ZkPSLB: Zero-Knowledge Proof-Empowered End-to-End Secured Lightweight Blockchain Framework For Smart Cities

Bora Buğra Sezer

doi:10.35377/saucis...1755063

ZkPSLB: Zero-Knowledge Proof-Empowered End-to-End Secured Lightweight Blockchain Framework For Smart Cities

Abstract

Recently, developing technologies for smart cities, although scalable and cost-effective, have been challenging to provide anonymous verification and on-chain integrity with low overhead due to the increasing attack surface. We propose ZkPSLB, a layered end-to-end security framework to address the problem. ZkPSLB utilizes a Zero-Knowledge Concise Non-Interactive Knowledge Argument (zk-SNARK), a type of Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) scheme, embedded within the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) for anonymous device authentication. Sensor payloads are encrypted with elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) and stored in a decentralized cloud storage system (IPFS). IPFS CIDs are committed to the chain, ensuring both off-chain confidentiality and on-chain integrity. In the evaluation conducted with 500 devices/5000 metadata, the authentication communication overhead was measured at 1952 bits. The event-based smart contract (EBSC) reduces on-chain payload and gas growth compared to storage-based designs, and its cost advantage has been validated.

Keywords

References

I. Makhdoom, M. Zhou, M. Abolhasan, J. Lipman, and W. Ni, “PrivySharing: A blockchain-based framework for privacy-preserving and secure data sharing in smart cities,” Comput. Secur., vol. 88, p. 101653, 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.cose.2019.101653
M. Zaman, N. Puryear, S. Abdelwahed, and N. Zohrabi, “A review of IoT-based smart city development and management,” Smart Cities, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 1462-1501, 2024. doi: 10.3390/smartcities7030061
U. Majeed, L. U. Khan, I. Yaqoob, S. A. Kazmi, K. Salah, and C. S. Hong, “Blockchain for IoT-based smart cities: Recent advances, requirements, and future challenges,” J. Netw. Comput. Appl., vol. 181, p. 103007, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.jnca.2021.103007
H. Habibzadeh, B. H. Nussbaum, F. Anjomshoa, B. Kantarci, and T. Soyata, “A survey on cybersecurity, data privacy, and policy issues in cyber-physical system deployments in smart cities,” Sustain. Cities Soc., vol. 50, p. 101660, 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.scs.2019.101660
T. Braun, B. C. M. Fung, F. Iqbal, and B. Shah, “Security and privacy challenges in smart cities,” Sustain. Cities Soc., vol. 39, pp. 499-507, 2018. doi: 10.1016/j.scs.2018.02.039
L. Loffi, C. M. Westphall, L. D. Grüdtner, and C. B. Westphall, “Mutual authentication with multi-factor in IoT–fog–cloud environment,” J. Netw. Comput. Appl., vol. 176, p. 102932, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.jnca.2020.102932
J. Pan, and J. McElhannon, “Future edge cloud and edge computing for Internet of Things applications,” IEEE Internet Things J., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 439-449, Feb. 2018. doi: 10.1109/JIOT.2017.2767608
A. Haroon, M. A. Shah, Y. Asim, W. Naeem, M. Kamran, and Q. Javaid, “Constraints in the IoT: The world in 2020 and beyond,” Int. J. Adv. Comput. Sci. Appl., vol. 7, no. 11, 2016. doi: 10.14569/IJACSA.2016.071133

