Enhancing IoT security

In recent times, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which are common in most industries, possess several serious drawbacks: High costs, difficulties in their maintenance, and not being secure against hacking. All these issues further worsen due to the centralized nature of IoT systems today, which makes them prone to tampering and single failures. Blockchain technology, on its part, provides a decentralized, immutable, and thus transparent ledger system that looks promising against such challenges. Instead of central authorities, blockchain deploys consensus mechanisms to bring security, trust, and efficiency to IoT networks. The importance of the work, therefore, lies in the fact that it underlines how blockchain, through integrated analysis, might become the path to a revolution in applications for IoT by bringing robust solutions to its existing limitations. Given that IoT will further expand and integrate into daily life and industry, securing its reliability becomes one of the main issues. The review has highlighted the transformative potential of integrating blockchain with IoT, from smart manufacturing and supply chain management to healthcare and smart grids. Further, the inherent challenges of their integration have also been highlighted with emphasis on the need for further research so that these challenges can be addressed. Accordingly, a more secure, efficient, and reliable IoT ecosystem can be developed.