Lightweight Trust Management Scheme Based on Blockchain in Resource-Constrained Intelligent IoT Systems

In order to realize an intelligent IoT system, various resource-constrained IoT devices today play an important role in data transmission and processing. However, the novel data protection requirements appear since constrained resources like computation power or energy of IoT devices cannot support classic data protection methods like encryption algorithms. To tackle the above issues, we propose a lightweight Blockchain-Based Trust Management (BBTM) scheme in Resource-constrained Intelligent IoT Systems. The BBTM initially establishes a genesis block at the onset of network operation. Messages transmitted between nodes are recorded as transactions, forming blocks that are linked to the blockchain. As the network operates, nodes’ behaviors are monitored, and their trust values are updated in real-time. When two nodes encounter each other, a credibility formula based method is used to determine trustworthiness based on historical behaviors. Nodes that pass the trust verification utilize asymmetric encryption for message transmission. The primary aim of this scheme is to develop a lightweight, blockchain based secure communication module for Intelligent IoT Systems. It encrypts information using asymmetric cryptography and manages trust during node interactions to ensure security and privacy by blocking malicious or selfish nodes. Compared with the existing solutions, the simulation results show that this scheme can effectively block the attacks from malicious nodes without overly consuming network resources. At the same time, trust verification and encrypted information transmission are effectively managed in resource-constrained intelligent IoT systems.