Abstract
Blockchain is among the most promising new technologies due to its unique features, encompassing security, privacy, data integrity, and immutability. Blockchain applications include cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Recently, many other applications have begun to deploy blockchain in their systems. These applications include internet of things (IoT) environments. Although deploying blockchain in IoT architecture has yielded numerous advantages, issues and challenges have arisen that require further research. Most IoT devices and platforms have limited storage capacity, low battery power, and limited hardware resources for computation and network communication. Thus, energy efficiency is a critical factor in these devices. On the other hand, blockchain requires extensive resources and high computational capabilities for mining and communication processes. Balancing computation complexity and IoT resources is a fundamental design challenge in implementing blockchain functions, including the hash function, which is crucial to blockchain design for the mining process. In this study, we present a literature review on the common hash functions used in blockchain-based applications, in addition to the lightweight hash functions available in literature. We evaluate and test the common lightweight hash functions (SPONGENT, PHOTON, and QUARK) on FPGA platforms to determine which is most suitable for blockchain-IoT devices. Moreover, we assess lightweight hash functions in terms of area, power, energy, security, and throughput. The results show tradeoffs between these hash functions. SPONGENT performs best on security and throughput. QUARK consumes the least power and energy but has the lowest security parameters. PHOTON utilizes less area and offers a balance between multiple performance metrics (area, energy, and security), rendering it the most suitable lightweight hash function.











Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Code availability
The authors declare that the code is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Nakamoto, S., Bitcoin, A.: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Bitcoin. URL: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf, pp. 1–9 (2008)
Ferrag, M.A., Derdour, M., Mukherjee, M., Derhab, A., Maglaras, L., Janicke, H.: Blockchain technologies for the internet of things: Research issues and challenges. IEEE Internet Things J. 6(2), 2188–2204 (2018)
“Ethereum white paper.” https://cryptorating.eu/whitepapers/Ethereum/Ethereum_white_paper.pdf
Wood, G.: Ethereum: a secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. Ethereum Project Yellow Paper 151(2014), 1–32 (2014)
Soulsby, M.: The benefits of the Ethereum Blockchain. (2018). https://medium.com/plutus-it/the-benefits-of-the-ethereum-blockchain-f332e62f7659
Kosba, A., Shi, M.E., Wen, Z., Papamanthou, C : 2016 Hawk: the blockchain model of cryptography and privacy-preserving smart contracts, In: IEEE symposium on security and privacy (SP), pp. 839–858 (2016)
Wu, M., Wang, K., Cai, X., Guo, S., Guo, M., Rong, C.: A comprehensive survey of blockchain: from theory to IoT applications and beyond. IEEE Internet Things J. 6(5), 8114–8154 (2019)
Xia, F., Yang, L.T., Wang, L., Vinel, A.: Internet of things. Int. J. Commun Syst 25(9), 1101 (2012)
Stallings, W.: The internet of things: network and security architecture. Internet Protoc. J 18(4), 2–24 (2015)
Ali, A., Latif, S., Qadir, J., Kanhere, S., Singh, J., Crowcroft, J.: Blockchain and the future of the internet: a comprehensive review. arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.00733, pp. 1–21, (2019)
Mehmood, Y., Ahmad, F., Yaqoob, I., Adnane, A., Imran, M., Guizani, S.: Internet-of-things-based smart cities: Recent advances and challenges. IEEE Commun. Mag. 55(9), 16–24 (2017)
Sultan, A., Mushtaq, M.A, Abubakar, M.: IOT security issues via blockchain: a review paper. In: Proceedings of the 2019 International Conference on Blockchain Technology, pp. 60–65 (2019)
Ahmed, A.W., Ahmed, M.M., Khan, O.A., Shah, M.A.: A comprehensive analysis on the security threats and their countermeasures of IoT. Int. J. Adv. Comput. Sci. Appl. 8(7), 489–501 (2017)
Oravec, J.A.: Emerging ‘cyber hygiene’ practices for the Internet of Things (IoT): professional issues in consulting clients and educating users on IoT privacy and security. In: IEEE Int Professional Communication Conference (ProComm), pp. 1–5 (2017)
Fernández-Caramés, T.M., Fraga-Lamas, P.: A review on the use of blockchain for the internet of things. IEEE Access 6, 32979–33001 (2018)
