scholarly journals An Incentive-based Mechanism for Volunteer Computing Using Blockchain

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Ismaeel Al Ridhawi ◽  
Moayad Aloqaily ◽  
Yaser Jararweh
Keyword(s):  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Secure Communication ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Volunteer Computing ◽  
Resource Usage ◽  
Content Filtering ◽  
Computing Device ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Smart Agriculture ◽  
Industrial Solutions

The rise of fast communication media both at the core and at the edge has resulted in unprecedented numbers of sophisticated and intelligent wireless IoT devices. Tactile Internet has enabled the interaction between humans and machines within their environment to achieve revolutionized solutions both on the move and in real-time. Many applications such as intelligent autonomous self-driving, smart agriculture and industrial solutions, and self-learning multimedia content filtering and sharing have become attainable through cooperative, distributed, and decentralized systems, namely, volunteer computing. This article introduces a blockchain-enabled resource sharing and service composition solution through volunteer computing. Device resource, computing, and intelligence capabilities are advertised in the environment to be made discoverable and available for sharing with the aid of blockchain technology. Incentives in the form of on-demand service availability are given to resource and service providers to ensure fair and balanced cooperative resource usage. Blockchains are formed whenever a service request is initiated with the aid of fog and mobile edge computing (MEC) devices to ensure secure communication and service delivery for the participants. Using both volunteer computing techniques and tactile internet architectures, we devise a fast and reliable service provisioning framework that relies on a reinforcement learning technique. Simulation results show that the proposed solution can achieve high reward distribution, increased number of blockchain formations, reduced delays, and balanced resource usage among participants, under the premise of high IoT device availability.

scholarly journals Cloud Health Resource Sharing Based on Consensus-Oriented Blockchain Technology: Case Study on a Breast Tumor Diagnosis Service (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaobao Zhu ◽  
Jing Shi ◽  
Cuiyuan Lu
Keyword(s):  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Breast Tumor ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Cloud Service ◽  
Tumor Diagnosis ◽  
Consensus Algorithm ◽  
Health Resource ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Proposed Model

BACKGROUND In recent years, researchers have made significant efforts in advancing blockchain technology. This technology, with distinct features of decentralization and security, can be applied to many fields. In areas of health data and resource sharing, applications of blockchain technology are also emerging. OBJECTIVE In this study, we propose a cloud health resource-sharing model based on consensus-oriented blockchain technology and have developed a simulation study on breast tumor diagnosis. METHODS The proposed platform is built on a consortium or federated blockchain that possesses features of both centralization and decentralization. The consensus mechanisms generate operating standards for the proposed model. Open source Ethereum code is employed to provide the blockchain environment. Proof of Authority is selected as the consensus algorithm of block generation. RESULTS Based on the proposed model, a simulation case study for breast tumor classification is constructed. The simulation includes 9893 service requests from 100 users; 22 service providers are equipped with 22 different classification methods. Each request is fulfilled by a service provider recommended by the weighted k-nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithm. The majority of service requests are handled by 9 providers, and provider service evaluation scores tend to stabilize. Also, user priority on KNN weights significantly affects the system operation outcome. CONCLUSIONS The proposed model is feasible based on the simulation case study for the cloud service of breast tumor diagnosis and has the potential to be applied to other applications.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Optimal Application of Blockchain-Based Smart Lockers in the Logistics Industry Based on FFD-SAGA and Grey Decision-Making

Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 329
Author(s):  
Shen-Tsu Wang ◽  
Meng-Hua Li ◽  
Chun-Chi Lien
Keyword(s):  
Web Application ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Fractional Factorial ◽  
Office Workers ◽  
Logistics Industry ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Multiple Attribute

Blockchain technology has been applied to logistics tracking, but it is not cost-effective. The development of smart lockers has solved the problem of repeated distribution to improve logistics efficiency, thereby becoming a solution with convenience and privacy compared to the in-store purchase and pickup alternative. This study prioritized the key factors of smart lockers using a simulated annealing–genetic algorithm by fractional factorial design (FFD-SAGA) and grey relational analysis, and investigated the main users of smart lockers by grey multiple attribute decision analysis. The results show that the Web application programming interface (API) concatenation and money flow provider are the key success factors of smart lockers, and office workers are the main users of the lockers. Hence, how to better meet the needs of office workers will be an issue of concern for service providers.

scholarly journals Towards Secure Network Computing Services for Lightweight Clients Using Blockchain

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Xu ◽  
Guojun Wang ◽  
Jidian Yang ◽  
Ju Ren ◽  
Yaoxue Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Security Analysis ◽  
Service Provisioning ◽  
Network Computing ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Computing Services ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
Secure Network ◽  
Iot Devices