V. A. Thakor, M. A. Razzaque, and M. R. A. Khandaker, “Lightweight cryptography algorithms for resource-constrained IoT devices: A review, comparison and research opportunities,” IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 28177-28193, 2021. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3052867
S. Hakak, W. Z. Khan, G. A. Gilkar, M. Imran, and N. Guizani, “Securing smart cities through blockchain technology: Architecture, requirements, and challenges,” IEEE Netw., vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 8-14, Jan./Feb. 2020. doi: 10.1109/MNET.001.1900178
B. B. Sezer, H. Turkmen, and U. Nuriyev, “PPFchain: A novel framework privacy-preserving blockchain-based federated learning method for sensor networks,” Internet Things, vol. 22, p. 100781, 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.iot.2023.100781
A. K. Das, M. Wazid, N. Kumar, M. K. Khan, K.-K. R. Choo, and Y. Park, “Design of secure and lightweight authentication protocol for wearable devices environment,” IEEE J. Biomed. Health Inform., vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 1310-1322, Jul. 2018. doi: 10.1109/JBHI.2017.2753464
R. K. Chahal, N. Kumar, and S. Batra, “Trust management in social Internet of Things: A taxonomy, open issues, and challenges,” Comput. Commun., vol. 150, pp. 13-46, 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.comcom.2019.10.034
J. Sengupta, S. Ruj, and S. D. Bit, “A comprehensive survey on attacks, security issues and blockchain solutions for IoT and IIoT,” J. Netw. Comput. Appl., vol. 149, p. 102481, 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.jnca.2019.102481
S. Aggarwal, R. Chaudhary, G. S. Aujla, N. Kumar, K.-K. R. Choo, and A. Y. Zomaya, “Blockchain for smart communities: Applications, challenges and opportunities,” J. Netw. Comput. Appl., vol. 144, pp. 13-48, 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.jnca.2019.06.018
M. U. Hassan, M. H. Rehmani, and J. Chen, “Privacy preservation in blockchain-based IoT systems: Integration issues, prospects, challenges, and future research directions,” Future Gener. Comput. Syst., vol. 97, pp. 512-529, 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.future.2019.02.060
E. Ismagilova, L. Hughes, N. P. Rana, and Y. K. Dwivedi, “Security, privacy and risks within smart cities: Literature review and development of a smart city interaction framework,” Inf. Syst. Front., vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 393-414, Apr. 2022. doi: 10.1007/s10796-020-10044-1
I. Khajenasiri, A. Estebsari, M. Verhelst, and G. Gielen, “A review on Internet of Things solutions for intelligent energy control in buildings for smart city applications,” Energy Procedia, vol. 111, pp. 770-779, 2017. doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.239
C. Esposito, M. Ficco, and B. B. Gupta, “Blockchain-based authentication and authorization for smart city applications,” Inf. Process. Manag., vol. 58, no. 2, p. 102468, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.ipm.2020.102468
M. Sookhak, H. Tang, Y. He, and F. R. Yu, “Security and privacy of smart cities: A survey, research issues and challenges,” IEEE Commun. Surveys Tuts., vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 1718-1743, 2019. doi: 10.1109/COMST.2018.2867288
A. Ross, S. Banerjee, and A. Chowdhury, “Security in smart cities: A brief review of digital forensic schemes for biometric data,” Pattern Recognit. Lett., vol. 138, pp. 346-354, 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.patrec.2020.07.009
R. Khatoun, and S. Zeadally, “Cybersecurity and privacy solutions in smart cities,” IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 51-59, Mar. 2017. doi: 10.1109/MCOM.2017.1600297CM
S. Siddiqui, S. Hameed, S. A. Shah, A. K. Khan, and A. Aneiba, “Smart contract-based security architecture for collaborative services in municipal smart cities,” J. Syst. Archit., vol. 135, p. 102802, 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.sysarc.2022.102802
R. Al-Huthaifi, T. Li, W. Huang, J. Gu, and C. Li, “Federated learning in smart cities: Privacy and security survey,” Inf. Sci., vol. 632, pp. 833-857, 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.ins.2023.03.033
