FPGA Implementation and Analysis of Cryptographic Hash Functions for Blockchain Systems

Abstract

Due to the rapid developments in the wireless communications area and personal communications systems, providing information security has become a more and more important subject. This security concept becomes a more complicated subject when next-generation system requirements and real-time computation speed are considered. Most of the data transmitted over the communication channel are highly confidential so it needs more security. But this confidential data are easily stolen by hackers and it affects the users’ privacy. Nowadays, so many cryptographic algorithms have been established to protect the original information of the users. Cryptographic hash functions are used to protect information integrity and authenticity in a wide range of applications. Hash Function (HF) security is the most important primitive which used for data authentication and data integrity. The reconfigurable cryptography integrated with chip which used for cryptography. Hashing algorithm is used to generate the random number which also used as a key value for cryptography. In our propose work, we will construct the lightweight blockchain architecture based on FPGA, mainly we have to consider the performance of the hash function. Also, we will conduct an analysis of lightweight hash for blockchain, and propose a new lightweight hash-based blockchain architecture that can change the hash algorithm used for mining. We will investigate high speed and low-area hardware architectures. The hardware is described in VHDL/Verilog and simulate, verify on Altera/Xilinx FPGAs using Quartus II/Xilinx ISE software. The circuit realized through the FPGA is tested as a prototype on FPGA Development Board/Kit. However, in results, the analysis in perspective of cryptographic performance will be done by area, throughput, latency and power consumption.

Introduction

This paper focuses on the development of an FPGA-based lightweight blockchain architecture for Internet of Things (IoT) environments using lightweight cryptographic hash functions. As IoT and the broader Internet of Everything (IoE) continue to expand across smart cities, healthcare, transportation, and industrial applications, ensuring data security, privacy, and trust has become increasingly important. However, IoT devices typically have limited computational power, memory, and battery capacity, making conventional blockchain and cryptographic algorithms unsuitable for resource-constrained environments.

Blockchain provides a decentralized and tamper-resistant ledger that eliminates the need for a central authority while ensuring secure data storage and transaction integrity through consensus mechanisms such as Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Stake (PoS), and Proof of Property (PoP). Although blockchain offers strong security and transparency, traditional blockchain systems require significant computational resources and energy, making them impractical for lightweight IoT devices.

To address these limitations, the paper explores Lightweight Cryptography (LWC), which is specifically designed for devices with constrained resources. Unlike conventional cryptographic algorithms, lightweight algorithms emphasize reduced memory usage, lower power consumption, shorter processing time, smaller hardware area, and efficient communication while maintaining adequate security. Examples of lightweight algorithms include PRESENT, HIGHT, and XTEA, which are optimized for embedded systems, RFID tags, wireless sensor networks, and smart cards.

The paper also explains the role of cryptographic hash functions, which generate fixed-size message digests for ensuring data integrity. Unlike encryption or Message Authentication Codes (MACs), hash functions do not require secret keys and consume fewer computational resources, making them particularly suitable for blockchain applications such as digital signatures, password storage, unique identifiers, and transaction verification.

The motivation for the research is the growing need to establish trust, security, and data reliability in IoT environments without overwhelming resource-constrained devices. The authors propose a lightweight blockchain that simplifies conventional blockchain algorithms while preserving security, making it suitable for IoT systems, wireless sensor networks, and autonomous driving applications. Implementing blockchain on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) offers advantages such as reconfigurability, low development cost, faster deployment, and improved hardware performance compared to Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs).

The literature review examines previous research on FPGA-based blockchain implementations, lightweight hash functions such as SPONGENT, PHOTON, QUARK, Keccak, and SHA-256, hardware cryptographic architectures, authentication mechanisms for 5G IoT networks, and resource-efficient blockchain systems. Existing studies primarily focus on improving security, reducing hardware area, optimizing throughput, minimizing power consumption, and increasing processing efficiency for blockchain-enabled IoT applications.

The proposed work aims to overcome major blockchain challenges, including high computational requirements, excessive energy consumption, limited scalability, high latency, privacy concerns, and vulnerability to fake block generation. Since blockchain mining and cryptographic hashing require significant processing power, the authors propose implementing lightweight hash algorithms on FPGAs to achieve an optimal balance between hardware area, processing speed, throughput, and energy efficiency.

The research emphasizes that an effective lightweight blockchain should provide strong security while minimizing hardware resources and maintaining acceptable performance. Rather than focusing solely on maximizing speed, the proposed FPGA implementation seeks an optimal trade-off between area, throughput, processing time, and power consumption, making blockchain practical for low-power IoT devices.

Conclusion

The Internet of Things has spread widely due to resource constraints, the widespread deployment of small devices, and their wireless communication with the Internet and one another. Lightweight cryptography is used to address this issue in light of resource constraints and security requirements. In this article, a lightweight cryptographic hash function supporting IoT and big data applications was introduced. The bit permutation, linear transformation, and S-Box paradigms are used in the proposed study. The outcomes demonstrate notable gains in terms of performance, memory, and power use. We have designed our system to meet the broad needs of lightweight cryptography protocols while adhering to traditional hash standard security specifications. In order to accommodate a range of IoT applications, the suggested architecture will thereafter be evaluated on diverse hardware and platforms.

