<scp>PIoT</scp>‐fortifying <scp>IoT</scp> device identity and data access: A security framework empowered by blockchain

Abstract The IoT, which refers to the process in which billions of devices are connected to the Internet, has emerged as an essential component of today's society. Yet, the safety of data exchange and the identification of devices in IoT networks have emerged as significant concerns in recent years. Also, there will be a significant drop in the effectiveness of the conventional consensus process. This study presents a novel consensus technique, Proof of IoT (PIoT), to address the security and authentication‐related issues in the IoT Infrastructure. It uses blockchain‐based smart contracts to securely transfer the data and uniquely identify the device on the IoT‐based network. PIoT uses a reputation assessment technique that involves complex cryptographic NuCypher‐based security computations to authenticate and update the data across IoT devices. This contract assures that only authorized parties can access the information recorded in the blockchain. A reward‐based filtering technique is developed for PIoT to identify malicious nodes with harmful actions, preventing them from contributing to consensus. Compared to specific conventional methods, PIoT performs better in simulations. Compared with LPBFT, DAC4SH Consensus, the Point of Interaction in blockchain‐based PIoT improved by 74.7% and 96.8%, respectively. When compared to DAC4SH, PIoT shows an overall 15% improvement in the security of the blockchain under the IoT. In addition to providing a secure method of communication between IoT devices, the given study also provides security against various IoT attacks.