Mohd, B.J., Hayajneh, T., Vasilakos, A.V.: A survey on lightweight block ciphers for low-resource devices: comparative study and open issues. J. Netw. Comput. Appl. 58, 73–93 (2015)
Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices installed base worldwide from 2015 to 2025. https://www.statista.com/statistics/471264/iot-number-of-connected-devices-worldwide/. By 2015, forecasts suggest that there will be, the internet and can “communicate” with each other
Dai, H.-N., Zheng, Z., Zhang, Y.: Blockchain for internet of things: a survey. IEEE Internet Things J. 6(5), 8076–8094 (2019)
“IoT and Blockchain Convergence: Benefits and Challenges.” https://iot.ieee.org/newsletter/january-2017/iot-and-blockchain-convergence-benefits-and-challenges.html
Li, N., Liu, D., Nepal, S.: Lightweight mutual authentication for IoT and its applications. IEEE Trans. Sustain. Comput. 2(4), 359–370 (2017)
Suárez-Albela, M., Fernández-Caramés, T.M., Fraga-Lamas, P., Castedo, L.: A practical evaluation of a high-security energy-efficient gateway for IoT fog computing applications. Sensors 17(9), 1978 (2017)
Suárez-Albela, M., Fraga-Lamas, P., Fernández-Caramés, T.M.: A practical evaluation on RSA and ECC-based cipher suites for IoT high-security energy-efficient fog and mist computing devices. Sensors 18(11), 3868 (2018)
Ramachandran, G.S., Krishnamachari, B.: Blockchain for the IoT: opportunities and challenges. arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.02818 (2018)
Ometov, A., et al.: Feasibility characterization of cryptographic primitives for constrained (wearable) IoT devices., In: IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communication Workshops (PerCom Workshops), pp. 1–6 (2016)
Lunardi, R.C., Michelin, R.A., Neu, C.V., Zorzo, A.F.: Distributed access control on iot ledger-based architecture. In: NOMS 2018–2018 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium, pp. 1–7 (2018)
Feldhofer, M., Rechberger, C.: A case against currently used hash functions in RFID protocols. In: OTM Confederated International Conferences. On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems, pp. 372–381 (2006)
Degnan, B., Rose, E., Durgin, G., Maeda, S.: A modified simon cipher 4-block key schedule as a hash. IEEE J. Radio Freq. Identif 1(1), 85–89 (2017)
Hirose, S., Ideguchi, K., Kuwakado, H., Owada, T., Preneel, B., Yoshida, H.: An AES based 256-bit hash function for lightweight applications: Lesamnta-LW. IEICE Trans. Fundam. Electron. Commun. Comput. Sci. 95(1), 89–99 (2012)
“Original Scrypt Function for Tarsnap.” http://www.tarsnap.com/scrypt.html
“X11 Official Documentation for Dash,” [Online]. Available: https://dashpay.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DOC/pages/1146918/X11
Aumasson, J.-P., Henzen, L., Meier, W., Phan, R.C.-W.: Sha-3 proposal blake. Submission to NIST 229, 230 (2008)
“Myriad.” http://myriadcoin.org/
Seok, B., Park, J., Park, J.H.: A lightweight hash-based blockchain architecture for industrial IoT. Appl. Sci. 9(18), 3740 (2019)
Abdulqadder, I.H., Zhou, S., Zou, D., Aziz, I.T., Akber, S.M.A.: Bloc-sec: blockchain-based lightweight security architecture for 5G/B5G enabled SDN/NFV cloud of IoT. In: 2020 IEEE 20th International Conference on Communication Technology (ICCT), pp. 499–507 (2020)
Guruprakash, J., Koppu, S.: EC-ElGamal and Genetic algorithm-based enhancement for lightweight scalable blockchain in IoT domain. IEEE Access 8, 141269–141281 (2020)
Liu, Y., Wang, K., Lin, Y., Xu, W.: $\mathsf LightChain $: A lightweight blockchain system for industrial internet of things. IEEE Trans. Industr. Inf. 15(6), 3571–3581 (2019)
Puthal, D., Mohanty, S.P., Yanambaka, V. P., Kougianos, E.: Poah: a novel consensus algorithm for fast scalable private blockchain for large-scale iot frameworks. arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.07297, pp. 1–26 (2020)
Finlow-Bates, K.: A lightweight blockchain consensus protocol. In: Computer Security Resource Center. Available at https://www.chainfrog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/consensus.pdf. Accessed 8 July 2018 (2017)
Khalid, U., Asim, M., Baker, T., Hung, P.C.K., Tariq, M.A., Rafferty, L.: A decentralized lightweight blockchain-based authentication mechanism for IoT systems. Clust. Comput. 15, 1–21 (2020)
Wang, D., Zhong, D., Souri, A.: Energy management solutions in the internet of things applications: technical analysis and new research directions. Cognit Syst Res. 67, 33–49 (2021)
Sisi, Z., Souri, A.: Blockchain technology for energy‐aware mobile crowd sensing approaches in Internet of Things. In: Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies, p. e4217.
