for a broad range of use cases, not just financial transactions. Smart contract technology on the public blockchain, represented by Ethereum, due to its public and opaque nature, is not a good choice for many scenarios that do not require full disclosure, such as many IoT applications. On the other hand, the existing blockchain smart contract system still has a strong connection with virtual currency, which also limits its application in non-financial scenarios. In order to solve the above problems and explore more of the potential of smart contracts for the IoT application domain, this paper mainly explores the construction of a smart contract system based on consortium blockchains associated with no virtual currency. Based on the smart contract system designed in this project, blockchain can be more easily applied in payment, product traceability, authority authentication, and other fields. Through a certain centralized way, the system is easier to manage, can reduce the management expenditure, and the power and other resource consumption is less, which is conducive to environmental protection. Results show that our smart contract system has the potential for IoT usage in the future.

Evaluative Exploration of Data Monetisation Platform Capabilities

“…Users earn by selling access to their data to vetted companies through the platform [27]. This direct-to-consumer approach not only maximises the potential earnings for users but also ensures that the data companies use is high-quality and ethically sourced [28]. The platform is governed by smart contracts and a robust privacy policy that safeguards user data, reflecting Datawallet's commitment to security and user rights [29].…”

Critical Concerns of Deploying Blockchain in Internet of Things Applications

“…Applications built on blockchain avoid the security issues related to centralized controls [15]. All procedures are registered to protect data security and privacy [16]. The Merkel Tree, a cryptographic hash function, and a blockchain are the three technological components that make up the Bitcoin blockchain, the most popular blockchain platform, as seen in Figure 1 [17].…”

“…The blockchain will use the block header to monitor earlier record histories. The Merkle Tree [16] is a data structure for preserving encrypted secret keys. Blockchain may be divided into two main categories: permissioned (privately accessible) and permissionless (publicly accessible) [18], [19].…”

“…Developing security standards for scripting smart contracts is one area of research for blockchain-based IoT applications [16]. Despite the blockchain's intrinsic security protections, the weak link turns out to be exploitable flaws within smart contracts.…”

“…[36] • Off-chain solutions are still controversial. [16] • Anonymity and auditability, anonymity and scalability tradeoffs. [40] • More solutions and research are required.…”