Technical aspects of blockchain and IoT

Blockchain technology is getting a growing attention from various organizations and researchers as it provides magical solutions to the problems associated with the classical centralized architecture. Blockchain, whether public or private, is a distributed ledger with the capability of maintaining the integrity of transactions by decentralizing the ledger among participating users. On the other hand, the Internet of Things (IoT) represents a revolution of the Internet which can connect nearly all environment devices over the Internet to share their data to create novel services and applications for improving our quality of life. Although the centralized IoT system provides countless benefits, it raises several challenges. Resolving these challenges can be done by integrating IoT with blockchain technology. To be prepared for the integration process, this chapter provides an overview of technical aspects of the blockchain and IoT. It started by reviewing blockchain technology and its main structure. Applications and challenges of the blockchain are also presented. This is followed by reviewing the IoT system by highlighting common architecture and essential characteristics. Various applications and challenges of the IoT system are also discussed.