A conceptual use case analysis of hyperledger fabric adoption for IoT payment systems in South African retail environments

Abstract The adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) payment systems presents significant opportunities for retail enterprises in South Africa, including improved transaction efficiency, reduced operational costs, transaction transparency and enhanced customer convenience. Despite these potential benefits, adoption is still limited. A key factor in the slow adoption of such systems is concern about security, trust, and regulatory compliance. Integrating IoT into payment systems broadens the attack surface, as resource-constrained devices increase the risk of authentication breaches, double-spending attacks, and data-confidentiality violations. This study develops a conceptual architecture that explains Hyperledger Fabric, a permissioned blockchain, could support the security, trust, and adoption requirements of IoT payment systems among South African retailers. A six-step use case analysis and modelling method, complemented by a face-validity review involving three domain experts, was employed to develop, assess, and refine the proposed architecture. The conceptual analysis suggests that permissioned Hyperledger Fabric may support security, regulatory compliance, and trust in IoT payment adoption among South African retailers. However, the study did not deploy a prototype or experimentally test performance, security, trust, usability outcomes. This study contributes a conceptual system architecture and workflow, refined through expert review, that provides a framework to clarify system boundaries, enhance stakeholder understanding, and operationalise security and compliance requirements.