Blockchain Meets IoT for Big Data

Dear Colleagues,

Blockchain technologies constitute a relatively recent area exhibiting disruptive properties. Those properties are widely acknowledged as having a strong potential impact on numerous domains spanning from new forms of the digital economy to decentralized data management and metaverses. This transformative power fosters a diverse ecosystem of disciplines including mathematics, computer science/engineering, economics, and finance, as well as social sciences such as law and psychology.

This Special Issue focuses on the computer science/engineering-related spectrum of the aforementioned ecosystem as it can be regarded as the mission-critical building block from a technological point of view. This scope covers different levels starting from design and proceeding to implementation and benchmarking. Within this scope, different granularities can be considered, from single models and algorithms up to multi-component systems and complex frameworks. Given the decentralized nature of blockchains, aspects like security, privacy, and trust are of special interest.

Based on the aforementioned focus, the current Special Issue adopts an additional key orientation of the integration of blockchains with the following technologies: Internet-of-Things (IoT), Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. This is motivated by a fundamental realization: truly transformative digital solutions need to bring together complementary forces as no single technology can address complex challenges. IoT and Big Data are positioned closer to the data layer, while AI and ML stand as data-driven enablers of intelligent models and services. Within this symbiotic environment, blockchain contributes mechanisms for data integrity and transparency along with novel forms of decentralized finance deployed around those AI/ML services.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Blockchain analytics
• Systems and architectures for combining on-chain and on-chain storage
• On-chain systems and architectures for big data processing
• On-chain systems and architectures for data-powered algorithms (e.g., machine learning)
• The role of IoT and big data in blockchain-based metaverses
• Blockchain and governance/regulation for IoT
• Blockchain and AI for IoT
• Practical experience with blockchain-based frameworks for IoT or big data
• Secure smart contracts for big data processing
• Blockchain mechanisms for IoT security, privacy, and trust
• Attacks and Threat Models for IoT blockchain-based frameworks
• Security and performance tradeoffs in IoT/big data blockchain-based frameworks
• Ethical Considerations in IoT and big data blockchain-based metaverses
• Intrusion Detections Systems using AI and blockchain techniques

Prof. Dr. Ioanna Dionysiou
Dr. Oleg Basov 
Dr. Elias Iosif
Dr. Christiana Ioannou 
Guest Editors

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