A Survey of Blockchain Enabled Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) is a setup that controls and monitors the physical worldaround us. The advancement of these systems needs to incorporate an unequivocal spotlight onmaking these systems efficient. Blockchains and their inherent combination of consensus algorithms,distributed data storage, and secure protocols can be utilized to build robustness and reliabilityin these systems. Blockchain is the underlying technology behind bitcoins and it provides adecentralized framework to validate transactions and ensure that they cannot be modified. Bydistributing the role of information validation across the network peers, blockchain eliminates therisks associated with a centralized architecture. It is the most secure validation mechanism that isefficient and enables the provision of financial services, thereby giving users more freedom and power.This upcoming technology provides internet users with the capability to create value and authenticatedigital information. It has the capability to revolutionize a diverse set of business applications,ranging from sharing economy to data management and prediction markets. In this paper, we presenta holistic survey of various applications of CPS where blockchain has been utilized. Smart grids,health-care systems, and industrial production processes are some of the many applications that canbenefit from the blockchain technology and will be discussed in the paper.