A lightweight consensus protocol for IOT devices

Abstract

IoT devices are small in size and it is very convenient to carry them. The number of IoT devices are increasing substantially. IoT devices are easy to use and their purpose is to make the life of its user more affordable as well as reliable. Since the inception of blockchain technology, it has been used for cryptocurrencies and in blockchain applications which have significant computing resources requirements. Blockchain applications depend upon a protocol which has defined rules, can consist of different systems which are implemented in order to reach consensus in the blockchain network by validating each transaction. These protocols require heavy computation, hence could not be used with the IoT devices. That’s why it is required to design a consensus protocol which could work with the IoT devices by keeping in view of their limitations, but on the other hand be able to reach consensus in the network. In the proposed protocol the consensus will be achieved locally rather than globally and no heavy computation required inorder to reach consensus. It will reduce the computing power demand as well it is not power hungry as a device only needs to perform computation when it is required. For consensus a unique node list is selected of which the majority of vote decides validity or invalidity of the data. If the majority of nodes vote for valid data then those set of transactions will be the part of the blockchain network. Data is validated by business rules which are defined in the protocol.