Wi-Fi-Dependent Consensus Mechanism for Constrained Devices Using Blockchain Technology

Abstract

Consensus mechanisms are at the core of any Distributed Ledger Technology. They define how transactions are validated and verified, how the network resolves conflicts and protects against malicious intent, and how multiple devices on a distributed network with no central authority arrive at the same global view of the ledger. Experience with the consensus mechanisms employed in popular blockchain platforms have warranted years of research into more scalable and energy-efficient consensus mechanisms for a green society using constrained devices. Most of the 'high-security' consensus mechanisms require the use of computational resources which are simply not available to devices with a constrained nature. Hence, the presence and activity of these devices do not contribute to the security of the ledger, irrespective of how numerous they are on the network. In this paper, we propose a novel consensus scheme, fully dependent on WiFi technology, suitable for constrained devices. Whilst in traditional Blockchain consensus mechanisms, constrained devices do not add to the security of the ledger, the security of our consensus mechanism increases with the number of connected devices.