Prototype Implementation and Evaluation of a Blockchain Component on IoT Devices

With the greater availability and reduced dimensions of complex electronics, an Internet of Things (IoT) will emerge in the future, in which machines use sensors to collect and evaluate information about the physical world and share it with other machines without having to rely on human interaction. Blockchain technology encompasses features such as trustworthiness and decentralization and these features can be advantageous in the IoT context, as they can help to ensure data integrity in an Internet of Things unmonitored by humans. In the course of this paper, we investigate to what extent the use of blockchain technology is feasible for autonomous devices in IoT. For this purpose, a prototypical client blockchain component is built using the single-board computer Raspberry Pi and a simulated Ethereum blockchain. This prototype will be examined for aspects like proper functionality, response times and performance.