Li, D., Deng, L., Cai, Z., Souri, A.: Blockchain as a service models in the Internet of Things management: systematic review. In: Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies, p. e4139 (2020)
Rogaway, P., Shrimpton, T.: Cryptographic hash-function basics: definitions, implications, and separations for preimage resistance, second-preimage resistance, and collision resistance. In: International workshop on fast software encryption, pp. 371–388 (2004)
Taylor, M.B.: The evolution of bitcoin hardware. Computer 50(9), 58–66 (2017)
Magaki, I., Khazraee, M., Gutierrez, L.V., Taylor, M.B.: Asic clouds: Specializing the datacentre. In: 2016 ACM/IEEE 43rd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), pp. 178–190 (2016)
Mohd, B.J., Hayajneh, T., Khalaf, Z.A., Yousef, K.M.A.: Modeling and optimization of the lightweight HIGHT block cipher design with FPGA implementation. Secur. Commun. Netw. 9(13), 2200–2216 (2016)
Wollinger, T., Guajardo, J., Paar, C.: Security on FPGAs: state-of-the-art implementations and attacks. ACM Trans. Embed. Comput. Syst. (TECS) 3(3), 534–574 (2004)
Kasgar, A.K., Agrawal, J., Shahu, S.: New modified 256-bit MD 5 algorithm with SHA compression function. Int. J. Comput. Appl. 42(12), 15 (2012)
Van Assche, G., Van Keer, R., Bertoni, G., Daemen, J., Hoffert, S., Peeters, M., “Team Keccak.” https://keccak.team/
“Ethereum. Ethash.” https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Ethash
Kavun, E.B., Yalcin, T.: A lightweight implementation of keccak hash function for radio-frequency identification applications. In: International Workshop on Radio Frequency Identification: Security and Privacy Issues, pp. 258–269 (2010)
Percival, C.: Stronger key derivation via sequential memory-hard functions. BSDCan, pp. 1–16, (2009)
Ferdous, M.S., Chowdhury, M.J.M., Hoque, M.A., Colman, A.: Blockchain consensus algorithms: a survey. pp. 1–39 (2020)
“Cryptocurrency Algorithms.” https://cryptorival.com/algorithms
Aumasson, J.-P., Henzen, L., Meier, W., Naya-Plasencia, M.: Quark: a lightweight hash. In: International Workshop on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, pp. 1–15, (2010)
Seigen, M.J., Nieminen, T.: Neocortex, and AM Juarez,‘CryptoNight hash function. (2013)
Doering, J.: Neoscrypt, a strong memory intensive key derivation function. (2014)
Biryukov, A., Khovratovich, D.: Equihash: asymmetric proof-of-work based on the generalized birthday problem. Ledger 2, 1–30 (2017)
“Xevan Algorithm” https://coinguides.org/xevan-coins/
“Lightweight Hash Functions” https://www.cryptolux.org/index.php/Lightweight_Hash_Functions#SPN-Hash
Rao, V., Prema, K.V.: Light-weight hashing method for user authentication in Internet-of-Things. Ad Hoc Netw. 89, 97–106 (2019)
Balasch, J. et al.: Compact implementation and performance evaluation of hash functions in attiny devices. In: International Conference on Smart Card Research and Advanced Applications, pp. 158–172 (2012)
Patrick, C., Schaumont, P.: The role of energy in the lightweight cryptographic profile. (2016)
Dhanda, S.S., Singh, B., Jindal, P.: Lightweight cryptography: a solution to secure IoT. In: Wireless Personal Communications, pp. 1–34 (2020)
Buchanan, W.J., Li, S., Asif, R.: Lightweight cryptography methods. J. Cyber Secur. Technol. 1(3–4), 187–201 (2017)
Hammad, B.T., Jamil, N., Rusli, M.E., Raba, M.R., Ahmed, I.T.: Implementation of lightweight cryptographic primitives. J. Theor. Appl. Inform. Technol. 95(19), 5126–5141 (2017)
Mikami, S., Watanabe, D., Sakiyama, K.: A performance evaluation of cryptographic algorithms on FPGA and ASIC on RFID design flow. In: 2016 4th International Conference on Information and Communication Technology (ICoICT), pp. 1–6 (2016)
