Editorial: Blockchain in Industrial IoT Applications: Security and Privacy Advances, Challenges, and Opportunities

Blockchain is an emerging technology that has widespread applications, such as those relating to Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial IoT (IIoT). While there are many (potential) applications of blockchain in IIoT (the focus of this special issue), there are a number of ongoing challenges. For example, blockchain technology provides a solution to ensure a trust relationship without a centralized entity. However, such technology is still under development and suffers from a number of limitations and challenges during implementation, such as computational costs (e.g., mining), security (e.g., attacks such as distributed denial-of-service attacks, and theft of content). In an IIoT application, such as smart cities, Industry 4.0, and in military and battlefield context (also referred to as Internet of battlefield things and Internet of Military Things), there are more factors that need to be taken into consideration in the design of blockchain-based solutions. Therefore, in the following sections we will describe the advances presented in the editorial accepted in this special issue, designed to address different security and privacy challenges associated with the deployment of blockchain-based solutions in an IIoT setting.