A Novel Quantum-Resistant Lightweight Consensus Algorithm for IoT Blockchain Networks Based on Lattice Cryptography

Abstract - The explosion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices calls for the design of computationally light blockchain consensus mechanisms immune to quantum threats. The conventional consensus protocols such as Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) may have quantum cryptanalysis and incur high computational overhead on resource-limited IoT devices. In this paper, we introduce QR-LightChain, a new quantum-robust light weight consensus algorithm with the combination of lattice-based cryptography and a brand-new Proof-of-Lightweight-Work (PoLW). Our proposal is based on formalism Learning With Errors (LWE) as a quantum resistant based scheme, also, but with the use of the adaptive difficulty tuning and energy efficient mechanism to validate the hashing. Experimental results show that QR-LightChain reduces the computational overhead by 52.3% with respect to traditional quantum-resistant approaches, while preserving security against both classical and quantum adversaries. The protocol shows good performance in IoT: The average block validation time of 1.2 sec is achieved and there is 40% less energy consumed than for current quantum-resistant consensus in the literature. Our work fills the important research challenge of providing 1 Post-Quantum Cryptography and Blockchain Modern internet of things (IoT) blockchain net- works are being developed in resource-constrained environments such as smart cities, while QCs Key Words: Quantum resistance, IoT blockchain, lightweight consensus, lattice-based cryptography, post-quantum cryptography, Proof-of-Lightweight-Work, resource-constrained devices