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An Exploratory Study on the Impact of Hosting
Blockchain Applications in Cloud Infrastructures
Ter Hui Chee
School of Computing
Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
TP067689@mail.apu.edu.my
Muhammad Ehsan Rana
School of Computing
Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
muhd_ehsanrana@apu.edu.my
Abstract—Blockchain presents many new examples of
delivering a robust audit trail using the distributed ledger.
However, some potential issues, especially scalability and privacy,
are still ongoing in the blockchain. Fortunately, these issues can
be settled by using cloud computing. Cloud computing is an on-
demand service that enables consumers to purchase and use IT
resources. It saves the consumer's cost as consumers don't have
to spend extra on building their on-premises server and
providing extra security to the application. Enterprises interested
in joining the blockchain flow can run their blockchain in the
cloud. Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) provide multiple services
such as IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and BaaS that can help a business start
its blockchain application. But there are still risks that should be
carefully noted. Data leaks and breaching are still possible
despite the safety and privacy guarantees. The failure to achieve
proper security will have to face massive potential fines. In this
research, the authors addressed the impact of utilising the cloud
in the blockchain and provided an in-depth understanding of the
relationship between blockchain technology and cloud
computing.
Keywords— Cloud Computing, Blockchain, Cloud Service
Providers (CSP), Cloud Services for Blockchain.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the era of advanced technology, blockchain has gone
famous and substantially growing. The blockchain is an
underlying technology that supports bitcoin. It was first
proposed in 2008 and officially implemented in 2009 as a
distributed ledger of bitcoin transactions and has become a
prevalent technology since then [1]. The reason behind the
popularity of the blockchain in cryptocurrencies is that the
blockchain consists of a sharing and immutable ledger that
enables everyone to access and verify the whole history of
transactions of the bitcoin in a spreadsheet form [2]. In short, it
provides users with immediate, shared, and transparent
information. This allows the user to verify their transactions. It
also benefits in terms of security, as no third parties are
involved in the transactions between peers. Blockchain
technology consists of several blocks that are encrypted end to
end, and each block is time-stamped before joining together. In
every single bitcoin transaction, users must acknowledge their
transaction with a unique private key and authorise it to every
network node. Several blocks of transaction records that
include hash code and the cryptographic hash of its earlier
block are linked together in chains to form a series of
blockchains [2].
Blockchain is grouped into two types, public and private
blockchain [3]. A public blockchain is more on the
cryptocurrency’s underlying technology, such as Bitcoin and
Ethereum. In contrast, a private blockchain is more specifically
on one enterprise where specify in many different industries,
such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and academics.
Examples are R3 Corda and Hyperledger [3]. In comparison,
the public can be more secure than the private blockchain
because of the consensus mechanisms that lock the blockchain
from any alterations. As for the private blockchain, it's not fully
secured because network operators do the validation, and they
have the right to edit, override or delete the entries on the
blockchain [4]. The only core benefit of the private blockchain
is that the data is viewable only to the members that join the
blockchain network, whereas the public blockchain act as a
public ledger that the public can view. The key features of
blockchain technology include decentralisation, immutability,
transparency, security and privacy, as described below [5].
• Decentralization: It is an essential characteristic of
blockchain technology, where no centralised authority is
required within the transactions, which means that no third
party is involved between peers. Instead, blockchain uses
consensus protocols to verify the transactions more securely.
• Immutability: It is a critical property of blockchain
technology, where the transaction records between peers are
stored in the ledger, and it is impossible to be changed. The
transactions are timestamped, cryptographically hashed, linked
with the previous data blocks and forming a ledger.
• Transparency: It is an important characteristic of
blockchain which ensures that all the transactions are visible
and identifiable by the stakeholders in the blockchain public
ledger.
• Security and Privacy: Security and privacy
characteristics are inherent in blockchain as it is decentralised,
consensus-based and uses cryptography. This enhances
blockchain security by reducing the risk of cyber-attacks and
data leakage.
The research aims to provide the impact of hosting
blockchain technology in cloud infrastructures. This research
aims to identify the impact of utilising cloud computing
technology in the blockchain domain. On top of that, further
research is also done regarding the potential challenges of
utilising cloud computing on blockchain technology. This
paper mainly discusses how cloud computing has affected
blockchain technology. The information in this article is
compared with other researchers’ work in the related field to
ensure the research is valid and is not repeated.
II. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLOUD COMPUTING AND
BLOCKCHAIN
A. Cloud Computing
In the era of technology, cloud computing has become
popular due to its usefulness in delivering multiple computing
services. It also serves multiple advantages to the public, such
as reduced hardware and maintenance costs, worldwide
availability and scalability [1]. Hence, many business
organisations worldwide use cloud computing for storage,
979-8-3503-3514-9/23/$31.00 ©2023 IEEE
2023 15th International Conference on Developments in eSystems Engineering (DeSE)
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development, testing, backup and disaster recovery. Not only in
the IT industry, but it is also implemented in many different
industries such as Healthcare, Education, Automotive and retail
[6]. With the services handled by the cloud, less workload will
be provisioned on the local computers while running the
applications. The key features of cloud computing include
quality of service, resource pooling and on-demand self-service
[4]. Because of the popularity of cloud computing these days,
many entrepreneurs or businesses can reduce their overall costs
by outsourcing the required services. It gradually creates
challenges for cloud service providers on data protection
regarding reliability, integrity and confidentially due to
outsourcing. Hence, the risk of data security, network
dependency, limited control, and downtimes in the cloud has
become a paramount concern. Risks such as cyber hacking into
virtual machines and causing data loss often occur in the cloud
environment. One of the hacks is known as the distributed
denial-of-service attack (DDoS). To solve this security risk,
one of the preventive measures is implementing CAPTCHA
mechanisms, which create a set of visual tests solvable by
people but not by computer. It filters out the attack packets
through mechanisms such as anti-spoofing. Moreover, the use
of security equipment such as IDS and Honeywall gateway is
suggested by the cloud environment’s security to act as a
preventive measure in data security.
B. Blockchain
Blockchain technology is known to be the backbone of
Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a prevalent digital currency. The role of the
blockchain in Bitcoin is a public ledger that stores all the
records and details of the transaction and is shared among all
the nodes in the network. The transactions of the bitcoins are
authorised by the node miners, who are authorised to validate
the block by resolving computational issues [1]. Once those
blocks are validated, the blocks will be linked forever and are
hard to be altered. The validation used by the miners is the
consensus method, the mechanism including the Proof of
Work, those are being used for bitcoin, and Proof of Stake are
the authorities that hold most of the coins [1]. Hence, its
immutability has strengthened the security of the blockchain.
According to a news article, there is a prediction that
blockchain popularity will continue gaining until the year 2021,
especially in the banking industry. According to the author, the
adoption of blockchain technology in the banking industry has
been discussed or reported since 2018. The core benefit of
blockchain technology for the banking industry is that it is
relatively cheap and secure. Besides that, it also provides
transparency of all transactions within the blockchain. Hence,
there is news that banks have started to utilise blockchain
technology for tracking numbers. Not only in the bank industry
but in other industries, many have started to utilize the smart
contract of blockchain. A smart contract is known to be one of
the important features of the blockchain. For instance, the
MediaChain software uses the smart contract, which helps
musicians get paid for royalties by entering the artist into a
decentralised, transparent contract that ensures they get fully
paid on time.
Despite the advantages, one major drawback is the low
scalability caused by the verification process on the
participants’ node. Each of the participant’s nodes must be
acknowledged and authorised before any transactions, which
makes the bitcoin exchange take several hours to complete. As
a record, the blockchain can only handle seven transactions per
second [6]. Confidentiality and privacy are drawbacks faced by
the blockchain, as every node in the network will receive a
copy of a ledger.
C. The Need for Blockchain Cloud
Cloud computing and blockchain technology are constantly
booming in the modern market and are being used by many
businesses globally. Both serve a similar purpose in storing
information or transactions of the participant in networks that
allows anyone to access the information. However, there are
still several issues currently faced by both technologies.
