Advances in Blockchain Technologies towards Identity Management and Its Applications in ICT and IoT

Dear Colleagues,

Blockchain, being the main representative of distributed ledger technology (DLT), is almost past the disillusionment part of its hype curve (indicated by Gartner) and slowly reaching the slope of enlightenment. From a practical standpoint, this means that we are finally beyond the point of false and inflated expectations, which is common with emerging technology and was notably the case with blockchain due to its relation to cryptocurrencies and the “gold-rush” phenomenon. The key to this process has been the continued high-quality research and development activities worldwide. By April 2020 approximately 26,000 scientific articles had been presented and published, in various forms and by various publishers and journals.   

Nevertheless, the research field is still in its infancy. We continue to face scalability, efficiency, and identity management challenges, as well as challenges with use in real-world applications. Often, ICT solutions use the technology but adjust it in such a manner that it loses positive features such as decentralization, immutability, and anonymity. The Internet of Things is already fully present and is, with each new development, more integrated in ICT solutions. Many researchers and developers saw the opportunity to combine these two technologies due to their similar topologies; however, this has yet to prove efficient. If not approached correctly, we may end up with the integration of two worlds, which will bring significant unneeded baggage. Furthermore, with the emergence of wireless technologies, such as 5G, the opportunity for full decentralization for trusted IoT data collection and processing could lead to numerous innovative research directions and applications.

This Special Issue, therefore, intends to address broad challenges and open questions, and answer questions related to distributed ledger technologies and their involvement in ICT and/or IOT applications. We are searching for original unpublished high-quality research articles on the latest advances and findings in theoretical or practical aspects of the field that can shed light on the challenges discussed above. We will accept review articles only if they provide readers with a thorough methodology and results that apply to a multitude of professionals in the industry as well as academia. They must also present quality insights and directions for possible future research.

The potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• DLT or blockchain in IoT: architecture and applications;
• Decentralized ICT solutions incorporating IoT;
• Interoperable applications within IoT and DLT;
• DLT platforms explicitly for IoT;
• DLT or blockchain-based IoT device identity management, authentication, and authorization;
• Identity management in IoT applications using self-sovereign-infrastructure;
• Decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs);
• DLT or blockchain frameworks, tools, and platforms for IoT;
• Optimization of IoT verticals using DLT;
• DLT or blockchain-based solutions for edge and fog computing;
• DLT or blockchain-based business models that include IoT;
• Smart contracts for IoT;
• Performance of DLT or blockchain features and functions applied to IoT devices.

Additionally:

• Using IoT and DLT or blockchain for quality control or audit trail;
• Object detection, classification, and tracking using IoT and DLT or blockchain;
• Trusted sensors backed by DLT or blockchain;
• Applications in supply chains backed by IoT and DLT or blockchain;
• DLT or blockchain in industrial IoT applications;
• DLT or blockchain-based access control for IoT;
• Legal issues connected to the technology part of DLT or blockchain;
• Biometric blockchain integration for IoT. 

Assis. Prof. Dr. Muhamed Turkanović
Prof. Dr. Ian Taylor
Guest Editors

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