New Challenges in Blockchains and Cloud-Fog-Edge Computing

Dear Colleagues,

Blockchains and cloud-fog-edge computing are two emerging technologies that have the potential to transform various domains, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), smart cities, digital healthcare, finance, and edge intelligence. Blockchains are distributed ledger systems that provide a decentralized, secure and transparent platform for data storage and sharing among multiple agents without a central authority. On the other hand, cloud-fog-edge computing is a new computing paradigm that aims to provide scalable, efficient and low-latency processing of extensive data streams generated by distributed devices and sensors at different levels of the network hierarchy. Integrating blockchains and cloud-fog-edge computing can enable a novel decentralized, secure and transparent platform for real-time data processing and ubiquitous computing in the future. However, there are also many challenges and open issues that need to be addressed to fully exploit the benefits of these technologies, such as effective resource allocation, service deployment, performance optimization, security and privacy provisioning, and interoperability.

The aim of this Special Issue is to solicit high-quality original research papers that address the new challenges in blockchains and cloud-fog-edge computing. We invite original submissions that cover the following aspects of these technologies, i.e., topics including but not limited to:

• Security and privacy in blockchain-based cloud-fog-edge computing;
• Scalability and efficiency for cloud-fog-edge computing with blockchain;
• Interoperability challenges for integrating blockchains and cloud-fog-edge computing;
• Blockchain architectures and protocols for cloud-fog-edge computing;
• Blockchain security, privacy, and scalability in cloud-fog-edge environments;
• Blockchain applications and services in cloud-fog-edge scenarios;
• Cloud-fog-edge data management and analytics for blockchain;
• Cloud-fog-edge integration and interoperability with blockchain;
• Smart contract-based applications and services for cloud-fog-edge computing;
• Mobile edge computing based on blockchains;
• Edge intelligence based on blockchains;
• Novel approaches and models for decentralized computing;
• Artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) based on blockchain and cloud-fog-edge computing;
• Ubiquitous AI based on blockchain and cloud-fog-edge computing.

Dr. Bo Yuan
Dr. Muhammad Yaqub
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• blockchains
• cloud-fog-edge computing
• decentralized computing
• mobile computing