Because of the advancement of the blockchain in
decentralising, transparency, and security, most of the
Information Technology infrastructure providers have invested
in innovating blockchain cloud services for a wide range of
customers. Integrating the blockchain with the cloud can
resolve common issues, such as compliance, data integrity, data
confidentiality handling, and interoperability. A significant
flaw of cloud computing is the dependence on centralised
servers for data management, which is prone to hackers
hacking into the server. Thanks to the decentralised blockchain
technology, it can store data on different computers. With this,
any failure in one server would not affect the whole system, as
the information is stored in many servers. Additionally,
integrating the blockchain with the cloud can reduce the risk of
data leaking. Conversely, organisations also invested in
creating Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) software, which helps
in business development and hosting blockchain apps and
smart contracts in the cloud-based blockchain ecosystem. In
short, BaaS makes blockchain capabilities more accessible in
the business. For instance, AWS has the most comprehensive
cloud offering for those who want in on the Blockchain wave.
AWS offers Amazon Managed Blockchain Service that lets the
user create a node on the public Ethereum blockchain with just
a few clicks, and the user can join the Hyperledger fabric
network. Other than that, AWS also offers Amazon Quantum
Ledger Database for users who want immutable data chain
tracking.
III. CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODELS FOR BLOCKCHAIN
A cloud deployment model outlines a cloud infrastructure's
creation, administration, and access procedures. The discussion
on the suitability of each of the cloud deployment models for
blockchain technology will be shared in this section. The cloud
deployment models involve public, hybrid, and private.
A. Public Cloud
It is a cloud infrastructure available for public use with the
only requirement of internet access. Governmental and private
businesses, academic sectors, or a combination of them may
access them as an owner or administrator and use them. The
core advantages of public clouds are lower cost, maintenance-
free, near-unlimited scalability, automation, massive data
storage and high reliability. It is cheaper than private clouds as
no hardware or software needs to be purchased. Users only
purchase the service they ordered. Despite the advantages,
people often get anxious when storing their data in the public
cloud because they are multi-tenant environments. Such an
environment comes with inherent security threats with the
potential to make the environment vulnerable. For instance, the
exploited environment may allow a hacker to view all the data
and eventually cause the misuse and leakage of information
that the client doesn’t want to be exposed to the public.
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Blockchain technology is known to have an issue with
scalability. Scalability is vital in blockchain, especially in
bitcoin or any money exchange and transactions. Imagine
multiple users undergoing bitcoin transfers simultaneously in a
world of 8 billion people. There needs to be more throughput to
allow Bitcoin to serve as a global currency. To solve the issue,
the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), a public cloud
server, offers blockchain to be hosted to improve the scalability
issue. EC2 offers infrastructure over the public internet and is
hosted in different AWS Regions such as Asia Pacific and
South America regions. Users that bought the infrastructure
have no right to alter where the service is hosted. The public
cloud is mainly suggested to different enterprises or users who
want their blockchain application to be auto-scaled and highly
flexible to use but have a constrained budget. For instance, the
famous companies currently using the EC2 public server are
Uber, Netflix, Amazon, Pinterest, and Airbnb. As mentioned,
the public cloud is affordable and highly scalable compared to
the private cloud.
B. Private Cloud
Private cloud. A type of cloud infrastructure that is owned,
provisioned, deployed, and used by a specific organisation or
party only. It is owned, maintained and used by a dedicated
company or a party. and it can be existed on or off-premise. All
private clouds are hosted by an organisation’s data centre. The
organisation have full access to the entire underlying
infrastructure and data, as well as enforcing standardisation
over its IT resources, processes, and services. For private
clouds hosted externally, the cloud is hosted at the provider’s
premises, and the customer connects to it over a secure
network. The most apparent key benefit of the private cloud is
its security. The private cloud has a much more secure system
than the public cloud. All the data is saved and managed on the
server, which other companies cannot access. On-premises
private clouds are all housed physically in the organisation’s
property, which increases the comfort level of board members
and skate holders. For off-premises cloud servers located in a
data centre, the same internal IT teams will access the data
through a highly secured network. Hence, this increases the
privacy and security system of the cloud. Customisation is also
a key benefit of private clouds. With private clouds,
organisations can select infrastructures with the required
compute, storage, and network features [7]. A private
blockchain is specially designed for enterprise applications and
is not decentralised compared to the public blockchain. Private
blockchains may encounter data breaches and other security
and privacy threats. In this case, it is best to host the private
blockchain in a private cloud to increase the security of the
organisation’s data because it is fully managed and viewable by
internal staff only. The blockchain stores the information in
nodes, and these nodes can be stored on the private cloud. This
adds a layer of security for the blockchain [6].
C. Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid cloud. It is widely known as the mixture of public
and private clouds that maintains unique entities bound
together but standardised or proprietary technology that enables
data and application portability [8]. Organisations tend to
utilise the hybrid cloud approach to maximise their resources
and strengthen their core capabilities by offloading non-
essential business operations onto the cloud while operating the
important activities on-site through a private cloud. A hybrid
cloud has a blend of the benefits of private and public clouds.
One of the key benefits is that it saves cost, has high agility and
is sufficient. The use cases of hybrid cloud include web
application hosting, migrating packaged applications and
application development and testing. For web application
hosting, the organisation can host the less critical applications
on the public cloud to speed up the overall process because the
public cloud is known to have more storage than the private
cloud. Migrating packaged applications is crucial in storing the
standard packaged applications such as Microsoft word, excel
sheet, and PowerPoint in the public cloud. This can save more
storage and increase the efficiency of the private cloud.
Moreover, application development and testing can be done in
a public cloud because the public cloud has more extensive
storage than the private cloud, which can speed up the overall
testing process. Hence, developing and testing the applications
in the public cloud before launching them is never an issue.
With these key benefits and use cases, organisations will need
to host and deploy the blockchain technology on the on-
premises servers, and the rest of the backups will be stored in
the cloud. Deployed all the blockchain on-premises and let the
public cloud manage all the backups.
IV. CLOUD SERVICE MODELS FOR BLOCKCHAIN
The cloud model specifies the services and the competence
provided to consumers. In this section, we discuss the
suitability of these four important cloud service models to
blockchain technology. The four important cloud service
models include Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a
Service (IaaS), Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) and Software as
a Service (SaaS).
A. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Consumers directly use
the IT infrastructures such as networks, storage and other
fundamental computing resources. Consumers can deploy and
run arbitrary services. On the other hand, the service provider
manages the infrastructure for the consumers, and their job is to
manage the actual servers, network, virtualisation, and data
storage through the internet [9]. Examples of IaaS are Amazon
EC2, Google compute engine and OpenStack. Organisations
utilising blockchain technology for money transfers can rent
the IaaS through API or a dashboard. In the digital world,
money transfers digitally are used daily by over a billion
people globally. Hence, the application of money transfers
using blockchain technology must always be accessible by the
users. Their runtime, operating system, application, and data
must always be monitored, updated, and recorded. It is best to
have high flexibility and scalability so they can contribute to a
faster development lifecycle [10]. The backup, disaster
recovery and high availability are also substantial when it is
related to money. Hence, Iaas, with the highest flexibility, takes
the most advantage compared to SaaS and PaaS in this
scenario. In IaaS, the organisation only manages to develop its
app for blockchain service, data, runtime, middleware, and
operating service. Usually, the company that runs money
transactions will have multiple IT teams to keep the application
accessible and updated for anyone worldwide to use 24/7. On
the other hand, the provider will handle and provide the best
server, storage, and networking option to cope with the
organisation’s requirements. Blockchain IaaS might be highly
beneficial in terms of scalability based on business
requirements. However, there is a significant flaw that is
needed to be discussed. The major flaw of blockchain as an
IaaS is that data transfer between virtual machines and host
382
infrastructure is prone to security risks. Because virtual
machines are susceptible to viruses, malware, and ransomware
attacks. For instance, infected VM images or users that are
untrained have the potential to cause the attacks.
B. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS). The consumers only handle
the applications and data, whereas the cloud service provider
manages the runtime, middleware, operating system,
virtualisation, servers, storage, and networking. The PaaS is
most known to be used by developers [9]. Examples of the
PaaS are the Google App Engine, AWS Elastic Beanstalk,
QuickBase and Adobe Commerce. Suppose the organisation
only have teams to build and develop the blockchain
application. In that case, the PaaS is best for them as the
providers offer all the underlying infrastructures. The
organisation only must manage storing the blockchain with
logistics and tracking data into the server. Also, to manage and
build the application to make sure that the application is
accessible through anyone’s devices in the organizations. The
benefits of blockchain PaaS involve speedier invention, testing,
and deployment, and consumers don’t have to worry about
maintaining operating systems and other underlying
infrastructure. This allows the consumers to fully focus on
building and upgrading the critical functionalities of the
applications [11]. However, there are still drawbacks that
should be highlighted. With Blockchain, there are still some
security concerns in the PaaS concept, where the PaaS have the
authority to control the data, which is insecure when your
company’s data is being shared with outsiders. Other than that,
the main operations and events are all operated by the cloud
service provider, which can also lead to some possible security
concerns.
C. Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as s Service (SaaS). The consumers utilise the
application that the cloud service provider provides. The
application must be accessible via the internet or web browsers
on different clients’ devices. Consumers have limited visibility
in controlling the underlying cloud infrastructure, which
involves the storage, network, operating systems, servers,
database and applications [9]. Examples are salesforce.com,
google apps, Office365 and Dell EMC Syncplicity. If a
company wants to have a blockchain application but lacks an
IT team to build it, at the same time, wants to have a faster time
marketing their application, they can rent the on-demand
service of SaaS. The cloud service provider will provide the
best resources and comes with an application that fulfils the
consumer’s requirements. The benefit of blockchain in SaaS is
cost savings, as the provider takes responsibility for essential
hardware components, upgrades, middleware, storage, and
servers. The Blockchain SaaS also provide efficient
deployment times. However, the downside is its low flexibility,
and vendor lock-in could be worsened by higher expenses [11].
D. Blockchain as a Service (BaaS)
Blockchain as a service (BaaS) is a new cloud service
model which involves third-party installation and maintenance
of a blockchain network. The concept is almost similar to SaaS.
BaaS enables any business or organisation to quickly and easily
join the blockchain network. With BaaS, companies of all types
of sizes can now develop Blockchain applications with
minimal cost because they don’t have to invest in in-house
development. Businesses can now use the Blockchain
Provider's service thanks to the BaaS paradigm. Companies
that pair cloud services with BaaS can be very valuable, as the
personalised flexibility of BaaS technology allows businesses
to deal efficiently with issues by adjusting integrations.
Nowadays, many banking industries use the BaaS for open
banking. On top of that, BaaS also comes in crucial for lenders.
Lending will become easier with BaaS as there will be an
instant settlement of transactions. This helps in preventing risks
such as double spending and defrauding.
V. IMPACT OF CLOUD FEATURES ON BLOCKCHAIN
TECHNOLOGY
A. Scalability
Cloud architecture is built with virtualisation, which makes
it highly scalable. Virtual machines (VM) are known to be the
finest in terms of flexibility and can be scaled up or down
quickly. Unlike physical machines, which have relatively fixed
resources and performance. The unique feature of a VM is that
it is flexible and has high portability, allowing it to be relocated
to different servers or hosted on various servers at a time [9].
Rapid scaling is made possible at this point by third-party
cloud developers with ready access to all the necessary
hardware and software resources, which a single company
could not do cost-effectively. Often, businesses find cloud is
best used in disaster recovery because the cloud scalability can
react and adapt to the changing demands of the business. The
discovery recovery cost can be reduced by not building and
maintaining secondary data centres. Conversely, blockchain is
known to be low in scalability. The core factor of the low
scalability is the consensus, which requires all network
participants to agree on the validation transaction. In the bitcoin
blockchain, only seven transactions can be done per second,
and of course, it could not fulfil the requirement of processing
millions of transactions. This does not stop companies from
utilising blockchain technology. AWS provides a service name
Amazon Managed Blockchain for the consumers, which allows
consumers to quickly join the public network and manage
scalable private networks in just a few steps by using open-
source frameworks such as Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum.
Amazon Managed Blockchain automatically scales to handle
the demands of thousands of applications processing millions
of transactions. AWS, at this point, empowers the blockchain
with cloud computing and provides the service to businesses
that want to be in blockchain flow at a lower cost. Moreover,
there are also articles suggesting that more than 40 banks are
currently utilising distributed ledger technologies to global
financial markets. They join the R3/ Microsoft Azure
Partnership, where the R3 banks can access Microsoft Azure
and 45 cloud-based tools on the Azure platform. With this, the
bank industry will be able to overcome the scalability issue of
blockchain technology.
