Special Issue on The Convergence of Intelligent Internet of Things : Special Issue on Convergence of Intelligent Internet of Things and Distributed Ledger Technology

Digital revolution is characterized by the convergence of technologies—from cloud computing to artificial intelligence, big data, DLT and IoT—that is blurring the lines between physical and digital worlds. Although the IoT and DLT, of which blockchain is a popular example, are two very different technologies, the fusion of DLT and IoT technologies is an unprecedented paradigm shift that is expected to disrupt both current and future systems in various fields. In particular, DLT has exactly what is needed to fix the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of IoT, in particular in terms of security. Although the convergence of IoT and DLT can potentially tackle major shortcomings of today’s solutions, its adoption is still in its infancy phase, suffering from various issues, including lack of scalability, consensus algorithms, data privacy, efficiency, availability, storage, interoperability, standardization, as well as the lack of consensus towards any reference models or best practices that specify how DLT should be utilized in IoT, among others. This special issue aims to bring together researchers and experts in order to foster the investigations on cutting-edge IoT-DLT solutions and allowing one to contribute to advancing the convergence of DLT and IoT.