۱- Introduction

۲- Research methodology

۳- Bibliometric analysis

۴- Discussion about research questions

۵- Conclusion and future work

References

Abstract

Blockchain is a distributed, decentralized and immutable digital ledger which records transactions across a global network of computers where the information is highly secure. Since its merger with other domains has solved numerous relevant problems, it has potential to resolve the issues of privacy and security in the domain of Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is reshaping the world into smart cities, smart farming, smart grids, smart transport, smart home, and smart healthcare systems. Thus, application of Blockchain in the domain of IoT gives birth to a new domain of Blockchain in IoT (BIoT). This research presents a bibliometric analysis of articles in BIoT domain, covering papers published in top journals and conferences, and finds research trends. It also explores diverse research areas, the most influential publications, top publication venues, top funding agencies and future research direction. This research can be a good learning point for young researchers to find attractive relevant research insights within BIoT.

Introduction

Internet of things (IoT) is an active research domain which is playing an essential role in the development of society. The term IoT was introduced by Ashton in 1998. He highlighted the importance of the IoT to change the world as the Internet did in early 1990s. MIT Auto-ID center was pioneer to present vision related to IoT in 2001. Later in 2005, ITU Internet report formally introduced the concept and technology of IoT. IoT is usually defined as the Internet of Things which allows people and things to be connected anytime, anyplace, with anything and anyone, ideally using any network and service. IoT devices are interrelated and are connected through the internet and cover almost every field of life, such as transportation, safety, home automation, and different wearable gadgets. Fig. 1 shows the statistics of globally connected IoT devices. The main components of IoT include sensors, devices, gateways, cloud, etc. IoT is expanding at high speed and the worldwide market for IoT solutions is expected to grow up to $7.1 trillion by 2020 [1]. There are many challenges in IoT such as installation and maintenance of centralized cloud server farms, firmware updates to millions of smart devices regularly from security and maintenance point of view [2]. Moreover, the lack of trust has also become the main research problem in IoT especially after the leaks of Edward Snowden user data, used for a mass surveillance programs and closed source code in IoT which was stored by the internet and telecommunication companies that lead to the lack of trust.