A Systematic Review of Blockchain-based Services for Security Upgradation of a Smart City

Abstract

The concept of smart city has gained popularity in recent years. The elementary concept refers to promoting the uninterrupted sharing of data and services within and across communities by the application of emerging technologies. Smart cities strive for cost reduction, optimal use of resources and the development of a more sustainable environment. Considerable advances in modern technologies such as IoT and wireless communication have enabled sharing of data between remote devices which are geared with open data, hence a smart city is susceptible to a number of security threats. It is important to identify these threats, analyze IoT data to improve privacy and security and identify the corresponding consequences. Blockchain has emerged as a promising solution to resolve these challenges. Blockchain is a peer-to-peer shared database technology that cannot be modified once a transaction is recorded and validated. This study explores the contribution of blockchain to smart cities in terms of decentralized security, immutability, transparency and privacy to provide intelligent, customized and context-aware services to smart city dwellers. A brief overview of this novel technology has been given along with its deployment in a smart city setting, the open issues discussed and prospective scope of blockchain application has been presented.