An ethereum-based, integrity-first communication protocol for IoT devices

Abstract

The use of IoT devices in smart cities, advanced energy delivery systems, manufacturing plants and transportation systems is rapidly increasing. These systems are often responsible for communicating critical data about infrastructure and system state. Despite the significance of IoT devices, many of these devices lack communication protocols with data integrity as a priority. Without data integrity, these systems become reliant on compromised data, and ultimately fail. Attackers can use these vulnerabilities to wage cyber-physical attacks. The light client is an integrity-first communication protocol for IoT devices based on the Ethereum blockchain. This light client ensures that data is not compromised and is lightweight, at a total memory consumption size of 1.2 MB. Therefore, this light client is distributed, secure, and light enough to fit on many IoT devices and ensure that integrity is maintained where it is needed most [24].