A Blockchain-Based Trust-Value Management Approach for Secure Information Sharing in Internet of Vehicles

Information sharing among vehicles plays a critical role in improving driving safety and traffic loads in Internet of Vehicles (IoV). However, due to the existence of malicious vehicles, information sharing among vehicles lacks a trustworthy environment. It is challenging for a vehicle to assess the credibility of the received information. Blockchain has attracted extensive attention because of the decentralization and tamper-proof characteristics. Nevertheless, the high mobility of vehicles leads to rapid network topology changes, which makes it difficult to reach a consensus. In this article, we propose a consortium blockchain-based trust-value management approach to build a trustworthy environment for information sharing among vehicles. A new incentive mechanism is designed to encourage vehicles to actively participate in blockchain maintenance. Furthermore, an Enhanced Proof of Work (EPoW) consensus algorithm is designed to reduce the amount of information that needs to be transmitted over the network to reach consensus quickly. Comprehensive analysis and simulation results verify that the proposed trust-value management approach and EPoW consensus algorithm realize secure and efficient information sharing in IoV.