Bust the myth: Can Blockchain secure the IoT?

#Discussion(Security) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

Most of the writers of these articles read something somewhere about blockchain and heard a few things about IoT and then feel the urge to write a buzzword-salad post about it. Repeating the same BS again and again, without thinking the key questions through at all:

What is the problem with IoT security? What is the problem with the authentication, provisioning and update management of these systems?

The simple fact is that blockchain CANNOT address any of these issues to protect a single IoT node.
You have a small bookshop with loyal customers and some new customers. You are in connection with publishers, they sell the books to you, and your customers will order/buy their copies in your shop and from your online store. You, as a small enterprise, must employ an accountant to manage the paperwork.

Do you really need the accountant

– to buy from the publishers? NO!

– to sell the books to the customers? NO!

– to operate your shop, clean the floor etc? NO!

Why do you need the accountant then? Because she does the paperwork by recording and processing the data as you send it over.

What contact do the publishers and your customers have with the accountant? None, they don’t even know her name, they do not need it to do business.

What happens if an incorrect invoice or check arrives? The accountant will not recognize it as incorrect transaction data, she only processes the information, trusting in you as the business owner who provides the material. The accountant can securely store your documents, guarantee they remain in their original form and without modifications by placing them in an ultra secure safe.

The analogy above is ideal to illustrate the forced ‘marriage’ between the IoT and the blockchain.

Blockchain can store the posted information and ensure that nobody can modify it later, but that is as far as its capability goes. It is your accountant. But it can’t and won’t do anything with the source of the information or authenticity of it. It can simply ‘stamp’ the transaction and put it into ‘the safe’. As I said previously, it is really just a ledger.

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