SmartCoin: A novel incentive mechanism for vehicles in intelligent transportation system based on consortium blockchain

An intelligent transportation system (ITS) improves traffic safety and efficiency by enabling vehicles to generate and broadcast messages. However, it is not easy to trust the received message's credibility in an untrusted environment or untrusted network. Additionally, there is no reward mechanism for the honest message generator. Hence, to improve safety and network efficiency and encourage more vehicles to participate in network improvisation, we proposed a novel incentive mechanism for vehicles called SmartCoin based on a consortium blockchain. The proposed scheme aims to achieve social welfare, improved transportation, less traffic congestion, reduced road accidents, and a transportation network free from fraud messages. In the proposed scheme, vehicles give the rating to the message source vehicle based on the validity of the message. Some SmartCoins are credited into the vehicle's account at the blockchain according to the rating of the message. The SmartCoins could be redeemed either at the fuel station, electric charge station for electric vehicles and vehicle service station. Blockchain technology provides decentralization, immutability, transparency to the ITS. The secure storage for the SmartCoin, traffic messages and user information is achieved using blockchain. The secure hash algorithm (SHA256) and elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA-192 bit) are used to provide secure communication, message integrity and authentication for vehicles and information. The result analysis reveals that the proposed scheme is effective, comprehensive, and feasible in collecting and storing trust values in the ITS network. The performance evaluation showed enhancement in performance as 90% less consensus delay and 70-80% less storage and communication cost compared to state-of-the-art schemes.