Enhancing trust and collaboration: A reputation-driven mechanism for cross-chain IoT data sharing

Cross-chain data sharing in the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a critical challenge due to the isolation of industry-specific blockchains and the lack of trust mechanisms between heterogeneous networks. This issue is particularly important as IoT data sharing enables cross-industry collaboration, unlocks data value, and fosters innovation in applications such as smart cities and intelligent transportation. Existing solutions, including notary mechanisms, side-chains, and relay chains, often suffer from centralization issues, limited scalability, or inadequate incentives for active participation, making them insufficient to address the dynamic and large-scale requirements of IoT ecosystems. To tackle this problem, this paper proposes a reputation-based incentive mechanism for cross-chain data sharing, which integrates a main-subchain architecture with a two-stage notary group election algorithm based on evolutionary game theory. Additionally, a Stackelberg game is employed to model interactions between data producers and consumers, optimizing data pricing strategies and incentivizing trustworthy sharing. The proposed framework is evaluated through extensive simulations on a star-topology blockchain network, testing its scalability, fairness, and effectiveness. Results demonstrate that the mechanism not only mitigates centralization problems but also enhances trust, collaboration, and efficiency across heterogeneous blockchains, providing a robust foundation for IoT data-sharing applications.