A Hybrid Blockchain-Based Zero-Trust Architecture for Secure and Scalable IoT Systems
The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has introduced significant security challenges, mainly due to the resource constraints of devices and the limitations of centralized architectures. This paper proposes a blockchain-based Zero-Trust framework for secure and scalable IoT systems. The approach is architecture-agnostic and combines decentralized identity management, hybrid data storage, and edge-assisted computation. To optimize resource usage, raw data are stored off-chain while cryptographic hashes are anchored on the blockchain, ensuring integrity and immutability. A Merkle tree structure is employed to aggregate data efficiently, reducing communication overhead and blockchain transaction costs. Experimental results demonstrate that lightweight cryptographic mechanisms, combined with Merkle-based aggregation, provide strong security guarantees with low energy consumption. The proposed framework achieves improved scalability, robustness, and efficiency, making it suitable for resource-constrained IoT environments.