Blockchain Consensus Mechanisms and Their Applications in IoT: A Literature Survey

With the advance of blockchain technology, blockchain has been used in many fields. As a point-to-point network with characteristics of traceability, decentralization, de-trust and so on, blockchain technology is suitable for deploying Internet of Things networks. It provides the opportunity for the prosperity of IoT networks. As a key component of blockchain, blockchain consensus mechanism is worth studying. In this paper, we systematically survey blockchain consensus mechanisms from the perspective of Internet of Things networks requirements. We first introduce the requirements of consensus mechanisms in IoT networks to help researchers understand the connection of blockchain consensus mechanisms and IoT. Then we divide the blockchain consensus mechanism into four categories, namely, consensus mechanisms for security, consensus mechanisms for scalability, consensus mechanisms for energy saving, and consensus mechanisms for performance improvement. We further analyze those blockchain consensus mechanisms and point out the potential direction of blockchain consensus designs based on our observation. The target of this paper is to provide insights for researchers into the future development of blockchain consensus mechanisms in IoT and encourage more efforts in this field.

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