An Efficient Hash-Selection-Based Blockchain …

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Fig. 3 Hashing an input message

There can be some rare applications in IIoT that strictly require the usage of a

single hash algorithm throughout the entire system. In these cases, a slightly modified

version of this model can be used. In the modified architecture, because different hash

algorithms can’t be assigned to the different tiers of devices, instead different target

mathematical difficulties are assigned to different tiers of devices in the consensus

algorithm with one single hash algorithm being used throughout the entire network.

This model is fully modular and efficient as well as realistic due to different hash

algorithms used per tier depending on the architectures of the processor involved and

hardware support, while also having alternate provisions for rare use cases where

multiple hash algorithms may cause problems. The architecture shown here provides

a unique level of flexibility and efficiency as well as security for IIoT.

5

Methodology

In order to find the most efficient way to implement blockchain for industrial appli-

cations, initially, we attempted to optimize the various algorithms in use to be as

lightweight as possible. But soon we realized that there is a big drawback to such a

method, due to the sheer range of computational devices in active use in an industrial

environment with huge variation in computational power, ranging from a single-

thread processor with very low clock speed to multi-microprocessor systems with

hundreds of threads and several dozens of cores. While optimizing for the lowest

common denominator for computational power is a valid option, it also creates a

scenario where most of the computational power of the higher-powered devices

remains unused. This wasted potential is counterproductive to our endeavour in

search of efficiency.