Integration of blockchain in smart systems: problems and opportunities for real-time sensor data storage

TL;DR

This paper investigates the challenges and opportunities of integrating blockchain technology into real-time sensor data storage for smart systems, highlighting scalability and delay issues and proposing experimental insights.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental setup and analysis for blockchain in smart systems, addressing key challenges and discussing potential solutions.

Findings

Blockchain offers data security and auditability for smart systems.

Scalability and transactional delays hinder blockchain's real-time sensor data use.

Experimental analysis reveals practical benefits and limitations.

Abstract

The internet of things (IoT) and other emerging ubiquitous technologies are supporting the rapid spread of smart systems, which has underlined the need for safe, open, and decentralized data storage solutions. With its inherent decentralization and immutability, blockchain offers itself as a potential solution for these requirements. However, the practicality of incorporating blockchain into real-time sensor data storage systems is a topic that demands in-depth examination. While blockchain promises unmatched data security and auditability, some intrinsic qualities, namely scalability restrictions, transactional delays, and escalating storage demands, impede its seamless deployment in high-frequency, voluminous data contexts typical of real-time sensors. This essay launches a methodical investigation into these difficulties, illuminating their underlying causes, potential effects, and potential countermeasures. In addition, we present a novel pragmatic experimental setup and analysis of blockchain for smart system applications, with an extended discussion of the benefits and disadvantages of deploying blockchain based solutions for smart system ecosystems.