IoT Blockchain for Data Exchange (ARD/239)

Smart City development involves analyzing IoT data on a large scale to facilitate decision making of individuals as well as the holistic operations of the society. The availability and proper circulation of these data are therefore crucial. However these data can be owned by different organizations or individuals, and therefore an effective and efficient mechanism is needed for publishing and distributing these data in a coherent, secure, open and transparent manner. This project will conduct a feasibility study in using blockchain (distributed ledger) technology to facilitate IoT data exchange between provider and consumer. The R&D team will conduct a proof of concept in developing a multi-provider multi-consumer blockchain data exchange service based on permissioned-based distributed ledger technology. In particular, the study will tackle the scalability issue of the accumulated IoT data size in the blockchain in real case applications by using an off-chain storage approach, and at the same time using blockchain to address the challenges in data publication and discovery, smart contract for transaction, data security, and privacy protection. All in all, IoT data are becoming available and valuable, and this project investigates technologies to facilitate circulation of these data for the development of Smart City applications. This will catalyze new applications, services, commercial activities as well as new R&D directions and innovations.