B. Availability
Cloud computing is relatively high in availability. The idea
of availability in the cloud allows your product and services to
be accessible by customers anytime and anywhere. The system
can scale up or down without any issue to reach the customer’s
demand without suffering performance loss. Therefore,
availability is a blend of scalability and reliability. The IaaS is a
perfect example, as it provides high automation and scalability
on demand so consumers can monitor the applications, data,
and other services [9]. Availability in the cloud also means data
availability when there is a data loss issue. For instance, the
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recovery point objective (RPO) is achievable when an hourly
backup stores the data in the Amazon S3 bucket, which
automatically replicates from one region to another Amazon S3
region. If there is any data loss due to a cloud server issue, the
hourly backup could come in handy at that point. Blockchain
has achieved the availability of data where the transaction data
in a block will be published and is always available for the
participants to verify. Ethereum transactions are recorded in
blocks, and the blocks are then validated and connected to form
a blockchain, and its transaction data is viewable by anyone’s
device. However, when it comes to a privacy issue, the loss of
anonymity may occur if the address is being recognised [12].
Therefore, data availability for anyone should be limited. To
achieve this, hosting the blockchain in a private cloud is
recommended because the private cloud is best regarding
security and privacy. As mentioned, only the organisation’s
members can access the information [13]. Here, we discovered
that the limited data availability in the private cloud could
empower the blockchain’s privacy issue. Availability of
backup and copies of the data is also an additional point to a
company. Blockchain requires replicating information all over
the network over different servers, which is achievable using
cloud computing. With blockchain and cloud computing
working together, fault tolerance can be easily achieved as any
disturbance or disaster happens in the cloud hub. The
blockchain can be an advantage by providing uninterrupted
services, which means that there will be no loss of data.
C. Automation
Cloud automation automated the manual process and
accelerated the supply of infrastructure resources on an on-
demand self-service basis, according to consumer’s
requirements and business demands. Moreover, data security,
code testing, network diagnostics, version control and
software-defined networking (SDN) are all automated in the
cloud, making all processes complete in a snap. The advantages
of cloud automation include reducing error-prone processes
and saving more costs when the system automatically
eliminates errors and bottlenecks [9]. Also, the cloud offers
auto-provisioning servers and backup data and eliminates
unused processes without real-time human interaction. As a
result, the cloud benefits efficiency and reduces manual
workloads. Cloud automation can be applied to blockchain
technology. Imagine a business that wanted to rent the SaaS
and wanted their blockchain application instantly ready for
them. The cloud service provider must provide the client with
the applications, servers, and other aspects. To speed up the
process, CSP uses an automated process to automatically
update the transaction information in a blockchain and
automatically refresh and update the blockchain application.
Other than that, the cloud can automatically make a backup of
the blockchain data in case any unexpected disaster or issues
endanger the data in the blockchain.
VI. CRITICAL REVIEW OF FEATURES OFFERED BY POPULAR
CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
Cloud service providers (CSPs) are information technology
companies that provide the public with many computing
resources over the internet and deliver services on demand.
They target companies that want to avoid taking responsibility
for installing or building software, hardware, servers, and
network resources. Most importantly, it is essential for
companies with constrained budgets to carefully select the
cloud service provider, especially reviewing the availability
indicators [14]. Blockchains are so popular these days due to
their distributed ledger that can help businesses record, track
and store their data. In this section, the authors have discussed
the CSP companies that offer services and resources
specifically related to blockchain.
A. Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing
platform that consists of an infrastructure of services such as
IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and BaaS offerings. AWS service provides
multiple scalable solutions for storage, databases, analytics,
compute and more. AWS offers a product that is specialised for
blockchain. As mentioned, the two main products are Amazon
Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) and Amazon Managed
Blockchain. The immutable, transparent, and cryptographic
transaction log is provided by the Amazon Quantum Ledger
Database (QLDB), a fully managed ledger database. The
blockchain has trustable third-party control and maintains the
ledger on behalf of everyone engaged in collaborative projects.
With the help of Amazon Managed Blockchain, users can
quickly and easily construct and administer blockchain
networks and distributed ledgers. As blockchain is
decentralised, many parties can conduct transactions without
knowing or trusting one another. Each party, referred to as a
member, owns a peer node in the network.
