An Efficient Hash-Selection-Based Blockchain …

243

Also, one of the biggest questions over the use of blockchain in industrial usage

is whether the security it provides is worth the opportunity cost and the jury is

still out on its sufficiency in the event of a data breach. Blockchains ultimately

depend on the cryptographic hash function that is used for security. However as

strong as hash functions are, they are not impermeable. One common example is

the downfall of SHA-1, whose once 159-bit protection got theoretically reduced

to just 57.5 bits due to various collision attacks by 2012. By 2017, a lot of vendors

migratedasignificantportionoftheircustomerstothenewerSHA-2.OnFebruary23,

2017, Google announced the first collision of SHA-1, marking the end of the SHA-1

era [32]. However, the process of migration from SHA-1 to SHA-2 was needlessly

over-complicated due to the initial lack of developer support on both hardware and

software ends. Even though SHA-2 is still considered secure, it uses a very similar

base algorithm as SHA-1, making it a ticking time bomb before it gets cracked like

its predecessor. But we are still facing the same dilemma with migration to SHA-3-

based algorithms from SHA-2 due to the same issue of lack of hardware or software

support. This leads to yet another hurdle of widespread adoption of blockchain, one

that can be solved with a system in place to provide the much-needed crypto agility

required for increased future-proofing. Cybersecurity is an ever-evolving landscape

and as such, there is a need for an architecture that can make transitions in algorithms

as seamless as possible. Lack of crypto agility felt like the final problem that needs

to be solved in our search for efficiency.

Seamless integration between technologies of blockchain and IIoT will require

lightweight cryptographic systems as well as their more robust counterparts working

in sync. In this work, we explore an efficient method for this convergence by using

cryptographic hash functions efficiently depending on the computational power of

the devices. The main objective of the proposed model is to reduce the computa-

tional burden and block creation latency that the current blockchain suffers from and

optimally use the computational resources based on the processor’s power.

4

Proposed Model

A model is proposed that focuses on the adaptation of an architecture of blockchain

that dynamically assigns efficient hash functions according to the required needs and

available computational power to overcome some of the challenges of blockchain-

IIoTintegration.Theblockchainfieldisanever-growingareainwhichresearchersare

finding new possible ways to improve core blockchain technology itself. Blockchain

decentralization property is mainly because of the hash function, the proper selection

of this hash function is fundamental to the efficiency of the system. The challenge

to implement these technologies is due to the resource-constrained nature of IIoT.

Blockchain as a technology is still new from an industrial standpoint. While we can

see blockchain being adopted over traditional databases in a number of industries,

there are still some hurdles on its way to widespread industry adoption, especially

for providing security in IoT-based applications over traditional centralized systems.