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Blockchain Technologies: Communications and Industry 4.0

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2023) | Viewed by 8077

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Wei Liang

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Guest Editor

1. College of Information Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 41000, China
2. School of Computer Science and Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China
Interests: blockchain technology; cross-chain technology; data privacy and management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Mirjana Ivanović

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Guest Editor

Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Interests: software agents; data mining; case-based reasoning; learning technologies; software engineering; social networks
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Hai Jiang

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Guest Editor

Department of Computer Science, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR 72401, USA
Interests: cloud computing; parallel & distributed systems; high performance computing & networking; big data; application, computer & network security; cryptography; quantum computing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Blockchain technology has become increasingly available across society and industries because it is essentially an ever-growing list of transactions that are verified, permanently recorded and linked in chronological order, which, in turn, can help to organize data well. Blockchain is a foundational technology that leads to the paradigm shift from “trusting humans” to “trusting machines” and from “centralized” to “decentralized” control. From banking and secure communications to healthcare and ride-sharing, blockchain will hugely impact our future. However, at the same time, as the blockchain application scenarios continue to expand, some of its limitations are gradually being exposed. In some specific scenarios, it is difficult to meet the corresponding speed and cost requirements, hindering the further development of blockchain. The two persistent issues remain a lack of interoperability and scalability. As more computers join the peer-to-peer network, the entire system’s efficiency typically degrades. We must find a way to boost scalability and throughput and address latency problems. We also need to solve the interworking problem between blockchains.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the foreseeable impact of blockchain on society and industry, and in particular, realize the value of circulation technology, scaling solutions and other technologies that can help blockchain be applied to society and industry well. Since blockchain is still relatively new, and many experiments will fail before they succeed, this Special Issue is open to all manuscripts that contribute significantly to cross-chain technology, on-chain and off-chain scaling solutions, and much more. Both theoretical and experimental studies are welcome, as well as comprehensive reviews and survey papers.

Examples of topics that might be addressed include (but are not restricted to):

Application of cross-chain technology in blockchain enterprise businesses;
Blockchain-based social networks;
Blockchain-based voting systems for urban and regional planning decisions;
Blockchain-based reliable and efficient education information platform;
Blockchain for social impact;
Blockchain for universal data storage;
Blockchain storage and certification technology for law enforcement and security;
Design and implementation issues of Metaverse system industry;
Extensible public blockchain system based on cross-chain research;
Integration of blockchain into existing business infrastructure;
Reliable media production and distribution technology based on blockchain;
Research on blockchain multilayer scaling solutions;
Research on sharding technology;
Research on lightning network technology;
Research on Raiden network technology;
Research on segregated witness technology;
Supply chain management based on blockchain systems;
The realization and protection of anonymous personal data on messaging apps using blockchain.

We encourage multidisciplinary research in computer science, economics, information systems, sociology and other disciplines.

Dr. Wei Liang
Prof. Dr. Mirjana Ivanović
Prof. Dr. Hai Jiang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

blockchain technology
blockchain performance improvement
cross-chain technology
data privacy and management
identity management
information security
on-chain scaling
off-chain scaling
society and industry

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 2643 KiB

Open AccessArticle

GATCF: Graph Attention Collaborative Filtering for Reliable Blockchain Services Selection in BaaS

by Yuxiang Zeng, Jianlong Xu, Zhuohua Zhang, Caiyi Chen, Qianyu Ling and Jialin Wang

Sensors 2023, 23(15), 6775; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23156775 - 28 Jul 2023

Viewed by 863

Abstract

Blockchain technology is a decentralized ledger that allows the development of applications without the need for a trusted third party. As service-oriented computing continues to evolve, the concept of Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) has emerged, providing a simplified approach to building blockchain-based applications. The growing demand for blockchain services has resulted in numerous options with overlapping functionalities, making it difficult to select the most reliable ones for users. Choosing the best-trusted blockchain peers is a challenging task due to the sparsity of data caused by the multitude of available options. To address the aforementioned issues, we propose a novel collaborative filtering-based matrix completion model called Graph Attention Collaborative Filtering (GATCF), which leverages both graph attention and collaborative filtering techniques to recover the missing values in the data matrix effectively. By incorporating graph attention into the matrix completion process, GATCF can effectively capture the underlying dependencies and interactions between users or peers, and thus mitigate the data sparsity scenarios. We conduct extensive experiments on a large-scale dataset to assess our performance. Results show that our proposed method achieves higher recovery accuracy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Technologies: Communications and Industry 4.0)

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22 pages, 3275 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Blockchain-Based Trustworthy Model Evaluation Framework for Deep Learning and Its Application in Moving Object Segmentation

by Rui Jiang, Jiatao Li, Weifeng Bu and Xiang Shen

Sensors 2023, 23(14), 6492; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23146492 - 18 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1092

