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Electronics
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Blockchain Technology and Distributed Applications (DApps)
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Blockchain Technology and Distributed Applications (DApps)

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Computer Science & Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2023) | Viewed by 19861

Special Issue Editor

Dr. ‪Asma Khatoon

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Guest Editor
Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland
Interests: consumer electronics; Internet of Things; autonomous systems; medical device technology; energy systems; deep learning; computer vision; energy efficiency; e-health; embedded systems; AI and blockchain technology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The blockchain algorithm is used to construct a tamper-proof distributed ledger that stores transactions generated by peer-to-peer network nodes and settled upon via a distributed consensus algorithm, eliminating the need for any centralized authority. Blockchain technology has the potential to transform our societal and economic structure by ensuring stable transactions between untrustworthy individuals, lowering transaction costs, and standardizing many processes. IoTs, networking sites, healthcare, voting systems, energy sector, medical device standardization, telecommunications, and other fields would all benefit from such a technology. Although several applications have already been exploiting its disruptive full potential, additional technological innovation is needed, both theoretically and practically, for several important elements, such as scalability, reliability, safety, ledger organization, and support for complex applications.

Different research areas are rapidly gaining traction, including the concept of modern blockchain protocols, the implementation of transaction analytical methods, and the advancement of new applications. New consensus mechanism algorithms to increase the scalability of proposed systems, such as off the chain records, peer to peer protocols, new permissioned and permission-less private/public frameworks, and new ledger architectures are all included in the scope of new protocols. Strategies for analyzing blockchain transactions can be used to monitor criminal activity and conduct financial analysis on digital currencies. Inventory management, IoTs, e-healthcare, communications, social networking, intrusion detection, energy efficiency, standardization, medical device lifecycle monitoring, and other blockchain innovative applications are among the areas where new technologies based on blockchain are being developed.

This Special Issue provides a forum for the presentation of both theoretical and practical studies in all the abovementioned research areas. The aim of this proposed Special Issue is to promote research in the area of blockchain technology. Contributions on all aspects of blockchain technology and distributed applications are welcome for submission to this Special Issue.

The topics of research interest include but are not limited to the following areas:

  • Blockchain applications for healthcare systems
  • DLT protocols for medical device regulations and standardization, including SaMD;
  • Blockchain in the area of the energy sector;
  • Blockchain and DLT mechanism for Internet of Things and embedded devices;
  • Blockchain and 5G-enabled Internet of Things;
  • DLT and the fintech Industry;
  • Blockchain role for security and privacy in communication networks;
  • Blockchain and its scalability and consensus protocols;
  • Blockchain suitability for low-power devices and infrastructures;
  • DLT for real-time monitoring systems for air pollution and climate change;
  • Blockchain and AI-based applications;
  • Blockchain-based smart contracts and DApps;
  • Blockchain for tracking and traceability for the supply chain industry;
  • Peer-to-peer energy trading systems;
  • Blockchain for smart grid;
  • Blockchain and DLT role in mitigating diseases such as COVID-19;
  • Blockchain role in the COVID-19 vaccination process.

Dr. ‪Asma Khatoon
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Blockchain and DLT
  • Proof of work
  • Internet of Things
  • Distributed applications
  • Smart contracts
  • Security and privacy