The emerging network computing technologies have significantly extended the abilities of the resource-constrained IoT devices through the network-based service sharing techniques. However, such a flexible and scalable service provisioning paradigm brings increased security risks to terminals due to the untrustworthy exogenous service codes loading from the open network. Many existing security approaches are unsuitable for IoT environments due to the high difficulty of maintenance or the dependencies upon extra resources like specific hardware. Fortunately, the rise of blockchain technology has facilitated the development of service sharing methods and, at the same time, it appears a viable solution to numerous security problems. In this paper, we propose a novel blockchain-based secure service provisioning mechanism for protecting lightweight clients from insecure services in network computing scenarios. We introduce the blockchain to maintain all the validity states of the off-chain services and edge service providers for the IoT terminals to help them get rid of untrusted or discarded services through provider identification and service verification. In addition, we take advantage of smart contracts which can be triggered by the lightweight clients to help them check the validities of service providers and service codes according to the on-chain transactions, thereby reducing the direct overhead on the IoT devices. Moreover, the adoptions of the consortium blockchain and the proof of authority consensus mechanism also help to achieve a high throughput. The theoretical security analysis and evaluation results show that our approach helps the lightweight clients get rid of untrusted edge service providers and insecure services effectively with acceptable latency and affordable costs.

scholarly journals Governing Blocks: Building Interagency Consensus to Coordinate Humanitarian Aid

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
Farah Awan ◽  
Soheib Nunhuck
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
Food Purchases ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Assistance Programme ◽  
Food Shortages

The conflict in Syria has led to one of the biggest refugee crises in history. An estimated 660,000 Syrian refugees have moved to neighbouring Jordan, many of whom are highly vulnerable to monetary poverty and food shortages. To reduce the daily inequalities faced by Syrian refugees, humanitarian agencies are progressively shifting to programmes that encourage financial inclusion and self-reliance. Operating since 2016, Building Blocks, a cash-based assistance programme created by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), uses blockchain technology rather than traditional financial service providers to supply monetary assistance for food purchases by Syrian refugees in Jordan. Beneficiaries have their identities confirmed though iris scanning when purchasing goods at supermarkets within the camps. Following authentication, monetary assistance is provided to complete the transaction. This system benefits over 100,000 Syrian refugees registered on the UNHCR’s PRIMES database and WFP has plans to scale up the programme to include more beneficiaries. This technology assessment focuses on understanding the governance of blockchain technology in Building Blocks (if any), and on finding opportunities for WFP operating partner agencies consisting of UNHCR, UNICEF, UN Women, Oxfam and Mercy Corps, to coordinate with and join the programme. Scaling up Building Blocks will benefit refugees and displaced people by giving these individuals a semblance of normalcy in a situation of vulnerability and crises. We advise WFP to collaborate with its partners to form a blockchain humanitarian consortia governing Building Blocks to avoid duplicating efforts and to achieve their shared objectives of delivering humanitarian aid in a sustainable manner. Other recommendations include to have UNOCHA and UNHCR as data aggregator and coordinator, respectively, to grant joint access to PRIMES for non-UN operating partners, to coordinate efforts with UNHCR’s Common Cash Facility programme, to consider renewable energy sources and to build local technical capacity for women in refugee camps. The involvement of operating partners in governing technology used in such processes will ensure equity of aid delivery, resulting in a broader governance, thus reducing inequality.

scholarly journals Privacy-Protection Scheme of a Credit-Investigation System Based on Blockchain

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 1657
Author(s):  
Ke Yuan ◽  
Yingjie Yan ◽  
Tong Xiao ◽  
Wenchao Zhang ◽  
Sufang Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Privacy Protection ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Security Analysis ◽  
Cloud Service ◽  
Identity Authentication ◽  
Protection Scheme ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Searchable Symmetric Encryption ◽  
Verification Time ◽  
Identity Privacy

In response to the rapid growth of credit-investigation data, data redundancy among credit-investigation agencies, privacy leakages of credit-investigation data subjects, and data security risks have been reported. This study proposes a privacy-protection scheme for a credit-investigation system based on blockchain technology, which realizes the secure sharing of credit-investigation data among multiple entities such as credit-investigation users, credit-investigation agencies, and cloud service providers. This scheme is based on blockchain technology to solve the problem of islanding of credit-investigation data and is based on zero-knowledge-proof technology, which works by submitting a proof to the smart contract to achieve anonymous identity authentication, ensuring that the identity privacy of credit-investigation users is not disclosed; this scheme is also based on searchable-symmetric-encryption technology to realize the retrieval of the ciphertext of the credit-investigation data. A security analysis showed that this scheme guarantees the confidentiality, the availability, the tamper-proofability, and the ciphertext searchability of credit-investigation data, as well as the fairness and anonymity of identity authentication in the credit-investigation data query. An efficiency analysis showed that, compared with similar identity-authentication schemes, the proof key of this scheme is smaller, and the verification time is shorter. Compared with similar ciphertext-retrieval schemes, the time for this scheme to generate indexes and trapdoors and return search results is significantly shorter.

