Integration of Blockchain and Cloud of Things: Architecture, Applications and Challenges

TL;DR

This paper reviews the integration of blockchain with Cloud of Things, highlighting its architecture, applications in various domains, recent developments, and future research challenges.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of BCoT architecture, applications, recent advancements, and identifies key challenges and future directions in the field.

Findings

BCoT enhances decentralization, privacy, and security in IoT applications.

BCoT enables scalable and elastic cloud-based IoT solutions.

The paper identifies key research challenges and future directions for BCoT.

Abstract

The blockchain technology is taking the world by storm. Blockchain with its decentralized, transparent and secure nature has emerged as a disruptive technology for the next generation of numerous industrial applications. One of them is Cloud of Things enabled by the combination of cloud computing and Internet of Things. In this context, blockchain provides innovative solutions to address challenges in Cloud of Things in terms of decentralization, data privacy and network security, while Cloud of Things offer elasticity and scalability functionalities to improve the efficiency of blockchain operations. Therefore, a novel paradigm of blockchain and Cloud of Things integration, called BCoT, has been widely regarded as a promising enabler for a wide range of application scenarios. In this paper, we present a state-of-the-art review on the BCoT integration to provide general readers with an overview of the BCoT in various aspects, including background knowledge, motivation, and integrated architecture. Particularly, we also provide an in-depth survey of BCoT applications in different use-case domains such as smart healthcare, smart city, smart transportation and smart industry. Then, we review the recent BCoT developments with the emerging blockchain and cloud platforms, services, and research projects. Finally, some important research challenges and future directions are highlighted to spur further research in this promising area.