An approach is disclosed for registering and authenticating Internet of things (IoT) devices. In one embodiment, an installation device receives, from an IoT device, an identifier (ID) and a hash of a public key, where the IoT device itself generates the ID, the public key, and a private key. To register the IoT device, a blockchain wallet in the installation devices generates a blockchain transaction which adds the received ID and hash of the public key as a name and value pair in a name/value storage (NVS). The hash of the public key may then be retrieved from the NVS and used in authentication of the IoT device to other IoT devices or servers, among other things.