T. M. Ghazal et al., “IoT for smart cities: Machine learning approaches in smart healthcare—a review,” Future Internet, vol. 13, no. 8, Art. no. 218, 2021. doi: 10.3390/fi13080218
L. Cui, G. Xie, Y. Qu, L. Gao, and Y. Yang, “Security and privacy in smart cities: Challenges and opportunities,” IEEE Access, vol. 6, pp. 46134-46145, 2018. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2853985
J. Xie, H. Tang, T. Huang, F. R. Yu, R. Xie, J. Liu, and Y. Liu, “A survey of blockchain technology applied to smart cities: Research issues and challenges,” IEEE Commun. Surveys Tuts., vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 2794-2830, 2019. doi: 10.1109/COMST.2019.2899617
M. Humayun, N. Jhanjhi, B. Hamid, and G. Ahmed, “Emerging smart logistics and transportation using IoT and blockchain,” IEEE Internet Things Mag., vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 58-62, Jun. 2020. doi: 10.1109/IOTM.0001.1900097
Z. Ullah, M. Naeem, A. Coronato, P. Ribino, and G. De Pietro, “Blockchain applications in sustainable smart cities,” Sustain. Cities Soc., vol. 97, Art. no. 104697, 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.scs.2023.104697
O. B. Mora, R. Rivera, V. M. Larios, J. R. Beltrán-Ramírez, R. Maciel, and A. Ochoa, “A use case in cybersecurity based on blockchain to deal with the security and privacy of citizens and smart cities cyberinfrastructure,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Smart Cities Conf. (ISC2), Kansas City, MO, USA, Sep. 16–19, 2018, pp. 1-4. doi: 10.1109/ISC2.2018.8656694
J.-H. Noh, and H.-Y. Kwon, “A study on smart city security policy based on blockchain in 5G age,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Platform Technol. Service (PlatCon), Jeju, South Korea, Jan. 28–30, 2019, pp. 1-4. doi: 10.1109/PlatCon.2019.8669406
K. Xiao, Z. Gao, W. Shi, X. Qiu, Y. Yang, and L. Rui, “EdgeABC: An architecture for task offloading and resource allocation in the Internet of Things,” Future Gener. Comput. Syst., vol. 107, pp. 498-508, 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.future.2020.02.026
L. Tan, H. Xiao, K. Yu, M. Aloqaily, and Y. Jararweh, “A blockchain-empowered crowdsourcing system for 5G-enabled smart cities,” Comput. Stand. Interfaces, vol. 76, Art. no. 103517, Jun. 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.csi.2021.103517
A. A. Abd El-Latif, B. Abd-El-Atty, I. Mehmood, K. Muhammad, S. E. Venegas-Andraca, and J. Peng, “Quantum-inspired blockchain-based cybersecurity: Securing smart edge utilities in IoT-based smart cities,” Inf. Process. Manag., vol. 58, no. 4, Art. no. 102549, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.ipm.2021.102549
C. M. S. Ferreira, C. T. B. Garrocho, R. A. R. Oliveira, J. S. Silva, and C. F. M. d. C. Cavalcanti, “IoT registration and authentication in smart city applications with blockchain,” Sensors, vol. 21, no. 4, Art. no. 1323, 2021. doi: 10.3390/s21041323
W. Wang, F. He, Y. Li, S. Tang, X. Li, J. Xia, and Z. Lv, “Data information processing of traffic digital twins in smart cities using edge intelligent federated learning,” Inf. Process. Manag., vol. 60, no. 2, Art. no. 103171, 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.ipm.2022.103171
H. Zhao, Y. Zhang, Y. Peng, and R. Xu, “Lightweight backup and efficient recovery scheme for health blockchain keys,” in Proc. 13th Int. Symp. Auton. Decentralized Syst. (ISADS), Bangkok, Thailand, Mar. 22–24, 2017, pp. 229-234. doi: 10.1109/ISADS.2017.22
M. Wazid, A. K. Das, V. Odelu, N. Kumar, and W. Susilo, “Secure remote user authenticated key establishment protocol for smart home environment,” IEEE Trans. Dependable Secure Comput., vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 391-406, Mar./Apr. 2020. doi: 10.1109/TDSC.2017.2764083
Z. Cui, X. Fei, S. Zhang, X. Cai, Y. Cao, W. Zhang, and J. Chen, “A hybrid blockchain-based identity authentication scheme for multi-WSN,” IEEE Trans. Serv. Comput., vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 241-251, Mar./Apr. 2020. doi: 10.1109/TSC.2020.2964537
P. Kumar, G. P. Gupta, and R. Tripathi, “TP2SF: A trustworthy privacy-preserving secured framework for sustainable smart cities by leveraging blockchain and machine learning,” J. Syst. Archit., vol. 115, Art. no. 101954, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.sysarc.2020.101954
