Blockchain For Internet of Things: A Consensus Mechanism Analysis

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly expanding, resulting in an exponential growth of IoT devices and an increasing need for secure data storage. Currently, data management and device interaction for IoT devices are centralized, with a central server managing the storage functions. As a novel data storage solution, blockchain technology offers security through its inherent features, such as distributivity, decentralization, immutability, and consensus mechanisms. Consensus mechanisms represents the rule set imposed by the blockchain network on the IoT devices to enhance network security. In this paper, we analyzed three types of consensus mechanisms - Proof of Work, Proof of Stake, and Proof of Authority - to determine which is best suited for use in IoT data storage solution that uses blockchain. Thus, we evaluated the consensus mechanisms on public blockchain test networks using three metrics: transaction latency, average block time, and average query time. Our obtained results show the PoS and PoA consensus mechanisms are more appropriate for IoT, exhibiting lower transaction latency, lower average block time and query time when compared to the PoW mechanism. This suggests that PoS and PoA are promising alternatives for blockchain-based IoT systems that require energy-efficient and low-latency transactions.