Immutable Log Storage as a Service on Private and Public Blockchains

Blockchain has recently become an essential tool which enables sensitive cloud services without the need for central confidence. For example, several different cryptocurrencies were permitted with public blockchains. Unfortunately, confidential details may be exposed on current public blockchain and smart contracts implemented there. Whilst some continuous work is under way to resolve these insecure knowledge leakage problems using advanced cryptography, they need major improvements on current and common Blockchain technology such as Ethereum and are typically costly in computing. On the other hand, blockchain applications were proposed to allow the data exchange among the pre accepted nodes/participants to be more efficient and privacy-preserving. While private blockchains respond to certain challenges of privacy by allowing only the particular community of participants to view sensitive data, they do not allow public transparency for communications because businesses are accepted by a known number of users also cannot be freely viewed. One natural problem is whether we should use public and private Blockchain networks in order to allow effective, improve privacy and accountable applications in view of these findings? In this work, we try in connection with digital auctions to face this challenge. In specific, we provide a newly designed blockchain architecture combined with private and open blockchains which enables sensitive offers to be opened up on a secluded blockchain so solitary the merchant can study the offers, and none of others. We also use shared blockchains to report the public sale winner and to make transfers responsible. Moreover, we demonstrate how we can promote sincere activity among auction participants by using intelligent contracts on public blockchains. Our detailed analytical findings suggest that it’s more cost effective compared to pure public auction implementations based on blockchain.

The most critical needs for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are security, privacy, dependability, and autonomy. The networks might be vulnerable to hostile users and harmful usage if these problems are not ensured. Attacks and hazards are higher with centralized WSNs, particularly when data is shared with other businesses and sent between devices. In this paper, a WSN model with integrated blockchain security technology is proposed. Blockchains store the identity of each node. The validation is done by public blockchains and private blockchains. For sensor nodes, the authentication is implemented on the private blockchain. The public blockchain is used to authenticate cluster heads. Performing network attacks can easily be performed by unregistered nodes to access resources in the network. Broadcasting false information on the path of malicious nodes can increase packet latency and reduce packet delivery rate. In this paper, the model recommends the most secure nodes in the network to be used for secure routing. The main purpose is to reduce the attack of hackers from outside the network, improve the efficiency of detecting malicious nodes.

Blockchain technologies are taking the world by storm. Public blockchains, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, enable secure peer-to-peer applications like crypto-currency or smart contracts. Their security and performance are well studied. This paper concerns recent private blockchain systems designed with stronger security (trust) assumption and performance requirement. These systems target and aim to disrupt applications which have so far been implemented on top of database systems, for example banking, finance and trading applications. Multiple platforms for private blockchains are being actively developed and fine tuned. However, there is a clear lack of a systematic framework with which different systems can be analyzed and compared against each other. Such a framework can be used to assess blockchains' viability as another distributed data processing platform, while helping developers to identify bottlenecks and accordingly improve their platforms. In this paper, we first describe BLOCKBENCH, the first evaluation framework for analyzing private blockchains. It serves as a fair means of comparison for different platforms and enables deeper understanding of different system design choices. Any private blockchain can be integrated to BLOCKBENCH via simple APIs and benchmarked against workloads that are based on real and synthetic smart contracts. BLOCKBENCH measures overall and component-wise performance in terms of throughput, latency, scalability and fault-tolerance. Next, we use BLOCKBENCH to conduct comprehensive evaluation of three major private blockchains: Ethereum, Parity and Hyperledger Fabric. The results demonstrate that these systems are still far from displacing current database systems in traditional data processing workloads. Furthermore, there are gaps in performance among the three systems which are attributed to the design choices at different layers of the blockchain's software stack. We have released BLOCKBENCH for public use.

With the advent of 5G technology, we are witnessing the development of increasingly bandwidth-hungry network applications, such as enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine-type communications and ultra-reliable low-latency communications. Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Network Slicing (NS) are gaining momentum not only in research but also in IT industry representing the drivers of 5G. NS is an approach to network operations allowing the partition of a physical topology into multiple independent virtual networks, called network slices (or slices). Within a single slice, a set of Service Function Chains (SFCs) is defined and the network resources, e.g. bandwidth, can be provisioned dynamically on demand according to specific Quality of Service (QoS) and Service Level Agreement (SLA) requirements. Traditional schemes for network resources provisioning based on static policies may lead to poor resource utilization and suffer from scalability issues. In this article, we investigate the application of Reinforcement Learning (RL) for performing dynamic SFC resources allocation in NFV-SDN enabled metro-core optical networks. RL allows to build a self-learning system able to solve highly complex problems by employing RL agents to learn policies from an evolving network environment. In particular, we build an RL system able to optimize the resources allocation of SFCs in a multi-layer network (packet over flexi-grid optical layer). The RL agent decides if and when to reconfigure the SFCs, given state of the network and historical traffic traces. Numerical simulations show significant advantages of our RL-based optimization over rule-based optimization design.