R. Almadhoun, M. Kadadha, M. Alhemeiri, M. Alshehhi, and K. Salah, “A user authentication scheme of IoT devices using blockchain-enabled fog nodes,” in Proc. IEEE/ACS 15th Int. Conf. Comput. Syst. Appl. (AICCSA), Aqaba, Jordan, Oct. 28–Nov. 1, 2018, pp. 1-8. doi: 10.1109/AICCSA.2018.8612856
C. Lin, D. He, S. Zeadally, N. Kumar, and K.-K. R. Choo, “SecBCS: A secure and privacy-preserving blockchain-based crowdsourcing system,” Sci. China Inf. Sci., vol. 63, Art. no. 130102, 2020. doi: 10.1007/s11432-019-9893-2
M. Masera, E. F. Bompard, F. Profumo, and N. Hadjsaid, “Smart (electricity) grids for smart cities: Assessing roles and societal impacts,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 106, no. 4, pp. 613-625, Apr. 2018. doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2018.2812212
A. Kumari, R. Gupta, and S. Tanwar, “Amalgamation of blockchain and IoT for smart cities underlying 6G communication: A comprehensive review,” Comput. Commun., vol. 172, pp. 102-118, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.comcom.2021.03.005
J. Gao et al., “GridMonitoring: Secured sovereign blockchain-based monitoring on smart grid,” IEEE Access, vol. 6, pp. 9917–9925, 2018. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2806303
G. Liang, S. R. Weller, F. Luo, J. Zhao, and Z. Y. Dong, “Distributed blockchain-based data protection framework for modern power systems against cyber-attacks,” IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 3162-3173, May 2019. doi: 10.1109/TSG.2018.2819663
A. Aldribi, and A. Singh, “Blockchain empowered smart home: A scalable architecture for sustainable smart cities,” Mathematics, vol. 10, no. 14, Art. no. 2378, 2022. doi: 10.3390/math10142378
K. Gai, Y. Wu, L. Zhu, M. Qiu, and M. Shen, “Privacy-preserving energy trading using consortium blockchain in smart grid,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Informat., vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 3548-3558, Jun. 2019. doi: 10.1109/TII.2019.2893433
Z. Guan, X. Lu, N. Wang, J. Wu, X. Du, and M. Guizani, “Towards secure and efficient energy trading in IoT-enabled energy internet: A blockchain approach,” Future Gener. Comput. Syst., vol. 110, pp. 686-695, 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.future.2019.09.027
V. Hassija, V. Chamola, S. Garg, D. N. G. Krishna, G. Kaddoum, and N. K. Jayakody, “A blockchain-based framework for lightweight data sharing and energy trading in V2G network,” IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 69, no. 6, pp. 5799-5812, Jun. 2020. doi: 10.1109/TVT.2020.2967052
A. Miglani, N. Kumar, V. Chamola, and S. Zeadally, “Blockchain for Internet of Energy management: Review, solutions, and challenges,” Comput. Commun., vol. 151, pp. 395–418, 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.comcom.2020.01.014
P. F. Wong, F. C. Chia, M. S. Kiu, and E. C. Lou, “Potential integration of blockchain technology into smart sustainable city developments: a systematic review,” Smart Sustain. Built Environ., vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 559-574, 2022. doi: 10.1108/SASBE-09-2020-0140
C. Jaffe, C. Mata, and S. Kamvar, “Motivating urban cycling through a blockchain-based financial incentives system,” in Proc. ACM Int. Joint Conf. Pervasive Ubiquitous Comput. (UbiComp ’17) and ACM Int. Symp. Wearable Comput. (ISWC ’17), Maui, HI, USA, Sep. 11–15, 2017, pp. 81-84. doi: 10.1145/3123024.3123141
A. Shojaei, J. Wang, and A. Fenner, “Exploring the feasibility of blockchain technology as an infrastructure for improving built asset sustainability,” Built Environ. Proj. Asset Manag., vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 184-199, 2020. doi: 10.1108/BEPAM-11-2018-0142
E. Z. Berglund et al., “Smart infrastructure: A vision for the role of the civil engineering profession in smart cities,” J. Infrastruct. Syst., vol. 26, no. 2, Art. no. 03120001, 2020. doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)IS.1943-555X.0000549
A. Rejeb, K. Rejeb, S. J. Simske, and J. G. Keogh, “Blockchain technology in the smart city: A bibliometric review,” Qual. Quant., vol. 56, no. 5, pp. 2875-2906, 2022. doi: 10.1007/s11135-021-01251-2
S. Arvind, and V. A. Narayanan, “An overview of security in CoAP: Attack and analysis,” in Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Adv. Comput. Commun. Syst. (ICACCS), Coimbatore, India, Mar. 15-16, 2019, pp. 655–660. doi: 10.1109/ICACCS.2019.8728533
