Systematic literature review on the security challenges of blockchain in IoT-based smart cities
Authors: Yu Zhihao , Song Liang , Jiang Linhua , Khold Sharafi Omid 
Published: February 2021

Purpose

Security is the most important issue in Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart cities and blockchain (BC). So, the present paper aims to detect and organize the literature regarding security in the IoT-based smart cities and BC context. It also proposes an agenda for future research. Therefore, the authors did a statistical review of security in IoT and BC in smart cities. The present investigation aims to determine the principal challenges and disturbances in IoT because of the BC adoption, the central BC applications in IoT-based smart cities and the BC future in IoT-based smart cities.

Design/methodology/approach

IoT) has a notable influence on modernizing and transforming the society and industry for knowledge digitizing. Therefore, it may be perceived and operated in real time. The IoT is undergoing exponential development in industry and investigation. Still, it contains some security and privacy susceptibilities. Naturally, the research community pays attention to the security and privacy of the IoT. Also, the academic community has put a significant focus on BC as a new security project. In the present paper, the significant mechanisms and investigations in BC ground have been checked out systematically because of the significance of security in the IoT and BC in smart cities. Electronic databases were used to search for keywords. Totally, based on different filters, 131 papers have been gained, and 17 related articles have been obtained and analyzed. The security mechanisms of BC in IoT-based smart cities have been ranked into three main categories as follows, smart health care, smart home and smart agriculture.

Findings

The findings showed that BC’s distinctive technical aspects might impressively find a solution for privacy and security problems encountering the IoT-based smart cities development. They also supply distributed storage, transparency, trust and other IoT support to form a valid, impressive and secure distributed IoT network and provide a beneficial guarantee for IoT-based smart city users’ security and privacy.

Research limitations/implications

The present investigation aims to be comprehensive, but some restrictions were also observed. Owing to the use of some filters for selecting the original papers, some complete works may be excluded. Besides, inspecting the total investigations on the security topic in BC and the IoT-based smart cities is infeasible. Albeit, the authors attempt to introduce a complete inspection of the security challenges in BC and the IoT-based smart cities. BC includes significant progress and innovation in the IoT-based smart cities’ security domain as new technology. Still, it contains some deficiencies as well. Investigators actively encounter the challenges and bring up persistent innovation and inspection of related technologies in the vision of the issues available in diverse application scenarios.

Practical implications

The use of BC technology in finding a solution for the security issues of the IoT-based smart cities is a research hotspot. There is numerable literature with data and theoretical support despite the suggestion of numerous relevant opinions. Therefore, this paper offers insights into how findings may guide practitioners and researchers in developing appropriate security systems dependent upon the features of IoT-based smart city systems and BC. This paper may also stimulate further investigation on the challenge of security in BC and IoT-based smart cities. The outcomes will be of great value for scholars and may supply sights into future investigation grounds in the present field.

Originality/value

As the authors state according to their knowledge, it is the first work using security challenges on BC and IoT-based smart cities. The literature review shows that few papers discuss how solving security issues in the IoT-based smart cities can benefit from the BC. The investigation suggests a literature review on the topic, recommending some thoughts on using security tools in the IoT-based smart cities. The present investigation helps organizations plan to integrate IoT and BC to detect the areas to focus. It also assists in better resource planning for the successful execution of smart technologies in their supply chains.