In this letter, we propose the use of a blockchain‐based solution for inter‐provider agreements in 6G networks, utilizing smart contracts and Chainlink for monitoring and assessing Service Level Agreements (SLAs), including penalty calculations. We evaluate the proposed solution by deploying it on two public blockchains, Ethereum and Polygon, and find that Polygon provides a cost‐effective option for creating inter‐provider agreements. This is particularly important for use cases involving numerous transactions. Additionally, Chainlink enables secure and transparent access to off‐chain SLA data, and we observe lower transaction latency in Polygon. This suggests that utilizing blockchain‐based solutions such as smart contracts can aid the process of creating inter‐provider agreements for leasing and selling resources in 6G networks, with Chainlink oracle providing support for their SLA management. However, factors such as transaction cost and latency need to be considered.

Blockchain for Business: Next-Generation Enterprise Artificial Intelligence Systems

Blockchain is the key innovative new technology of the future for which interest is being increased domestically and overseas as an icon of innovation to change the existing business process. The Blockchain has started as a public Blockchain first, allowing anybody to participate in the Blockchain network to view all history, and anybody to verify transaction history. However, as proved by bitcoin, the open-type distributed ledger has several technical and positive problems. There exist several disadvantages where much resource should be incorporated to maintain and manage the network with unspecified many participating, internal information is disclosed, processing speed is slow, and anonymity of transactions should be guaranteed, etc. The private Blockchain technology that overcomes such limitations and configures a distributed network with only certified participants as the subject is being magnified. In the present article, issues of a reliable private Blockchain will be derived and design measures be proposed to make a contribution so as to enable safe utilization in the environment of P2P distributed network.

During the normal operation of a Cloud solution, no one pays attention to the logs except the technical department, which may periodically check them to ensure that the performance of the platform conforms to the Service Level Agreements. However, the moment the status of a component changes from acceptable to unacceptable, or a customer complains about accessibility or performance of a platform, the importance of logs increases significantly. Depending on the scope of the issue, all departments, including management, customer support, and even the actual customer, may turn to logs to find out what has happened, how it has happened, and who is responsible for the issue. The party at fault may be motivated to tamper the logs to hide their fault. Given the number of logs that are generated by the Cloud solutions, there are many tampering opportunities. While tamper detection solution can be used to detect any changes in the logs, we argue that the critical nature of logs calls for immutability. In this thesis, we propose a blockchain-based log system, called Logchain, that collects the logs from different providers and avoids log tampering by sealing the logs cryptographically and adding them to a hierarchical ledger, hence, providing an immutable platform for log storage.

The complexity of contemporary supply chains and the rise in foodborne illness cases have made ensuring food safety and traceability a top responsibility on a worldwide scale. Traditional traceability systems are prone to data tampering, fragmentation, and limited compatibility. Public blockchains have scalability, latency, and privacy problems that limit their use in real-time food safety systems, despite the fact that blockchain provides a secure data structure. Using Hyperledger Fabric, GS1 EPCIS standards, and Internet of Things-enabled environmental sensors, this paper suggests a private blockchain-based food safety monitoring system. To guarantee fault-tolerant, high-throughput processing in a permissioned blockchain setting, a Raft consensus mechanism was used. Hyperledger Caliper was used to benchmark the system once it was deployed with four nodes. According to experimental data, transaction throughput peaked at 230.2 TPS and averaged 207.4 ± 10.2 TPS. As the network grew from two to four nodes, latency increased somewhat from 259.3 ± 9.5 ms to 278.7 ± 9.1 ms, while block finalization time stayed below 3.184 ± 0.113 s. Over 114,925 documented transactions, data integrity was confirmed to be flawless. These results demonstrate that private blockchain technology can provide effective, scalable, and impenetrable food traceability, boosting openness and confidence throughout food networks.

