A blockchain-based trust system for decentralised applications: When trustless needs trust

Nguyen Truong*, Gyu Myoung Lee*, Kai Sun*, Florian Guitton*, Yi Ke Guo*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Blockchain technology has been envisaged to commence an era of decentralised applications and services (DApps) without the need for a trusted intermediary. Such DApps open a marketplace in which services are delivered to end-users by contributors which are then incentivised by cryptocurrencies in an automated, peer-to-peer, and trustless fashion. However, blockchain, consolidated by smart contracts, only ensures on-chain data security, autonomy and integrity of the business logic execution defined in smart contracts. It cannot guarantee the quality of service of DApps, which entirely depends on the services’ performance. Thus, there is a critical need for a trust system to reduce the risk of dealing with fraudulent counterparts in a blockchain network. These reasons motivate us to develop a fully decentralised trust framework deployed on top of a blockchain platform, operating along with DApps in the marketplace to demoralise deceptive entities while encouraging trustworthy ones. The trust system works as an underlying decentralised service providing a feedback mechanism for end-users and maintaining trust relationships among them in the ecosystem accordingly. We believe this research fortifies the DApps ecosystem by introducing an universal trust middleware for DApps as well as shedding light on the implementation of a decentralised trust system.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)68-79
Number of pages12
JournalFuture Generation Computer Systems
Volume124
Early online date24 May 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2021

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Software
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Computer Networks and Communications

User-Defined Keywords

  • Blockchain
  • DApps
  • Decentralised ecosystem
  • Reputation
  • Trust system

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