Evaluation of Decentralized Alternatives to PKI for IoT Devices : A litterature study and proof of concept implementation to explore the viability of replacing PKI with decentralized alternatives

Sammanfattning: This report is the result of an investigation into current possibilities to use blockchain or other distributed ledger technologies for identification and authentication in an Internet-of-Things (IoT) setting. During the course of the project, several different distributed ledgers have been examined and their strengths and weaknesses analyzed with respect to their potential use in connected devices with constrained resources. After investigating whether there are any solutions providing identification and authentication through distributed ledgers available today, one was chosen for implementation in a Proof of Concept (PoC), where the solution was tested on a certain piece of hardware representing an IoT-device. The performance of the PoC was then analyzed and evaluated. The results of the literature study as well as the tests on the PoC led to the conclusion that a number of factors prevent such a solution from being a viable alternative to current solutions. However, as the technology involved is still in its infancy and developing rapidly, this verdict may be subject to change in the future. The advancements required for such a solution to become viable are: improved consensus models, light nodes and possibly fundamentally new and improved distributed ledger technologies.