Integration of Blockchain and Cloud of Things: Architecture, Applications and Challenges
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The blockchain technology is taking the world by storm. Blockchain with its decentralized, transparent and secure nature has emerged as a disruptive technology for the next generation of numerous industrial applications. One of them is Cloud of Things enabled by the corporation of Cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT). In this context, blockchain provides innovative solutions to address challenges in Cloud of Things in terms of decentralization, data privacy and network security, while Cloud of Things offer elasticity and scalability functionalities to improve efficiency of blockchain operations. Therefore, a novel paradigm of blockchain and Cloud of Things combination, called as the BCoT model, is regarded as a promising enabler for a wide range of applied scenarios. In this paper, we present a state-of-the-art review on the BCoT integration to provide general readers with the overview of the BCoT in various aspects, including background knowledge, motivation, and integrated architecture. Particularly, we also provide an in-depth survey of BCoT applications with extensive discussion on use-case domains as well as their opportunities in 5G networks and beyond. Compared to other relevant survey papers, we present a thorough review on the emerging BCoT platforms and services which are useful to researchers and application developers in identifying and catching up with the latest technologies in this fast-growing field. Moreover, research challenges and future directions are also highlighted.
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