A Blockchain-Driven Quantum-Safe Key Management Scheme for IoT

Abstract

The existing blockchain-based security frameworks for IoT networks do not support lightweight, scalable, and quantum-resistant protection for dynamic device-to-device (D2D) environments except with cloud infrastructure or continuous blockchain interaction. Furthermore, traditional public-key cryptographic mechanisms are vulnerable to emerging quantum computing capabilities and are found to be insecure in future developments. This study proposes a decentralised quantum-resistant security framework for IoT D2D communication. In this framework, post-quantum key encapsulation (Kyber KEM) is used to generate secure shared secrets, followed by a hash-chain-based session key evolution mechanism ensuring forward secrecy with low computational overhead. This trust securing method using an event-driven blockchain secures critical transactions using a permissioned network, thus creating a light-weight, but still providing the benefits of immutability and verifiability. We also use AES-256 for encryption with an HMAC-SHA3 algorithm for authentication. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed blockchain-assisted post-quantum IoT framework achieves lightweight computational overhead, low latency, and stable gas consumption across all security operations. Furthermore, the system ensures strong quantum-resistant security, reliable attack detection, and scalable performance suitable for dynamic device-to-device IoT environments.