Public Blockchains for Resource-Constrained IoT Devices—A State-of-the-Art Survey

Abstract

Although blockchain offers a lot of benefits for the Internet-of-Things (IoT) network in terms of security, there are a number of barriers to its widespread adoption. Since many IoT networks consist of battery-powered devices with limited computing capabilities, one of those adoption barriers is the IoT end node itself. Several articles provided a general survey of the blockchain integration with IoT applications. However, a detailed analysis of this integration is missing, possible challenges are omitted, and no solutions that would enable the integration are presented. Furthermore, none of the surveys focused on reviewing public blockchains for IoT devices with low computational capabilities and limited energy resources. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide the results of an in-depth study that covers challenges faced by existing public blockchains with IoT device integration. This article looks into resource-constrained IoT device classification and the wireless communication protocols used by them. It examines challenges that are required to be overcome for the successful integration of resource-constrained IoT end nodes with existing public blockchains. It then looks at the proposed solutions and their feasibility. A detailed review of possible security attacks on an IoT blockchain network is provided. As a result, a list of important characteristics that a public blockchain should possess in order to be integrated with a resource-constrained IoT network is proposed. Finally, the requirements for the IoT end nodes themselves are specified.