Consensus mechanisms and information security technologies

The use of blockchain in 5G networks gives a number of opportunities to improve security, privacy, and quality of service. However, despite all its advantages, blockchain technology has a number of disadvantages associated with low performance and high transaction latency. This article describes an experiment that compares public and private blockchains. The main goal of the experiment is to test the possibility of using private blockchains in mobile networks in order to resolve problems of network performance.

The integration of blockchain technology into healthcare offers a robust solution to challenges in secure data sharing, privacy protection, and operational efficiency. Effective exchange of sensitive patient information among hospitals, clinics, insurers, and researchers is essential for better outcomes and medical advancements. Traditional centralized systems often suffer from data breaches, inefficiency, and poor interoperability. This paper presents a blockchain-based secure data-sharing framework tailored for healthcare, addressing these limitations. The framework employs a hybrid blockchain model, combining private and public blockchains: the private chain ensures fast transactions and controlled access, while the public chain fosters transparency and trust. Advanced cryptographic methods—such as asymmetric encryption, hashing, and digital signatures—safeguard patient data and maintain integrity throughout the datalifecycle. Smart contracts automate processes like consent management, access control, and auditing, ensuring dynamic permission enforcement without intermediaries. Role-based access control (RBAC) further limits access to authorized entities, enhancing privacy. To tackle interoperability, standardized data formats and protocols enable smooth communication across diverse healthcare systems. Large files, such as medical images, are stored off-chain, with only essential metadata and logs on the blockchain. This approach optimizes performance, scalability, and suitability for large-scale healthcare deployments.

Decoupling Control-Plane from Data-Plane, Software Defined Network (SDN) takes a firm step towards facilitation of management, especially in mission-critical networks, such as data centers and back-bones. To maintain scalability, which is a vital aspect of such networks, many techniques based on the capabilities of hardware and network communications are introduced. However, to cope with scalability issues, less attention is paid to the integrated knowledge gained about underlying network in Control-Plane. To reduce the computing overhead on SDN's controller, a scheme based on extracting similarities among requested flows is presented in this research. Performance evaluation by simulating the proposed method shows significant improvement in scalability of the Controller, while inconsiderable workload is imposed.

The current traditional paper ballot voting schemes suffer from several limitations such as processing delays due to counting paper ballots, lack of transparency, and manipulation of the ballots. To solve these limitations, an electronic voting (e-voting) scheme has received massive interest from both governments and academia. In e-voting, individuals can cast their vote online using their smartphones without the need to wait in long lines. Additionally, handicapped voters who face limited wheelchair access in many polling centers could now participate in elections hassle-free. The existing e-voting schemes suffer from several limitations as they are either centralized, based on public blockchains, or utilize local private blockchains. This results in privacy issues (using public blockchains) or large financial costs (using local/private blockchains) due to the amount of computing power and technical knowledge needed to host blockchains locally. To address the aforementioned limitations, in this paper, we propose an online voting scheme using IBM cloud-based Hyperledger Fabric. Our scheme allows voters to cast their encrypted votes in a secure manner. Then any participant can obtain the ballot results in a decentralized and transparent manner, without sacrificing the privacy of individual voters. We implement the proposed scheme using IBM cloud-based Hyperledger Fabric. The experimental results identify the performance characteristics of our scheme and demonstrate that it is feasible to run an election consisting of thousands of participants using cloud-based Fabric.

A traditional credit card payment method involves using a third party to validate the transaction. Anyone using a credit card for online purchases exposes themselves to the risk of identity theft. Also, multiple costs are connected with a transaction using a payment gateway. These costs are typically concealed and unknown to customers. Many studies have been conducted on using public blockchain technology to secure e-commerce payment systems, e.g., Bitcoin and Ethereum. Unfortunately, the information and transactions stored in a public blockchain are open to anyone, destroying confidentiality. To address these inadequacies and decrease the danger of stolen credentials, we proposed a solution for protecting credit card transactions using Hyperledger Composer-based private blockchain technology. This eliminates the need for a third party to process a transaction and the hidden fees seen in the standard credit card payment system. Only the privileged participants can retrieve the credentials and transactions, which is ensured by the Access Control feature of Hyperledger. Moreover, a minimum of 3000 transactions per second can be executed in our proposed system, whereas the public blockchain has a throughput of only 2-3 TPS. These transactions are immutable as well as non-removable and the query feature, which is exclusive to Hyperledger, can be utilized for instantaneous retrieval of information from the ledger.