Trust-Aware Intelligent IoT Systems with Blockchain-Based Authentication

Abstract

The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) has introduced significant challenges in ensuring secure communication, device authentication, and trust management across distributed environments. Traditional security mechanisms are often inadequate in handling large-scale, heterogeneous IoT networks due to centralized architectures and limited scalability. To address these challenges, this study proposes a Trust-Aware Intelligent IoT System with Blockchain-Based Authentication (TAI-IBA). The proposed framework integrates blockchain technology for decentralized authentication, identity verification, and immutable transaction recording with artificial intelligence-based trust evaluation models for dynamic risk assessment. The blockchain layer ensures secure device authentication and tamper-proof data exchange, while the AI-based trust engine evaluates node behavior to detect malicious or unreliable devices. The system is evaluated using IoT security benchmark scenarios, and performance is measured using accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, trust prediction accuracy, and latency. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework significantly improves trust management, reduces authentication overhead, and enhances overall network security compared to conventional IoT security models. The framework is suitable for smart cities, industrial IoT, healthcare systems, and distributed sensor networks.