Validating the Adoption of Heterogeneous Internet of Things with Blockchain

Abstract

Emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain have affected the digital transformation. Blockchain, on the one hand, was initially developed for the purpose of financial trading due to its robustness especially for fault tolerance and cryptographic security in addition to its decentralized architecture. IoT, on the other hand, is an open interconnected network of smart devices able to communicate simultaneously. This arises a challenge in privacy and security, specifically for the data being exchanged. To overcome this, studies have focused on the blockchain to resolve the security and privacy issues of IoT. Indeed, limited studies have proposed to assess blockchain’s viability for IoT and the associated challenges. In this paper, a conceptual model has proposed to identify the crucial factors affecting the adoption of blockchain in IoT. The model consists of four dimensions of factors that we assume will affect the adoption of the two technologies. The dimensions are: attitude-related factors, social influence related factors, data-related factors, and security-related factors. This model is validated through a survey that was distributed between professionals in blockchain and IoT. The findings show a significant impact of data-related factors on the adoption of blockchain in IoT and the intention to use them. The model can play an important role in the development of strategies, standards, and performance assessment.