Blockchain Applicability for the Internet of Things: Performance and Scalability Challenges and Solutions

Abstract: Blockchain has recently been able to draw wider attention throughout the research community. Since its emergence, the world has seen the mind-blowing expansion of this new technology, which was initially developed as a pawn of digital currency more than a decade back. A self-administering ledger that ensures extensive data immutability over the peer-to-peer network has made it attractive for cybersecurity applications such as a sensor-enabled system called the Internet of things (IoT). Brand new challenges and questions now demand solutions as huge IoT devices are now online in a distributed fashion to ease our everyday lives. After being motivated by those challenges, the work here has figured out the issues and perspectives an IoT infrastructure can suffer because of the wrong choice of blockchain technology. Though it may look like a typical review, however, unlike that, this paper targets sorting out the specific security challenges of the blockchain-IoT eco-system through critical findings and applicable use-cases. Therefore, the contribution includes directing Blockchain architects, designers, and researchers in the broad domain to select the unblemished combinations of Blockchain-powered IoT applications. In addition, the paper promises to bring a deep insight into the state-of-the-art Blockchain platforms, namely Ethereum, Hyperledger, and IOTA, to exhibit the respective challenges, constraints, and prospects in terms of performance and scalability.