Suitability of Blockchain for Storing Private Data from IoT Devices

The explosive growth of Internet of Things devices over the past two decades has created pressing challenges for storing the vast amounts of data generated by connected devices. Concurrently, blockchain technology has rapidly evolved, providing new avenues for storing data securely, efficiently, and in near real-time. This article investigates the suitability of various blockchain platforms for Internet of Things data storage, selecting seven platforms – namely, IOTA, Signum, Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Stellar, and Hyperledger Sawtooth. A comprehensive set of criteria and scoring methodology were developed to assess each platform’s strengths and limitations for this use case. Our findings identify IOTA as the most suitable platform due to its feeless transactions, high transaction throughput, and extensive data storage. Signum and Ethereum also showed potential, though with noted limitations in community support, transaction fees, and speed. Platforms like Solana, Polygon, and Stellar demonstrated effective storage capabilities on Layer 2, which introduces additional complexity and costs. The methodology developed here provides a framework for future research, suggesting that additional platforms be evaluated, the scoring criteria refined with weighted parameters, and practical validation conducted through a prototype Internet of Things system to further validate and optimize blockchain selection for Internet of Things data storage.