Abstract

Model evaluation is critical in deep learning. However, the traditional model evaluation approach is susceptible to issues of untrustworthiness, including insecure data and model sharing, insecure model training, incorrect model evaluation, centralized model evaluation, and evaluation results that can be tampered easily. To minimize these untrustworthiness issues, this paper proposes a blockchain-based model evaluation framework. The framework consists of an access control layer, a storage layer, a model training layer, and a model evaluation layer. The access control layer facilitates secure resource sharing. To achieve fine-grained and flexible access control, an attribute-based access control model combining the idea of a role-based access control model is adopted. A smart contract is designed to manage the access control policies stored in the blockchain ledger. The storage layer ensures efficient and secure storage of resources. Resource files are stored in the IPFS, with the encrypted results of their index addresses recorded in the blockchain ledger. Another smart contract is designed to achieve decentralized and efficient management of resource records. The model training layer performs training on users’ servers, and, to ensure security, the training data must have records in the blockchain. The model evaluation layer utilizes the recorded data to evaluate the recorded models. A method in the smart contract of the storage layer is designed to enable evaluation, with scores automatically uploaded as a resource attribute. The proposed framework is applied to deep learning-based motion object segmentation, demonstrating its key functionalities. Furthermore, we validated the storage strategy adopted by the framework, and the trustworthiness of the framework is also analyzed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Technologies: Communications and Industry 4.0)

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21 pages, 5753 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Video Target Tracking and Correction Model with Blockchain and Robust Feature Location

by Yiru Jiang, Dezhi Han, Mingming Cui, Yuan Fan and Yachao Zhou

Sensors 2023, 23(5), 2408; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23052408 - 22 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2335

Abstract

In this paper, a cutting-edge video target tracking system is proposed, combining feature location and blockchain technology. The location method makes full use of feature registration and received trajectory correction signals to achieve high accuracy in tracking targets. The system leverages the power of blockchain technology to address the challenge of insufficient accuracy in tracking occluded targets, by organizing the video target tracking tasks in a secure and decentralized manner. To further enhance the accuracy of small target tracking, the system uses adaptive clustering to guide the target location process across different nodes. In addition, the paper also presents an unmentioned trajectory optimization post-processing approach, which is based on result stabilization, effectively reducing inter-frame jitter. This post-processing step plays a crucial role in maintaining a smooth and stable track of the target, even in challenging scenarios such as fast movements or significant occlusions. Experimental results on CarChase2 (TLP) and basketball stand advertisements (BSA) datasets show that the proposed feature location method is better than the existing methods, achieving a recall of 51% (27.96+) and a precision of 66.5% (40.04+) in the CarChase2 dataset and recall of 85.52 (11.75+)% and precision of 47.48 (39.2+)% in the BSA dataset. Moreover, the proposed video target tracking and correction model performs better than the existing tracking model, showing a recall of 97.1% and a precision of 92.6% in the CarChase2 dataset and an average recall of 75.9% and mAP of 82.87% in the BSA dataset, respectively. The proposed system presents a comprehensive solution for video target tracking, offering high accuracy, robustness, and stability. The combination of robust feature location, blockchain technology, and trajectory optimization post-processing makes it a promising approach for a wide range of video analytics applications, such as surveillance, autonomous driving, and sports analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Technologies: Communications and Industry 4.0)

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Review

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26 pages, 2888 KiB

Open AccessReview

Post-Quantum Security: Opportunities and Challenges

by Silong Li, Yuxiang Chen, Lin Chen, Jing Liao, Chanchan Kuang, Kuanching Li, Wei Liang and Naixue Xiong

Sensors 2023, 23(21), 8744; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23218744 - 26 Oct 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2792

Abstract

Cryptography is very essential in our daily life, not only for confidentiality of information, but also for information integrity verification, non-repudiation, authentication, and other aspects. In modern society, cryptography is widely used; everything from personal life to national security is inseparable from it. With the emergence of quantum computing, traditional encryption methods are at risk of being cracked. People are beginning to explore methods for defending against quantum computer attacks. Among the methods currently developed, quantum key distribution is a technology that uses the principles of quantum mechanics to distribute keys. Post-quantum encryption algorithms are encryption methods that rely on mathematical challenges that quantum computers cannot solve quickly to ensure security. In this study, an integrated review of post-quantum encryption algorithms is conducted from the perspective of traditional cryptography. First, the concept and development background of post-quantum encryption are introduced. Then, the post-quantum encryption algorithm Kyber is studied. Finally, the achievements, difficulties and outstanding problems in this emerging field are summarized, and some predictions for the future are made. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain Technologies: Communications and Industry 4.0)

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