Abstract:

We present, in the form of a proof of concept, a permissioned blockchain framework that attains accountability within a system containing embedded devices. Accountability is a desirable property of distributed systems that enables the detection, identification, and removal of faulty or malicious behavior. It is a complementary approach to Byzantine fault tolerance, which is concerned with ensuring continued functioning of the system in the presence of Byzantine faults. Our proof of concept consists of a Raspberry Pi acting as a human interface; the blockchain is implemented in Hyperledger Fabric and the Raspberry Pi runs a lightweight blockchain client to minimize computational burden. The application shows that we are able to use smart contracts to detect and identify faulty or malicious hardware, and the permissioning framework to remove it.