Quantum-Resilient Blockchain for Secure Transactions in UAV-Assisted Smart Agriculture Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a quantum-resistant blockchain framework tailored for UAV-assisted smart agriculture, enhancing security, efficiency, and trust in data transactions amidst quantum threats.

Contribution

It proposes a novel post-quantum cryptographic blockchain with a lightweight consensus protocol optimized for UAV networks, addressing security and performance challenges.

Findings

Outperforms existing schemes in throughput and energy efficiency.

Demonstrates strong resistance to quantum attacks.

Enables scalable and secure data sharing in smart agriculture.

Abstract

The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into smart agriculture has enabled real-time monitoring, data collection, and automated farming operations. However, the high mobility, decentralized nature, and low-power communication of UAVs pose significant security challenges, particularly in ensuring transaction integrity and trust. This paper presents a quantum-resilient blockchain framework designed to secure data and resource transactions in UAV-assisted smart agriculture networks. The proposed solution incorporates post-quantum cryptographic primitives-specifically lattice-based digital signatures and key encapsulation mechanisms to achieve tamper-proof, low-latency consensus without relying on traditional computationally intensive proof-of-work schemes. A lightweight consensus protocol tailored for UAV communication constraints is developed, and transaction validation is handled through a trust-ranked, multi-layer ledger maintained by edge nodes. Experimental results from simulations using NS-3 and custom blockchain testbeds show that the framework outperforms existing schemes in terms of transaction throughput, energy efficiency, and resistance to quantum attacks. The proposed system provides a scalable, secure, and sustainable solution for precision agriculture, enabling trusted automation and resilient data sharing in post-quantum eras.