Edge Devices and Blockchain Integration in IoT System: A Novel Design Approach

Blockchain, the technology that powers cryptocurrencies, has recently attracted a lot of interest. Numerous applications, including the smart grid and cryptocurrency, have adopted it. Blockchain is unable to handle services that require frequent transactions due to a substantial scalability constraint. Edge computing allows cloud-based resources to be dispersed at the edge of the network, however it presently has difficulties with its decentralized administration and privacy. By providing reliable control and access over the networking, storage and computation dispersed at the edges, edge computing and blockchain integrated into one system could enable computing validity of the blocks and provide huge of number of network servers and ample storage space for data in a secure method. In this paper an insight into blockchain technology is given followed by an introduction about edge computing. Next, the existing architecture about the integrating blockchain and edge computing is discussed and explore the challenges caused by the fusion of blockchain technology with edge computing systems from the angles of scalability and optimizing consensus mechanism. a novel SC-IBEC architecture for integrating blockchain technology with edge computing architecture is presented. Then possible remedies to overcome the existing challenges and how it can be implemented at the different layers of the SC-IBEC architecture. Finally, we list the current difficulties brought on by the combination of blockchain technology with edge computing architecture, as well as any potential future solutions.