Public Blockchain-Based Data Integrity Verification for Low-Power IoT Devices

Abstract

The integration of sensor nodes with public blockchains is possible with the help of low-power communication networks that use Bluetooth low energy and long range. However, power-consuming Wi-Fi is still the main means of communication for the existing sensor nodes, especially in urban environments. Typically high power consumption, private key disclosure, and high transaction fees are the issues that prevent battery-powered sensor nodes from being integrated with a public blockchain. Therefore, this article proposes a data protection protocol that is able to secure the data integrity of the stored sensor data, help to reduce transaction fees, and prolong battery life for IoT devices that are used with public blockchain networks. A proof of concept is presented using an ESP32S2 device to evaluate and verify the performance of the proposed data storage protocol. A smart contract is designed and analyzed using a formal smart contract analysis tool. A decentralized Web application is designed to display and verify the sensor data extracted from the public blockchain. The power consumption, memory usage, and security of the proposed solution are evaluated. The evaluation results show that data integrity can be achieved even for low-power sensor nodes that connect to public blockchains via Wi-Fi network.