Decentralized Device Authentication Model using the Trust Score and Blockchain Technology for Dynamic Networks

Abstract

In general, applications use Trusted Third Party to authenticate users, application servers, and devices. Since Trusted Third Party based solutions are centralized, a decentralized scheme is preferred for applications, and blockchain is one of the best solutions for decentralization. Hence, this paper proposes a trust score based decentralized authentication model using the blockchain technology for dynamic networks. In our proposed model, any device can join the network at any time through existing nodes by sending the join transaction to the blockchain. A new device in the network can do messaging with other existing devices; however, the receiving device may not accept until the sender gains a full trust score in the network. The trust score of nodes is built based on its behavior and contributions to the network viz. mining, voting, introducing new node, and fact creation. The proposed model does not give incentives to the miners in the form of currency. At the same time, it should support the network, which is public, dynamic, and untrusted. Hence, we introduce a private and public nodes based blockchain model with incentives such as subsidy, green corridor, etc. We analyze the proposed model for security effectiveness, resource usage, communication overhead, and computational performance to prove lightweight devices’ applicability.