Converging blockchain and internet of things

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem is expanding at an unimaginable pace and is applied to every aspect of life. Though no one questions the impact and usefulness of this technology, many criticisms have been coming up these days as many security and privacy issues are made public. At the same time having a central system capable of controlling and maintaining a large number of devices is also an issue faced by the IoT ecosystem. The solution proposed by most of the researchers and industries is to converge the IoT ecosystem with the technology underlying the most secure cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which is called as Blockchain. A blockchain in short is an immutable distributed ledger system. It enables the IoT devices to have data security and privacy without needing a central authority. This paper studies what are the issues IoT ecosystem is currently facing and how a blockchain can help to solve it, the relevance of blockchain-IoT convergence, and the areas where this can be applied. The companies who are developing products based on this new technology and various challenges this technology is facing right now is also explored in this paper.