F. Righetti, C. Vallati, D. Rasla, and G. Anastasi, “Investigating the CoAP congestion control strategies for 6TiSCH-based IoT networks,” IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 11054-11065, 2023. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3241327
S. Abed, R. Jaffal, and B. J. Mohd, “A review on blockchain and IoT integration from energy, security, and hardware perspectives,” Wireless Pers. Commun., vol. 129, no. 3, pp. 2079-2122, 2023. doi: 10.1007/s11277-023-10226-5
D. A. Luong, and J. H. Park, “Privacy-preserving blockchain-based healthcare system for IoT devices using zk-SNARK,” IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 55739-55752, 2022. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3177211
Q. Li, and Z. Xue, “A privacy-protecting authorization system based on blockchain and zk-SNARK,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Cyberspace Innovation of Advanced Technologies (CIAT), Guangzhou, China, Dec. 19–20, 2020, pp. 439-444. doi: 10.1145/3444370.3444610
S. Goldwasser, S. Micali, and C. Rackoff, “The knowledge complexity of interactive proof systems,” SIAM J. Comput., vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 186-208, Feb. 1989. doi: 10.1137/0218012
S. Ullah, J. Zheng, N. Din, M. T. Hussain, F. Ullah, and M. Yousaf, “Elliptic Curve Cryptography; Applications, challenges, recent advances, and future trends: A comprehensive survey,” Comput. Sci. Rev., vol. 47, Art. no. 100530, 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.cosrev.2022.100530
I.-C. Lin, and T.-C. Liao, “A survey of blockchain security issues and challenges,” Int. J. Netw. Secur., vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 653–659, Sep. 2017. doi: 10.6633/IJNS.201709.19(5).01
L. Li, D. Jin, T. Zhang, and N. Li, “A secure, reliable, and low-cost distributed storage scheme based on blockchain and IPFS for firefighting IoT data,” IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 97318-97330, 2023. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3311712
A. Fiat, and A. Shamir, “How to prove yourself: Practical solutions to identification and signature problems,” in Adv. Cryptol.-CRYPTO ’86, A. M. Odlyzko, Ed. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 1987, pp. 186-194. doi: 10.1007/3-540-47721-7_12
N. Bitansky, R. Canetti, A. Chiesa, and E. Tromer, “From extractable collision resistance to succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge, and back again,” in Proc. 3rd Innovations Theor. Comput. Sci. Conf. (ITCS), Cambridge, MA, USA, Jan. 8–10, 2012, pp. 326-349. doi: 10.1145/2090236.2090263
H. Mayer, “zk-SNARK explained: Basic principles,” CoinFabrik Blog, Dec. 13, 2016, rev. Mar. 27, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.coinfabrik.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/zkSNARK-explained_basic_principles.pdf . [Accessed: Sep. 30, 2025].
N. Ni, and Y. Zhu, “Enabling zero knowledge proof by accelerating zk-SNARK kernels on GPU,” J. Parallel Distrib. Comput., vol. 173, pp. 20-31, Mar. 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.jpdc.2022.10.009
C. Reitwiessner, “zkSNARKs in a nutshell,” Ethereum Blog, Dec. 5, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/12/05/zksnarks-in-a-nutshell . [Accessed: Sep. 30, 2025].
N. Bitansky, A. Chiesa, Y. Ishai, O. Paneth, and R. Ostrovsky, “Succinct non-interactive arguments via linear interactive proofs,” in Theory of Cryptography (TCC 2013), A. Sahai, Ed. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2013, vol. 7785, pp. 315-333. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-36594-2_18
S. R. Singh, A. K. Khan, and S. R. Singh, “Performance evaluation of RSA and elliptic curve cryptography,” in Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. Contemp. Comput. Informat. (IC3I), Noida, India, Dec. 14–17, 2016, pp. 302-306. doi: 10.1109/IC3I.2016.7917979
J. Groth, M. Kohlweiss, M. Maller, S. Meiklejohn, and I. Miers, “Updatable and universal common reference strings with applications to zk-SNARKs,” in Adv. Cryptol.-CRYPTO 2018, Part III, H. Shacham and A. Boldyreva, Eds. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2018, pp. 698-728. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-96878-0_24
