Designing a Blockchain Based Framework for IoT Data Trade

With its application ranging from smart homes and wearables to smart vehicles and smart cities, Internet of Things(IoT) devices have become an integral part of our lives. These devices are enabled with sensing and networking facilities and generate an enormous amount of data, which can be highly valuable for various stakeholders of the system. Enabling the regulated exchange of IoT generated data can enhance the overall efficiency of the IoT based eco-system. However, the current state of the art data exchange frameworks is highly centralized, making it prone to a single point of failure and security breaches. Moreover, the cloud-based systems lack transparency and provide the owners of the IoT devices limited control over the data being exchanged, thus raising the privacy concerns of an individual. Also, the device owners, most of the time, are deprived of receiving proper incentives in exchange for their shared data. Blockchain Technology, with its inherent characteristics of being transparent, decentralized, always available along with smart contracts, can be one of the potential solutions for the problems mentioned above. In this work, we propose, analyze, and discuss a blockchain-based decentralized framework for IoT data trade.