Quantum blockchain system

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150343
Author(s):  
Xiao-Jun Wen ◽  
Yong-Zhi Chen ◽  
Xin-Can Fan ◽  
Zheng-Zhong Yi ◽  
Zoe L. Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Teleportation ◽  
Secure Communication ◽  
Quantum Computers ◽  
Computing Power ◽  
Broad Application ◽  
Digital Currency ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Quantum Secure Communication ◽  
Complexity Problem ◽  
Application Prospects

Blockchain technology represented by Bitcoin and Ethereum has been deeply developed and widely used due to its broad application prospects such as digital currency and IoT. However, the security of the existing blockchain technologies built on the classical cryptography depends on the computational complexity problem. With the enhancement of the attackers’ computing power, especially the upcoming quantum computers, this kind of security is seriously threatened. Based on quantum hash, quantum SWAP test and quantum teleportation, a quantum blockchain system is proposed with quantum secure communication. In classical cryptographic theory sense, the security of this system is unconditional since it has nothing to do with the attackers’ computing power and computing resources.

Revealing the Disintermediation Concept of Blockchain Technology

2021 ◽  
pp. 88-102
Author(s):  
Teck Ming Tan ◽  
Jari Salo ◽  
Petri Ahokangas ◽  
Veikko Seppänen ◽  
Philipp Sandner
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Distribution Functions ◽  
Physical Distribution ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Traditional Roles

Typically, people have a misconception about blockchain as they associate this technology with cryptocurrency. This chapter does not focus, however, on bitcoin or cryptocurrencies that pertain to its intrinsic value. Rather, the authors focus on the disintermediation feature of blockchain technology by providing insights into how this technology could substitute for the functions and roles of the intermediary. The findings show that blockchain technology is not equipped with financing and physical distribution functions. The current research further demonstrates that most of the blockchain service providers that are listed in the Liechtenstein Blockchain Act are required to perform the traditional roles of an intermediary. Thus, blockchain technology is not found to support a full concept of disintermediation. This chapter is vital in order for existing intermediaries to gain a deeper understanding of how to analyze and optimize their existing functions and roles while adjusting their business model in the token-based economy.

scholarly journals eHealth Cloud Security Challenges: A Survey

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yazan Al-Issa ◽  
Mohammad Ashraf Ottom ◽  
Ahmed Tamrawi
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Computing ◽  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Cloud Service ◽  
Cloud Security ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Healthcare Industry ◽  
Sensitive Data

Cloud computing is a promising technology that is expected to transform the healthcare industry. Cloud computing has many benefits like flexibility, cost and energy savings, resource sharing, and fast deployment. In this paper, we study the use of cloud computing in the healthcare industry and different cloud security and privacy challenges. The centralization of data on the cloud raises many security and privacy concerns for individuals and healthcare providers. This centralization of data (1) provides attackers with one-stop honey-pot to steal data and intercept data in-motion and (2) moves data ownership to the cloud service providers; therefore, the individuals and healthcare providers lose control over sensitive data. As a result, security, privacy, efficiency, and scalability concerns are hindering the wide adoption of the cloud technology. In this work, we found that the state-of-the art solutions address only a subset of those concerns. Thus, there is an immediate need for a holistic solution that balances all the contradicting requirements.

scholarly journals AgriTrust—A Trust Management Approach for Smart Agriculture in Cloud-based Internet of Agriculture Things

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (21) ◽  
pp. 6174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamran Ahmad Awan ◽  
Ikram Ud Din ◽  
Ahmad Almogren ◽  
Hisham Almajed
Keyword(s):  
Trust Management ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Base Station ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Management Mechanism ◽  
Trust Degree ◽  
Smart Agriculture ◽  
Compromised Nodes

Internet of Things (IoT) provides a diverse platform to automate things where smart agriculture is one of the most promising concepts in the field of Internet of Agriculture Things (IoAT). Due to the requirements of more processing power for computations and predictions, the concept of Cloud-based smart agriculture is proposed for autonomic systems. This is where digital innovation and technology helps to improve the quality of life in the area of urbanization expansion. For the integration of cloud in smart agriculture, the system is shown to have security and privacy challenges, and most significantly, the identification of malicious and compromised nodes along with a secure transmission of information between sensors, cloud, and base station (BS). The identification of malicious and compromised node among soil sensors communicating with the BS is a notable challenge in the BS to cloud communications. The trust management mechanism is proposed as one of the solutions providing a lightweight approach to identify these nodes. In this article, we have proposed a novel trust management mechanism to identify malicious and compromised nodes by utilizing trust parameters. The trust mechanism is an event-driven process that computes trust based on the pre-defined time interval and utilizes the previous trust degree to develop an absolute trust degree. The system also maintains the trust degree of a BS and cloud service providers using distinct approaches. We have also performed extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of the proposed mechanism against several potential attacks. In addition, this research helps to create friendlier environments and efficient agricultural productions for the migration of people to the cities.

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