PurposeThe aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of blockchain for identity management (IdM) in the context of the Internet of things (IoT) while focusing on privacy-preserving approaches and its applications to healthcare scenarios.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes the most relevant IdM systems focusing on privacy preserving with or without blockchain and evaluates them against ten selected features grouped into three categories: privacy, usability and IoT. Then, it is important to analyze whether blockchain should be used in all scenarios, according to the importance of each feature for different use cases.FindingsBased on analysis of existing systems, Sovrin is the IdM system that covers more features and is based on blockchain. For each of the evaluated use cases, Sovrin and UniquID were the chosen systems.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper opens new lines of research for IdM systems in IoT, including challenges related to device identity definition, privacy preserving and new security mechanisms.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the ongoing research in IdM systems for IoT. The adequacy of blockchain is not only analyzed considering the technology; instead the authors analyze its application to real environments considering the required features for each use case.
The ever-increasing pervasiveness of edge computing is creating challenges for users' privacy. Given this state-of-affairs, we decided to pursuit an overview and future directions for novel approaches for privacy-preserving computation. In this process, we highlight of some most important privacy concepts and their application to both Fog Computing and IoT. While we do not offer a definitive solution for privacy, our work explores several ideas that might lead to significant advances in the area. For this purpose, we explored current literature and discuss the integration of several different approaches. We start by first exploring three major concepts, namely, blockchain, IoT/fog computing and Multi-Party Computation (MPC). These concepts provide the necessary context and background for developing possible research paths and ideas. For blockchain, we describe some practical frameworks and applications and then describe which ones can have an impact in IoT. We then move to investigate and describe current approaches that combine blockchain, IoT and fog computing. Lastly, we explore MPC. Since it is a concept that promotes privacy without a third party, we explore its use in conjunction with the aforementioned concepts. Furthermore, we offer an overview on some potential frameworks for MPC and assess the feasibility of their integration with other privacy concepts. We conclude by discussing current unsolved problems and possible future research directions.
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