Jungk, B., Lima, L.R., Hiller, M.: A systematic study of lightweight hash functions on FPGAs. In: 2014 International Conference on ReConFigurable Computing and FPGAs (ReConFig14), pp. 1–6 (2014)
Lara-Nino, C.A., Morales-Sandoval, M., Diaz-Perez, A.: Small lightweight hash functions in FPGA. In: 2018 IEEE 9th Latin American Symposium on Circuits & Systems (LASCAS), pp. 1–4, (2018)
Anandakumar, N.N., Peyrin, T., Poschmann, A.: A very compact FPGA implementation of LED and PHOTON. In: International Conference on Cryptology in India, pp. 304–321 (2014)
Meuser, T., Schmidt, L., Wiesmaier, A.: Comparing lightweight hash functions–PHOTON & quark. (2015)
Yang, Y., Wu, L., Yin, G., Li, L., Zhao, H.: A survey on security and privacy issues in Internet-of-Things. IEEE Internet Things J. 4(5), 1250–1258 (2017)
Zhou, Z. et al.: EEP2P: an energy-efficient and economy-efficient P2P network protocol. In: International Green Computing Conference, pp. 1–6 (2014)
Sharifi, L., Rameshan, N., Freitag, F., Veiga, L.: Energy efficiency dilemma: P2p-cloud vs. datacentre. In: 2014 IEEE 6th International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science, pp. 611–619 (2014)
“Litecoins.” https://litecoin.com/en/
Jungk, B.: FPGA-based evaluation of cryptographic algorithms. Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, pp. 1–280 (2016)
Bertoni, G., Daemen, J., Peeters, M., Van Assche, G.: On the in differentiability of the sponge construction. In: Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, pp. 181–197 (2008)
Hammad, B.T., Jamil, N., Rusli, M.E., Reza, M.Z.: A survey of lightweight cryptographic hash function. Inter. J. Sci. Eng. Res 8, 806–814 (2017)
Bogdanov, A., Knežević, M., Leander, G., Toz, D., Varıcı, K., Verbauwhede, I.: SPONGENT: a lightweight hash function. In: International Workshop on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, pp. 312–325 (2011)
Bogdanov, A. et al.: PRESENT: an ultra-lightweight block cipher. In: International workshop on cryptographic hardware and embedded systems, pp. 450–466 (2007)
Guo, J., Peyrin, T., Poschmann, A.: The PHOTON family of lightweight hash functions. In: Annual Cryptology Conference, pp. 222–239 (2011)
Hell, M., Johansson, T., Meier, W.: Grain: a stream cipher for constrained environments. Int. J. Wireless Mobile Comput. 2(1), 86–93 (2007)
De Canniere, C., Dunkelman, O., Knežević, M.: KATAN and KTANTAN—a family of small and efficient hardware-oriented block ciphers. In: International Workshop on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, pp. 272–288 (2009)
Mikami, S., Watanabe, D., Sakiyama, K.: A comparative study of stream ciphers and hash functions for RFID authentications. In: RFIDSec Asia, pp. 83–94 (2013)
Mohd, B.J., Hayajneh, T., Yousef, K.M.A., Khalaf, Z.A., Bhuiyan, M.Z.A.: Hardware design and modeling of lightweight block ciphers for secure communications. Futur. Gener. Comput. Syst. 83, 510–521 (2018)
Abed, S., Jaffal, R., Mohd, B.J., Alshayeji, M.: FPGA modeling and optimization of a SIMON lightweight block cipher. Sensors (Switzerland) 19(4), 1–28 (2019). https://doi.org/10.3390/s19040913
Abed, S., Jaffal, R., Mohd, B.J., Alshayeji, M.: Performance evaluation of the SM4 cipher based on field-programmable gate array implementation. IET Circuits Devices Syst. 15, 121–135 (2021)
Guo, R., Shi, H., Zhao, Q., Zheng, D.: Secure attribute-based signature scheme with multiple authorities for blockchain in electronic health records systems. IEEE Access 6, 11676–11686 (2018)
Esposito, C., De. Santis, A., Tortora, G., Chang, H., Choo, K.-K.R.: Blockchain: a panacea for healthcare cloud-based data security and privacy? IEEE Cloud Comput. 5(1), 31–37 (2018)