M. Iglesias-Urkia, A. Orive, A. Urbieta, and D. Casado-Mansilla, “Analysis of CoAP implementations for industrial Internet of Things: A survey,” J. Ambient Intell. Humanized Comput., vol. 10, no. 7, pp. 2505-2518, Jul. 2019. doi: 10.1007/s12652-018-0729-z
Y. Guo, and Y. Guo, “FogHA: An efficient handover authentication for mobile devices in fog computing,” Comput. Secur., vol. 108, Art. no. 102358, Sep. 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.cose.2021.102358
P. Kumar, A. Gurtov, J. Iinatti, M. Ylianttila, and M. Sain, “Lightweight and secure session-key establishment scheme in smart home environments,” IEEE Sensors J., vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 254-264, Jan. 2016. doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2015.2475298
Y. Guo, Z. Zhang, and Y. Guo, “SecFHome: Secure remote authentication in fog-enabled smart home environment,” Comput. Netw., vol. 207, Art. no. 108818, Apr. 2022. doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2022.108818
A. Gupta, M. Tripathi, T. J. Shaikh, and A. Sharma, “A lightweight anonymous user authentication and key establishment scheme for wearable devices,” Comput. Netw., vol. 149, pp. 29-42, Feb. 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2018.11.021
D. Hankerson, and A. Menezes, “Elliptic curve cryptography,” in Encyclopedia of Cryptography, Security and Privacy, S. Jajodia, P. Samarati, and M. Yung, Eds. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2021, pp. 1-2. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-27739-9_245-2
C. X. Fu, “Instant zero knowledge proof of reserve,” Cryptol. ePrint Arch., Paper 2023/420, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/420 . [Accessed: Sep. 30, 2025].
C. Ye, G. Li, H. Cai, Y. Gu, and A. Fukuda, “Analysis of security in blockchain: Case study in 51%-attack detecting,” in Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Dependable Syst. Their Appl. (DSA), Dalian, China, Sep. 22–23, 2018, pp. 15-24. doi: 10.1109/DSA.2018.00015
A. Mukherjee, S. Sahoo, and R. Halder, “A blockchain-based integrated and interconnected hybrid platform for smart city ecosystem,” Peer-to-Peer Netw. Appl., vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 2116-2141, Jul. 2022. doi: 10.1007/s12083-022-01338-z
S. Samanta, A. Sarkar, and Y. Bulo, “Secure 6G communication in smart city using blockchain,” in Emerging Technologies in Data Mining and Information Security, P. Dutta, S. Chakrabarti, A. Bhattacharya, S. Dutta, and V. Piuri, Eds. Singapore: Springer, 2023, pp. 487–496. doi: 10.1007/978-981-19-4193-1_48
H. Gharavi, J. Granjal, and E. Monteiro, “Post-quantum blockchain security for the Internet of Things: Survey and research directions,” IEEE Commun. Surveys Tuts., vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 1748-1774, 2024. doi: 10.1109/COMST.2024.3355222
J. Groth, “On the size of pairing-based non-interactive arguments,” in Adv. Cryptol.-EUROCRYPT 2016, Part II, M. Fischlin and J.-S. Coron, Eds. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2016, pp. 305-326. doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-49896-5_11
A. Pfitzmann, and M. Hansen, “A terminology for talking about privacy by data minimization: Anonymity, unlinkability, undetectability, unobservability, pseudonymity, and identity management,” Tech. Rep., ver. 0.34, Aug. 10, 2010. [Online]. Available: https://dud.inf.tu-dresden.de/literatur/Anon_Terminology_v0.34.pdf . [Accessed: Sep. 30, 2025.]
J. Benet, “IPFS-Content addressed, versioned, P2P file system,” arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.3561, 2014. [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/1407.3561 . [Accessed: Sep. 30, 2025.]
IETF, “Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP): Echo, request-tag, and token processing,” RFC 9175, Feb. 2022. doi: 10.17487/RFC9175
P. Rogaway, and T. Shrimpton, “A provable-security treatment of the key-wrap problem,” in Adv. Cryptol.-EUROCRYPT 2006, S. Vaudenay, Ed. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2006, pp. 373-390. doi: 10.1007/11761679_23
Z. Shelby, K. Hartke, and C. Bormann, “The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP),” RFC 7252, Jun. 2014. doi: 10.17487/RFC7252