B. IBM Cloud
IBM Cloud offers a suite of cloud computing services
which includes IaaS, PaaS, artificial intelligence, the internet of
things, analytics and blockchain. It is also offered through
public, private and hybrid cloud deployment models. They
offer solutions based on collaboration, development and
testing, application development, analytics, security, and
business integration. IBM provides a blockchain product IBM
Blockchain Platform, built around the Linux Foundation’s
Hyperledger Fabric [15]. IBM Blockchain Platform provides
full-stack BaaS in any environment the customer prefers. It
allows customers to create a blockchain network with only a
few clicks and provide an interface for customers to manage
networks, channels, and smart contract. IBM offers an easy-to-
use blockchain platform to add new members, construct
channels, define governance policies, and more. The IBM
Blockchain Platform uses Hyperledger Fabric to create a
distributed business network based on privacy and trust.
C. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCL)
Oracle cloud infrastructure (OCL) offers cloud services that
allow consumers to run their applications on a hosted
environment. OCL owns essential high-performance compute
capabilities such as hardware, software, and storage that can
fulfil the customer’s requirements and is flexible and secure
from the customer’s on-premises network. The blockchain
product of the OCL is the Blockchain Platform Service.
Blockchain Platform Service offers and manages blockchain
service for smart contracts and maintains a tamper-proof
distributed ledger. It is built on the Hyperledger Fabric, which
deploys secure and verifiable applications that shares
immutable, trusted data with third parties such as suppliers.
VII. POTENTIAL CHALLENGES OF UTILIZING CLOUD IN
BLOCKCHAIN
Blockchain is hosted in the cloud to increase scalability and
achieve higher security and privacy. However, some potential
384
challenges still have to be looked up. The cloud is still
considered a secure environment offering blockchain services
[16]. One potential challenge when hosting blockchain in the
cloud involves the possibility of hacker hacking into the cloud
environment [17]. The cloud provides centralised cloud
storage, where the service provider manages the data. Imagine
having all your information data and running your software on
other people’s hard drive and CPUs that appears to be very
insecure and doubtful. Especially in the multi-tenancy model
and pooled computing sources, it introduces a security threat.
Hackers can gain access to cloud storage and misuse the data.
Hackers can implement various methods to launch a series of
ongoing attacks against cloud service providers. They gain
access to email accounts via phishing emails. Then they use the
standard infrastructure to catch one target after another after
they access the cloud service provider. Because the blockchain
used by customers is private, the hacker that hacked into the
storage cloud will also be able to hack into the blockchain, as
there are no consensus mechanisms for protection. Another
possibility is that because private blockchains involve more
access control, internal actors can eventually hack into the data
effortlessly [18], [19]. Furthermore, another potential challenge
in hosting blockchain in the cloud includes model costing.
Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) can be more costly than IaaS
and PaaS since BaaS provides end-to-end consumer
development services. For SaaS and BaaS developers, the cost
of building multi-tenancy can be crucial. The cost of
redesigning, updating software, adding new features to allow
modifications, and improving performance and security can all
be quite expensive. Hence, for the providers to be profitable, a
planned and workable billing model is essential [2].
Nevertheless, hosting blockchain in a cloud environment can
face the issue of cloud leaking, where the accidental
distribution of sensitive data occurs. Unauthorised transfer to
an outside recipient is also known as data leakage. Moreover,
according to research, undefined unsolicited revelations of
information can also be defined as data leakage. A report
related to the leakage of six million customer records to the
internet by Verizon Partner Systems. Several customer names,
addresses, phone numbers, and PINS used to verify their
identification with Verizon were leaked from an unprotected
Amazon S3 bucket [20].
VIII. CONCLUSION
In this research, the authors have considered the outcome of
hosting blockchain in the cloud. Cloud computing may
enhance the storage and security concerns of the private
blockchain. Some other risks involve data leaking, cyberattack
and high costing. Many organisations like AWS, IBM, and
Oracle have proposed products that enable consumers to bring
their business into blockchain technology. Their products have
solved the issues commonly faced by blockchains. These
companies guarantee a secure, scalable, and flexible
environment for the consumer’s private blockchain. With IaaS,
PaaS, SaaS and BaaS, consumers do not have to worry about
building their on-premises servers from scrap, which can cost
them a fortune. With the cloud’s on-demand self-service
system, consumers can simply click the BaaS product that suits
their requirements. This research addresses the use of the cloud
in the blockchain domain as well as its pros and cons. Hence,
serious testing should be conducted to find a satisfactory
equilibrium between the security, privacy and reliability
required. However, few current systems can offer these close to
the level of robustness.
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