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 1550 KiB  
Article
Asset Ownership Transfer and Inventory Using RFID UHF TAGS and Ethereum Blockchain NFTs
by Cesar Munoz-Ausecha, Jorge Eliecer Gómez Gómez, Juan Ruiz-Rosero and Gustavo Ramirez-Gonzalez
Electronics 2023, 12(6), 1497; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12061497 - 22 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2043
Abstract
In the present, many organizations grow on a daily basis, using many assets to perform their activities and generate profit. In large organizations, all of these assets must be managed, occasionally leading to challenges depending on the organization’s size. For this reason, the [...] Read more.
In the present, many organizations grow on a daily basis, using many assets to perform their activities and generate profit. In large organizations, all of these assets must be managed, occasionally leading to challenges depending on the organization’s size. For this reason, the role of asset custodian is needed. This role entails assigning the fixed assets to one person for their care, maintenance, and safekeeping. In this process, it is necessary to update information in the central system, leading to further administrative processes, which, in the majority of cases, are carried out through traditional methods. This involves time to obtain wet signatures, a great deal of paperwork, and time for the person or people in charge to update the information. Due to these reasons, the process can be updated partially or entirely to use digital means in order to solve the mentioned inconveniences. This paper presents a proof-of-concept system to offer a modernized and practical solution to this problem using the advantages of blockchain technology, and speeding up the process by using assets identified with UHF RFID technology to permit the reading of many tags that can be embedded and hidden with no need for line-of-sight, allowing fast ownership transfer, using smart contracts in the Ethereum private blockchain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Technology and Distributed Applications (DApps))
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16 pages, 3848 KiB  
Article
Product Authentication Technology Integrating Blockchain and Traceability Structure
by Xiao Gao, Wenyin Zhang, Bin Zhao, Jiqun Zhang, Jiuru Wang and Yilong Gao
Electronics 2022, 11(20), 3314; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11203314 - 14 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2302
Abstract
To tackle the problems of questioning the authenticity of products faced in e-commerce live streaming and the low data integrity in the process of product transactions, the concept of traceability and a product authentication scheme that integrates blockchain technology and traceability are proposed. [...] Read more.
To tackle the problems of questioning the authenticity of products faced in e-commerce live streaming and the low data integrity in the process of product transactions, the concept of traceability and a product authentication scheme that integrates blockchain technology and traceability are proposed. The proposed scheme deploys the product authentication strategy on the Ethereum blockchain in the form of a smart contract and calls the product authentication method on the traceability body by executing the smart contract to realize the authentication of product quality. A combination of on-chain and off-chain is used to store private information to guarantee information integrity. Security analysis results show that the proposed scheme can make the risk of information leakage lower and data security higher under the premise of achieving product certification. A system simulation experiment shows that the solution can meet product certification requirements and have a favorable impact on the live commerce industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Technology and Distributed Applications (DApps))
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16 pages, 1726 KiB  
Article
Isogency Hosmer–Lemeshow Logistic Regression-Based Secured Information Sharing for Pharma Supply Chain
by Anitha P and Srimathi Chandrasekaran
Electronics 2022, 11(19), 3170; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11193170 - 02 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1230
Abstract
Counterfeit drugs are forgery-tagged medicines that are considered to be drugs without vigorous active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). India, being the world’s largest producer of drugs, faces a crucial issue of counterfeits. Moreover, counterfeits identify their path into the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) effortlessly [...] Read more.
Counterfeit drugs are forgery-tagged medicines that are considered to be drugs without vigorous active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). India, being the world’s largest producer of drugs, faces a crucial issue of counterfeits. Moreover, counterfeits identify their path into the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) effortlessly owing to the dearth of security and traceability in the prevailing system. This is because the software applications currently in use stockpile the information about drugs on centralized servers and are accessed by manufacturers, distributors and retailers via the internet. The security of such systems is found to be weak. To address these issues, in this work, a novel method called Supersingular Isogeny and Hosmer–Lemeshow Logistic Regression-based (SI-HLLR) secured information sharing for the pharmaceutical supply chain is proposed. The SI-HLLR method is split into two sections, block validation and authentication. First, with the pharmaceutical sales data provided as input, the supersingular isogeny Diffie–Hellman key exchange model is applied for block validation and then is implemented using a blockchain. Next, with the validated blocks, the authentication mechanism is performed using Hosmer–Lemeshow logistic regression-based authentication that in turn eliminates the counterfeit drugs from the pharmaceutical supply chain. The hyperledger fabric blockchain solution using SI-HLLR leads to improved security ensuring data integrity and better authentication accuracy in the proposed method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Technology and Distributed Applications (DApps))
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32 pages, 12403 KiB  
Article
UI dApps Meet Decentralized Operating Systems
by Rafał Skowroński and Jerzy Brzeziński
Electronics 2022, 11(19), 3004; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11193004 - 22 Sep 2022
Viewed by 7761
Abstract
The advent of Ethereum opened up a pandora box of decentralized possibilities. While allowing for the replicated, decentralized computation of Turing-complete instructions, platforms such as Ethereum do not offer the possibility of direct, interactive, real-time processing of users’ inputs that could later affect [...] Read more.
