Smart contracts for the Internet of Things: opportunities and challenges
This addresses security and interoperability challenges in IoT systems for stakeholders managing device data, but it is incremental as it builds on existing blockchain concepts.
The paper tackles the problem of managing information from Internet of Things (IoT) devices across diverse domains and stakeholders by proposing smart contract and blockchain technologies as a solution, resulting in improved security and information management with specific recommendations and guidelines.
With the Internet of Things (IoT), Things are expected to live in different "domains" and "contexts" during their lifetime. Information generated by and associated with Things should be manageable by multiple, diverse stakeholders accordingly. Moreover, the scope of the information related to Things can range from private and confidential to public and auditable. Identification, security, and interoperability in this vivid environment are expected to be challenging. In this paper we discuss how smart contracts and blockchain technologies create the potential for a viable solution. To this end, we present smart contract-based solutions that improve security and information management, we identify new opportunities and challenges, and we provide security recommendations and guidelines.