Tseng, L., Yao, X., Otoum, S., Aloqaily, M., Jararweh, Y.: Blockchain-based database in an IoT environment: challenges, opportunities, and analysis. Clust. Comput. 23(3), 2151–2165 (2020)
Dandala, T.T., Krishnamurthy, V., Alwan, R.: Internet of Vehicles (IoV) for traffic management. In: 2017 International conference on computer, communication and signal processing (ICCCSP), pp. 1–4 (2017)
Butt, T.A., Iqbal, R., Salah, K., Aloqaily, M., Jararweh, Y.: Privacy management in social internet of vehicles: review, challenges and blockchain based solutions. IEEE Access 7, 79694–79713 (2019)
Li, L., et al.: Creditcoin: a privacy-preserving blockchain-based incentive announcement network for communications of smart vehicles. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 19(7), 2204–2220 (2018)
Huang, X., Xu, C., Wang, P., Liu, H.: LNSC: A security model for electric vehicle and charging pile management based on blockchain ecosystem. IEEE Access 6, 13565–13574 (2018)
“Positive 5G Outlook Post COVID-19: What does it mean for avid gamers?”
Fan, K., Ren, Y., Wang, Y., Li, H., Yang, Y.: Blockchain-based efficient privacy preserving and data sharing scheme of content-centric network in 5G. IET Commun. 12(5), 527–532 (2017)
Al-Ridhawi, I., Otoum, S., Aloqaily, M., Jararweh, Y., Baker, T.: Providing secure and reliable communication for next generation networks in smart cities. Sustain. Cities Soc. 56, 102080 (2020)
Ashik, M.H., Maswood, M.M.S., Alharbi, A.G.: Designing a Fog-Cloud architecture using blockchain and analyzing security improvements. In: 2020 International Conference on Electrical, Communication, and Computer Engineering (ICECCE), pp. 1–6 (2020)
Wang, J., Li, M., He, Y., Li, H., Xiao, K., Wang, C.: A blockchain based privacy-preserving incentive mechanism in crowdsensing applications. IEEE Access 6, 17545–17556 (2018)
Aghili, S.F., Mala, H., Schindelhauer, C., Shojafar, M., Tafazolli, R.: Closed-loop and open-loop authentication protocols for blockchain-based IoT systems. Inform. Process.Manag. 58(4), 102568 (2021)
Chen, F., Xiao, Z., Cui, L., Lin, Q., Li, J., Yu, S.: Blockchain for Internet of things applications: a review and open issues. J. Netw. Comput. Appl. 45, 102839 (2020)
Bhushan, B., Sahoo, C., Sinha, P., Khamparia, A.: Unification of Blockchain and Internet of Things (BIoT): requirements, working model, challenges and future directions. Wireless Netw. 27(1), 55–90 (2021)
Li, C., Zhang, J., Yang, X., Youlong, L.: “Lightweight blockchain consensus mechanism and storage optimization for resource-constrained IoT devices. Inform. Process. Manag. 58(4), 102602 (2021)
Khan, S., Lee, W.-K., Hwang, S.O.: AEchain: a lightweight blockchain for IoT applications. IEEE Consumer Electron. Mag. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/MCE.2021.3060373
Khan, M.A., Salah, K.: IoT security: review, blockchain solutions, and open challenges. Futur. Gener. Comput. Syst. 82, 395–411 (2018)
Funding
The authors declare that they have no sources of funding.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
SA proposed the methodology of the research, analysed and interpreted the results and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. RJ did the literature review, was a major contributor in the experimental results and in writing the manuscript. BJM revised the work, analysed and interpreted the results. MA revised the work and analysed the results. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Abed, S., Jaffal, R., Mohd, B.J. et al. An analysis and evaluation of lightweight hash functions for blockchain-based IoT devices. Cluster Comput 24, 3065–3084 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-021-03324-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-021-03324-1