Blockchain and IPFS Based Service Model for the Internet of Things

In this paper, blockchain and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) based service model is proposed for Internet of Things (IoT). In the IoT, nodes' credentials and generated data are stored on the IPFS in a hashed format. In order to ensure the security of data, encrypted hash is stored on the blockchain. However, blockchain is very expensive for storing the large amount of data. While, in the case of centralized database, there is a possibility of data tampering and information leakage. Moreover, a service model is proposed for sharing the services from the service providers to the consumers. In addition, a product consensus mechanism is performed between admin and user which is replaced with a blockchain service model. Due to this, consumers send the request to the service provider through blockchain for the required services. Though, peer and minor nodes' involvement in consensus mechanisms, hinder in finding the service provider. Moreover, existing scheme is computationaly expensive and delay occurs due to the lengthy procedure of verification and consensus. Here, blockchain is used to record the evidence of the services. Also, a service verification scheme is designed using the Secure Hash Algorithm-256 (SHA-256). Furthermore, the smart contract is utilized to settle disputes between consumers and service providers. The simulation results show that Proof of Authority consumes less gas and has low latency as compared to Proof of Work, which represents the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed solution.