References

[1] Vijayakumar Peroumal et al ,” FPGA Implementation of Secure Block Creation Algorithm for Blockchain Technology”, The Electrochemical Society ECS Trans. Volume 107, Number 1, 2022 [2] Sa’ed Abed, Reem Jaffal, Bassam J. Mohd & Mohammad Al-Shayeji,”An analysis and evaluation of lightweight hash functions for blockchain-based IoT devices”Springer, June 2021,DOI : 10.1007/s10586-021-03324-1 [3] Gookyi DAN, Ryoo K. “A Lightweight System-On-Chip Based Cryptographic Core for Low-Cost Devices”. Sensors (Basel). 2022 Apr 14;22(8):3004. doi: 10.3390/s22083004. PMID: 35458989; PMCID: PMC9030163] [4] Songshen HAN, Kaiyong XU, Zhiqiang ZHU, Songhui GUO, Haidong LIU and Zuohui LI, “Hash-Based Signature for Flexibility Authentication of IoT Devices”, Wuhan Univ. J. Nat. Sci., 27 1 (2022) 1-10, DOI: 10.1051/wujns/2022271001 [5] Unterstein, F., Jacob, N., Hanley, N. et al. “SCA secure and updatable crypto engines for FPGA SoC bitstream decryption: extended version.” J Cryptogr Eng 11, 257–272 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13389-020-00247-2 [6] D. Kundi, A. Khalid, A. Aziz, C. Wang, M. O\'Neill and W. Liu, \"Resource-Shared Crypto-Coprocessor of AES Enc/Dec With SHA-3,\" in IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, doi: 10.1109/TCSI.2020.2997916. [7] J. Tetu, L. Trudeau, M. Van Beirendonck, A. Balatsoukas-Stimming and P. Giard, \"A Standalone FPGA-Based Miner for Lyra2REv2 Cryptocurrencies,\" in IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, vol. 67, no. 4, pp. 1194-1206, April 2020, doi: 10.1109/TCSI.2020.2970923. [8] Jinhua Fu ,Sihai Qiao, Yongzhong Huang, Xueming Si, Bin Li and Chao Yuan, “A Study on the Optimization of Blockchain Hashing Algorithm Based on PRCA” Volume 2020 ,doi.org/10.1155/2020/8876317 [9] Byoungjin Seok, Jinseong Park, Jong Hyuk Park “A Lightweight Hash-Based Blockchain Architecture for Industrial IoT” Applied Sciences 9(18):3740, September 2019, DOI:10.3390/app9183740 [10] F.Assad, F. Elotmani, M. Fettach and A. Tragha, \"An optimal hardware implementation of the KECCAK hash function on virtex-5 FPGA,\" 2019 International Conference on Systems of Collaboration Big Data, Internet of Things & Security (SysCoBIoTS), Casablanca, Morocco, 2019, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1109/SysCoBIoTS48768.2019.9028028 [11] R.Florin and R. Ionut, \"FPGA based architecture for securing IoT with blockchain,\" 2019 International Conference on Speech Technology and Human-Computer Dialogue (SpeD), Timisoara, Romania, 2019, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/SPED.2019.8906595. [12] D.Kim, S. Lee and K. Shin, \"A Hardware Implementation of SHA3 Hash Processor using Cortex-M0,\" 2019 International Conference on Electronics, Information, and Communication (ICEIC), Auckland, New Zealand, 2019, pp.1-4, doi: 10.23919/ELINFOCOM.2019.8706419. [13] I.Korotkyi and S. Sachov, \"Hardware Accelerators for IOTA Cryptocurrency,\" 2019 IEEE 39th International Conference on Electronics and Nanotechnology (ELNANO), Kyiv, Ukraine, 2019, pp. 832-837, doi: 10.1109/ELNANO.2019.8783449. [14] Y.Luo, S. Han, J. Liu, Z. Liang and S. Yang, \"Hash Hardware Generator Based on Mutual Perturbed Logistic Map,\" 2019 IEEE 21st International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications; IEEE 17th International Conference on Smart City; IEEE 5th International Conference on Data Science and Systems (HPCC/SmartCity/DSS), Zhangjiajie, China, 2019, pp. 353-358, doi:10.1109/HPCC/SmartCity/DSS.2019.00061. [15] D.K.N. and R. Bhakthavatchalu, \"Parameterizable FPGA Implementation of SHA-256 using Blockchain Concept,\" 2019 International Conference on Communication and Signal Processing (ICCSP), Chennai, India, 2019, pp. 0370-0374, doi: 10.1109/ICCSP.2019.8698069. [16] C. A. Lara-Nino, M. Morales-Sandoval and A. Diaz-Perez, \"Small lightweight hash functions in FPGA,\" 2018 IEEE 9th Latin American Symposium on Circuits & Systems (LASCAS), Puerto Vallarta, 2018, pp. 1-4, doi:10.1109/LASCAS.2018.8399948. [17] Y. Yang, D. He, N. Kumar and S. Zeadally, \"Compact Hardware Implementation of a SHA-3 Core for Wireless Body Sensor Networks,\" in IEEE Access, vol. 6, pp. 40128-40136, 2018, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2855408. [18] S. binti Suhaili and T. Watanabe, \"Design of high-throughput SHA-256 hash function based on FPGA,\" 2017 6th International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Informatics (ICEEI), Langkawi, 2017, pp. 1-6, doi:10.1109/ICEEI.2017.8312449.

Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Ms. P. R. Lawhale, Dr. S. N. Kale. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.