A Blockchain-based Quantum Binary Voting for Decentralized IoT Towards Industry 5.0

Industry 5.0 depends on intelligence, automation, and hyperconnectivity operations for effective and sustainable human-machine collaboration. Pivotal technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) enable this by facilitating connectivity and data-driven decision-making between cyber-physical devices. As IoT devices are prone to cyberattacks, they can use blockchain to improve transparency in the network and prevent data tampering. However, in some cases, even blockchain networks are vulnerable to Sybil and 51% attacks. This has motivated the development of quantum blockchains that are more resilient to such attacks as they leverage post-quantum cryptographic protocols and secure quantum communication channels. In this work, we develop a quantum binary voting algorithm for the IoT-quantum blockchain frameworks that enables inter-connected devices to reach a consensus on the validity of transactions, even in the presence of potential faults or malicious actors. The correctness of the voting protocol is provided in detail, and the results show that it guarantees the achievement of a consensus securely against all kinds of significant external and internal attacks concerning quantum bit commitment, quantum blockchain, and quantum Byzantine agreement. We also provide an implementation of the voting algorithm with the quantum circuits simulated on the IBM Quantum platform and Simulaqron library.