Proof of identity - a blockchain consensus algorithm to create a dynamically permissioned blockchain

Blockchains can be either permissioned or permissionless. Existing blockchain consensus algorithms used to create permissioned blockchains to not allow new validators to be dynamically added to the blockchain during runtime. This can be a problem when blockchain is used in swarm robotics, where redundancy is required. Besides, popular algorithms such as proof of work (PoW) that offer redundancy consume a lot of resources, making them unsuitable to run on the powerless robots used in swarm robotics. In addition, such algorithms are also vulnerable to threats such as the 51% attack. This research proposes a novel proof-of-identity (PoI) blockchain consensus algorithm to create a dynamically permissioned blockchain to be used in swarm robotics. This algorithm uses a swarm controller to generate a private-public key pair that is used to authorise validators. Tests carried out showed that the PoI algorithm is immune to the 51% attack threat and can run on low-powered devices such as Raspberry Pi 3. Moreover, the consensus time was also shown to be shorter in comparison to PoW.