Trustworthy Communication in IoT: Blockchain and Quantum Technologies at the Security Frontier

The rapid evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to a hyper-connected world, where billions of devices communicate across diverse and often unsecured environments. While this brings transformative benefits to sectors like healthcare, smart cities, and industrial automation, it also introduces unprecedented security, privacy, and trust challenges. Traditional security models are often inadequate for the decentralized, resource-constrained, and highly dynamic nature of IoT systems. Emerging technologies such as blockchain and quantum cryptography offer promising solutions, enabling new paradigms for secure and verifiable communication, decentralized trust, and post-quantum resilience.

This research topics seeks to address the critical need for secure and trustworthy communication frameworks in IoT ecosystems by exploring the synergy between blockchain technologies and quantum-enabled security solutions. The goal is to encourage interdisciplinary contributions that bridge cryptography, networking, IoT, and distributed computing, focusing on novel frameworks, algorithms, and protocols. We aim to attract innovative research that not only strengthens device-level and network-level security but also ensures scalability, interoperability, and sustainability in next-generation IoT systems. This topic aligns with global research priorities around secure digital infrastructure, contributing to several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure (SDG 9) and Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions (SDG 16).

We invite original research articles, reviews, perspective papers, brief reports, and case studies that explore secure IoT communication using blockchain and quantum technologies. Submissions may address, but are not limited to:
- Post-quantum cryptographic protocols for IoT
- Blockchain-based identity management and authentication
- Lightweight cryptographic solutions for resource-constrained IoT devices
- Smart contract-based frameworks for device authentication and access control
- Quantum-secure authentication protocols for IoT communication
- Quantum key distribution in IoT networks
- Hybrid blockchain–quantum architectures enabling end-to-end trustworthy IoT communication
- Trust management and reputation models for decentralized IoT systems
- Intrusion detection and mitigation using decentralized trust models
- Adversarial modeling and attack surfaces in quantum-enabled IoT ecosystems
- Security-by-design approaches for future IoT and cyber-physical systems
- Lightweight consensus mechanisms
- Applied case studies in domains such as smart healthcare, autonomous vehicles, smart grids, and industrial IoT
- Blockchain-based secure management of sensitive health data
- Multimodal IoT systems integrating AI, blockchain, and wearables for pandemic response
- Interdisciplinary frameworks for inclusive and community-driven IoT healthcare solutions

This article collection particularly welcome interdisciplinary works that demonstrate novel architectures or algorithms, real-world applications, simulations, and evaluations. Contributions should offer meaningful insights into building secure, scalable, and trustworthy IoT systems and may target theoretical foundations, applied frameworks, or emerging use cases.

This article collection is proposed in collaboration with the international Global South AI for Pandemic and Epidemic Preparedness and Response Network AI4PEP through its project “Blockchain-Enabled AI Architecture for Trustworthy Digital Health”, supported by IDRC and UK International Development. This interdisciplinary initiative aims to revolutionize digital health through secure, ethical, and AI-driven architectures using blockchain and IoT. The collaboration reinforces the relevance of this Research Topic to pandemic and epidemic preparedness, health data protection, and real-world deployment of secure IoT solutions, thereby aligning academic contributions with urgent global health challenges.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: IoT security, blockchain, quantum cryptography, secure communication, decentralized authentication, post-quantum networks

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.