Survey: Research on Blockchain Consensus Mechanism in IoT Security

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) technology, as an important part of a new generation of information technology, is beginning to be applied in more and more fields. However, due to the lack of basic security technology, the Internet of Things is facing a severe information security situation. Blockchain technology, as a new solution that can realize decentralized collaboration in an untrusted network, has a natural fit with IoT, which is inherently distributed. The performance of the blockchain largely depends on the consensus mechanism, but the current research rarely discusses IoT security from the perspective of the consensus mechanism. In this article, we comprehensively analyzed the impact of the consensus mechanism on IoT security. First, we briefly explained the blockchain technology. Next, we analyzed and discussed typical consensus mechanisms. Then, we proposed to classify current IoT security issues from three perspectives: data security, communication security, and application security. Next, we discussed the consensus mechanism of single-chain and multi-chain in IoT. Finally, we analyzed the problems of blockchain consensus in IoT security. In response to the security challenges of IoT, it is proposed to look forward to the optimization of consensus from three perspectives: the optimization of blockchain node evaluation, the optimization of blockchain architecture, and the optimization of blockchain storage. We hope to contribute to the future development and innovation of blockchain in IoT.