The advent of Ethereum opened up a pandora box of decentralized possibilities. While allowing for the replicated, decentralized computation of Turing-complete instructions, platforms such as Ethereum do not offer the possibility of direct, interactive, real-time processing of users’ inputs that could later affect the decentralized state machine. They cannot directly observe, replicate and authenticate users’ actions performed in real-time while presenting the results of these. They lack mechanics that would incentivize full-nodes to provide low-latency-constrained services to users in-between epochs of a decentralized state machine, thus pushing dApps’ developers towards hybrid architectures—ones employing centralized servers while not even considering certain applications, due to the aforementioned limitations. In this research paper, we explore our results of an attempt to create a ‘decentralized operating system’ user experience a reality. We propose an architecture which solves the problems of the responsiveness and finalization of multiple actions performed by users in real-time—without the need for users to pre-authenticate but after having presented a single, unitary consent to commit—through the hereby proposed Deferred Authentication mechanism. To allow for this, we employ an in-house developed #GridScript programming language, used by our decentralized state machine, along with a computer-vision-enabled and AI-aided mobile app (available for both iOS and Android). We introduce the concept of Decentralized Processing Threads (DPTs) and see how these enable fascinating possibilities. In addition, we look into how Access-Control-Lists (ACLs)-enabled, incentivized storage, incentivized Sybil-proof communication, embedded firewall apparatus, integrated off-the-chain payments, and crypto-incentivized off-the-chain storage aid such a system and thus render it as feasible. We highlight various interesting troubles we have encountered, such as state recovery after disconnects of the UI and the replication of its state across both nodes maintaining the network and web browsers. We depict ‘off-the-chain’ mechanics, which we use to reward for real-time services provided to users by nodes maintaining the network. We tackle crypto-incentivized WebRTC swarms not needing centralized servers for signaling. We look into a user-friendly approach to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). The test-bed is readily available with multiple functional UI dApps already in place. Indeed, the paper presents UI and UX design decisions we have undertaken based on conclusions from statistical research results on a group of 50,341 volunteers over 4 years, which we have used to formulate what we codenamed as the Venice UI/UX design paradigm. We extend upon the notion of Token Pools to allow for the Sybil-proof incentivization of multiple-peers from a single data structure stored on the decentralized state machine. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Technology and Distributed Applications (DApps))
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23 pages, 1018 KiB  
Article
A Comparative Study of Consensus Mechanisms in Blockchain for IoT Networks
by Zachary Auhl, Naveen Chilamkurti, Rabei Alhadad and Will Heyne
Electronics 2022, 11(17), 2694; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11172694 - 27 Aug 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3387
Abstract
The consensus mechanism is a core component of Blockchain technology, allowing thousands of nodes to agree on a single and consistent view of the Blockchain. A carefully selected consensus mechanism can provide attributes such as fault tolerance and immutability to an application. The [...] Read more.
The consensus mechanism is a core component of Blockchain technology, allowing thousands of nodes to agree on a single and consistent view of the Blockchain. A carefully selected consensus mechanism can provide attributes such as fault tolerance and immutability to an application. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a use case that can take advantage of these unique Blockchain properties. IoT devices are commonly implemented in sensitive domains such as health, smart cities, and supply chains. Resilience and data integrity are important for these domains, as failures and malicious data tampering could be detrimental to the systems that rely on these IoT devices. Additionally, Blockchains are well suited for decentralised networks and networks with high churn rates. A difficulty involved with applying Blockchain technology to the IoT is the lack of computational resources. This means that traditional consensus mechanisms like Proof of Work (PoW) are unsuitable. In this paper, we will compare several popular consensus mechanisms using a set of criteria, with the aim of understanding which consensus mechanisms are suitable for deployment in the IoT, and what trade-offs are required. We show that there are opportunities for both PoW and PoS to be implemented in the IoT, with purpose-made IoT consensus mechanisms like PoSCS and Microchain. Our analysis shows that Microchain and PoSCS have characteristics that are well suited for IoT consensus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Technology and Distributed Applications (DApps))
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22 pages, 1875 KiB  
Article
A Blockchain Storage Architecture Based on Information-Centric Networking
by Hangwei Feng, Jinlin Wang and Yang Li
Electronics 2022, 11(17), 2661; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11172661 - 25 Aug 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1607
Abstract
Blockchain technology is a unique distributed ledger technology that has been widely used in various areas. With the increase in data on the blockchain and the append-only nature of the blockchain, the traditional blockchain’s full replica storage technique leads to blockchain storage scalability [...] Read more.
Blockchain technology is a unique distributed ledger technology that has been widely used in various areas. With the increase in data on the blockchain and the append-only nature of the blockchain, the traditional blockchain’s full replica storage technique leads to blockchain storage scalability problem. Existing methods prioritize minimizing the storage strain on blockchain nodes while ignoring the availability of data, resulting in a lengthy average response time for users to access the blockchain. To address the shortcomings, this paper proposes an Information-Centric Networking-based blockchain storage architecture. The architecture uses the enhanced resolution system for community division to build blockchain node partitions and store blockchain ledgers in the underlying network. It introduces virtual chain for rapid blockchain indexing and adopts a collaborative block replica deletion algorithm across neighboring partitions, including replica number decision based on blockchain access decay characteristics and replica deletion based on resource relationship. Finally, we compare and analyze the proposed blockchain storage architecture with BC-store and KASARASA, and the results demonstrate that this architecture has significantly lower average access time than others. The replica data volume of this method is reduced by 57.2% compared to the full replica policy, but the access time is only 5.2% slower when compared to the full replica policy, which substantially increases the replica storage utilization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Technology and Distributed Applications (DApps))
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