Blockchain-Based Industrial Internet of Things for the Integration of Industrial Process Automation Systems

The industrial internet of things is expected to attract significant investment to the industry. In this new environment, blockchain presents immediate potential in industrial IoT applications, offering several benefits to industrial cyber-physical systems. However, works in the blockchain literature target environments that do not meet the reality of the factory and do not assess the impact of the blockchain on industrial process requirements. Thus, this chapter presents an investigation of the evolution of industrial process automation systems and blockchain-based applications in the horizontal and vertical integration of the various systems in a supply chain and factories. In addition, through an investigation of experimental work, this work presents issues and challenges to be faced for the application of blockchain in industrial processes. Evaluations and discussions are mainly focused on aspects of real-time systems in machine-to-machine communication of industrial processes.

Blockchain and IoT Integration in Dairy Production to Survive the COVID-19 Situation in Sri Lanka

The epidemic crises place massive burdens on our economies. The risk of food supplies is also pushing massive stress on food vendors around the world. There are big problems associated with supply chains framework. Farmers do not receive payment upon delivery of their supplies. The buyers do not have access to finance that will enable them to pay farmers on time. To solve this problem, the authors proposed a dairy production system integration with blockchain and IoT. Blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger technology that allows network participants to trust each other and interact. The dairy product system can check the temperature of the product in real-time by using the website application. Moreover, customers can get notifications when the policy found problems related to temperature values. The blockchain database confirms the information security of the system by using the proof of work algorithm to create the transactions and the blocks. Therefore, the proposed methods can use sensitive data with reasonable time consumption, and no block creation fees are needed.

Blockchain for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

Over the years, the industrial and manufacturing applications have become highly connected and automated. The incorporation of interconnected smart sensors, actuators, instruments, and other devices helps in establishing higher reliability and efficiency in the industrial and manufacturing process. This has given rise to the industrial internet of things (IIoT). Since IIoT components are scattered all over the network, real-time authenticity of the IIoT activities becomes essential. Blockchain technology is being considered by the researchers as the decentralized architecture to securely process the IIoT transactions. However, there are challenges involved in effective implementation of blockchain in IIoT. This chapter presents the importance of blockchain in IIoT paradigm, its role in different IIoT applications, challenges involved, possible solutions to overcome the challenges and open research issues.

Blockchain Technology for Convergence

Blockchain technologies are drawing attention after the success of cryptocurrency. Due to the inherent features, such as decentralization, transparency, security, immutability, and integrity, they have already become the prime choice of researchers and scientists. Blockchain is among the most disruptive innovations which have the potential to reshape the behavior of many businesses and industries. Blockchain applications are based on DLT in which public ledger can be accessed by everyone by eliminating the need of third party. Although the power of AI allows the intelligence and decision-making powers of machines in the same way as humans, it relies on a unified model for training and validating datasets. However, the unified nature of AI poses many threats to data privacy and data tempering. Thus, the unique features of blockchain technology makes its application attractive in almost every field including financial services, healthcare, IoT, and many more. This chapter presents a comprehensive overview on blockchain and its integration with AI to explore numerous capabilities.

Blockchain

IoT is not the only buzzword proliferating in the technological world nowadays; blockchain, the underlying tech behind Bitcoin cryptocurrency, is also becoming more ubiquitous and mainstream in the world market. Blockchain and IoT are the perfect pair and seem to flourish together as there is an immense need of data security for the enormous data produced by IoT sensors. The integration of two technologies going hand-in-hand can make IoT objects more reliable and secure in the network. Many companies will exploit the integration of blockchain-based IoT systems in the near future as blockchain is more commendable. In the blockchain-based IoT systems, nodes deployed in the blockchain technology are more or less likely the devices connected in the IoT systems network. Blockchain-enabled IoT systems ease business processes and enhance transparency for improved customer experiences.

Applications of Secured Blockchain Technology in the Manufacturing Industry

The manufacturing industry inclines to worldwide business operations due to the economic advantage of product design and development. In this way, globalized manufacturing supply chains make their management and control more difficult. As a distributed ledger technology that ensures transparency, trust, traceability, and cybersecurity, blockchain technology promises to ease some global manufacturing operation problems. This chapter presents blockchain technology basics and analyses the issues (e.g., traceability, cybersecurity, flexibility, and smart contracts) related to the blockchain-based manufacturing information system. Next, the chapter presents related research work in the manufacturing industry in recent years. It also includes a classification mechanism for manufacturing information systems based on specific properties. It is followed by discussing the critical issues that need to consider in designing industry-specific reference information system architecture. Finally, the chapter discusses the scope of future research.

Blockchain

Blockchain is an emerging technology of the new generation. Safety and protection of the data have been the prime concern of people. Digitalization has paved the way for the generation of trillions of data every second. With these developing lives of people, blockchain is the solution. The authors discuss the applications of blockchain in various aspects of life along with the introduction of digital currency. The means and norms are considered for digital money transfer and generation of end-to-end encrypted code for the sake of high-end security. They discuss the framework that can be used by the organizations to develop a new form of the internal network. Finally, the suggestion for future work and development along with all the cons is shown.

Blockchain in a Nutshell

Blockchain gets its name from being a series of blocks that are linked together to form a chain. Once the information has been added to the chain, it cannot be changed. There are several consensus protocols, and each of them is chosen based on the type of blockchain and the system requirements. With the rapid urbanization of the world, several economic, social, and environment-related issues have been raised. Smart cities are an emerging concept that holds the solution to these urban problems. Blockchain is such an innovation that can promote the development of smart cities. Along with its application in the internet of things, smart cities, and logistics, blockchain truly is state-of-the-art technology. Here, the authors aim to provide an in-depth look into this relatively new technology, beginning with blockchain's fundamentals and then covering the applications, issues, and future scope.

Blockchain and IoT-Based Diary Supply Chain Management System for Sri Lanka

The central problem to be addressed in this research is to investigate how blockchain technology can be used in today's food supply chains to deliver greater traceability of assets. The aim is to create a blockchain model in the dairy supply chain that can be implemented across any food supply chains and present the advantages and limitations in its implementation. Blockchain allows monitoring all types of transactions in a supply chain more safely and transparently. Acceptance of blockchain in the supply chain and logistics is slow right now because of related risks and the lack of demonstrable models. The proposed solution removes the need for a trusted centralized authority, intermediaries and provides records of transactions, improving high integrity, reliability, and security efficiency and protection. All transactions are registered and maintained in the unchangeable database of the blockchain with access to a shared file network.

Blockchain in Philanthropic Management

In the world of cutting-edge technology, a buzzword that has been thrown around quite often is blockchain. It has gained prominence in a wide array of fields ranging from the money transfer industry to that of the healthcare sector. The primordial reason for this varied use is the concept of smart contract that makes it intangible and less susceptible to errors. Using this platform of blockchain, the authors propose an avant-garde method of contributing donations to charities through a pivotal body, namely the trust. This application is paramount in the sense that it binds the advancements made on the technological frontier with the social aspect of life, that is, charities in the form of NGO's or other such beneficiaries. This enforces the scrupulous way of donating, ensuring that the money does not get consumed by outsiders or any third-party bodies because ultimately, safeguarding the needs and necessities of the lesser privileged folks is the primary goal, which should be addressed with immediate effect.