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Information Security and Cryptology , Data and Information Privacy

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Bora Buğra Sezer ^*
0000-0003-1907-239X
Türkiye

Early Pub Date

March 16, 2026

Publication Date

March 16, 2026

Submission Date

July 31, 2025

Acceptance Date

November 20, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Volume: 9 Number: 1

DOI

https://doi.org/10.35377/saucis...1755063

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA82MS22KR

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Sezer, B. B. (2026). ZkPSLB: Zero-Knowledge Proof-Empowered End-to-End Secured Lightweight Blockchain Framework For Smart Cities. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences, 9(1), 134-156. https://doi.org/10.35377/saucis...1755063

AMA

1.Sezer BB. ZkPSLB: Zero-Knowledge Proof-Empowered End-to-End Secured Lightweight Blockchain Framework For Smart Cities. SAUCIS. 2026;9(1):134-156. doi:10.35377/saucis.1755063

Chicago

Sezer, Bora Buğra. 2026. “ZkPSLB: Zero-Knowledge Proof-Empowered End-to-End Secured Lightweight Blockchain Framework For Smart Cities”. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 9 (1): 134-56. https://doi.org/10.35377/saucis. 1755063.

EndNote

Sezer BB (March 1, 2026) ZkPSLB: Zero-Knowledge Proof-Empowered End-to-End Secured Lightweight Blockchain Framework For Smart Cities. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 9 1 134–156.

IEEE

[1]B. B. Sezer, “ZkPSLB: Zero-Knowledge Proof-Empowered End-to-End Secured Lightweight Blockchain Framework For Smart Cities”, SAUCIS, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 134–156, Mar. 2026, doi: 10.35377/saucis...1755063.

ISNAD

Sezer, Bora Buğra. “ZkPSLB: Zero-Knowledge Proof-Empowered End-to-End Secured Lightweight Blockchain Framework For Smart Cities”. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 9/1 (March 1, 2026): 134-156. https://doi.org/10.35377/saucis. 1755063.

JAMA

1.Sezer BB. ZkPSLB: Zero-Knowledge Proof-Empowered End-to-End Secured Lightweight Blockchain Framework For Smart Cities. SAUCIS. 2026;9:134–156.

MLA

Sezer, Bora Buğra. “ZkPSLB: Zero-Knowledge Proof-Empowered End-to-End Secured Lightweight Blockchain Framework For Smart Cities”. Sakarya University Journal of Computer and Information Sciences, vol. 9, no. 1, Mar. 2026, pp. 134-56, doi:10.35377/saucis. 1755063.

Vancouver

1.Bora Buğra Sezer. ZkPSLB: Zero-Knowledge Proof-Empowered End-to-End Secured Lightweight Blockchain Framework For Smart Cities. SAUCIS. 2026 Mar. 1;9(1):134-56. doi:10.35377/saucis. 1755063