Smart-contract-based blockchain-enabled decentralized scheme for improving smart-grid security

Intelligent devices with embedded technology have proliferated dramatically over the past decade. The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a transformational force, advancing traditional systems to previously unattainable levels of intelligence. Smart cities, transportation, healthcare, supply-chain management, agriculture, water management, and smart grid (SG) systems are among the industries where the IoT has found applications. These developments are demonstrated by the integration of IoT systems into SG networks, offering significant improvements in sustainability, dependability, and efficiency. Such systems use various IoT devices to continuously monitor the environment and transmit data for processing and analysis. Nonetheless, the growth of the IoT has introduced security vulnerabilities, including concerns about user identification, data integrity, and trust, especially in SG applications. This study aims to resolve several security challenges in IoT-enabled SG applications to support sustainability. The proposed scheme effectively tackles critical security requirements such as data integrity, user anonymity, distributed storage, trust management, and decentralized architecture. The security concerns addressed by blockchain technology include preserving data integrity, fostering trust, providing secure communication, and enabling effective monitoring. Smart contracts automate system processes and are effective in maintaining user trust. The experimental findings support the viability of the proposed system, demonstrating a computational cost of 3.150 ms and a communication overhead of 992 bits, both representing improvements over various existing solutions. Additionally, the deployment cost for the smart contract is found to be 5.64 USD with a writing cost of 2.89 USD, both of which are lower than the costs associated with comparable approaches.