Incentivising honest behaviour in P2P networks using blockchain-based reputation

Abstract

Blockchain-based reward systems have recently been proposed to motivate decentralized execution of various tasks. Our work introduces the notion of reputation in this setting and aims to assess the feasibility of providing incentives for honest user behavior in P2P networks. In this paper, we focus on file sharing and utilize the Proof-of-Prestige reward system as the basis for user incentivisation to mitigate content poisoning. Our evaluation results show that the use of reputation on the Proof-of-Prestige reward system resulted in honest users consistently mining several times more coins than malicious ones. We posit that such an indirect coupling of reputation with rewards can prove highly beneficial for blockchain-based P2P systems by providing counter-incentives against malicious behavior.