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228 Artificial Intelligence for the Internet of Everything
• Interoperability advantages of blockchain technology: DLT provides a public
multicast communication platform where a sender can reach a large audi-
ence that can both read and write to blockchain. Dynamic communica-
tions between generators and consumers may facilitate the move from
centralized generation to next generation peer-to-peer energy
exchanges.
• 100% availability: Blockchain provides a reliable, distributed mechanism
for tracking dynamic data sets.
• Strong immutability: Despite properties that make data in a blockchain
very difficult to mutate, some examples of mutations exist, such as forks
and or blockchain hacks that required rolling back the blockchain. That
said, permissioned blockchain technology solutions, such as keyless sig-
nature infrastructure (KSI), provide a time-stamped and cryptographi-
cally signed electronic transaction that would be very difficult to
change. As cyber-physical systems increasingly converge and automate
transactions, logs of immutable data sets are especially important to val-
idate and verify the integrity of the system and its transactions. Immuta-
bility, however, can also lead to a number of challenges. For example, in
one recent incident, child pornography was saved in a Bitcoin block-
chain (Suberg, 2017). When illegal images or data are saved in the block-
chain, it can be very difficult to change the content. Another potential
way to change the blockchain is to control or compromise 51% of the
nodes needed to reach a consensus. This subterfuge could potentially
be accomplished by gaining root access to an internet service provider
that supports the majority of the blockchain nodes and undermine the
blockchain’s consensus algorithm by compromising a majority of
the nodes.
• Big data management blockchain: Blockchain facilitates the distribution of
prodigious data sets between organizations. Data can be synchronized,
archived, and audited between multiple parties.
12.6 THE EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC KEY INFRASTRUCTURE
ENCRYPTION
All modern organizations require secure and reliable access to electricity to
function. Securing our critical energy infrastructure from evolving cyber
and physical threats is imperative. As energy infrastructure becomes more
autonomous and distributed, there also needs to be an evolution in how crit-
ical field devices, control systems, and supervisory control and data