Decentralized Trust Management and Incentive Mechanisms for Secure Information Sharing in VANET

The information sharing among internet-connected vehicles is close, but there may be the issue of vehicles providing false information. This paper proposes a new incentive mechanism scheme for VANET to provide a decentralized and trusted service management. We introduce a trust-based message evaluation system, incorporating reputation assessment and negative feedback functions to evaluate the credibility of messages and assessments. A reward and punishment mechanism based on repeated games is designed to incentivize vehicles to proactively share information, thereby preventing false information and defamation attacks. Additionally, a blockchain-based distributed trust management scheme is designed to ensure the consistency of trust management storage through the consensus mechanism of the blockchain, reducing reliance on centralized institutions. Simulation results demonstrate that the establishment of reputation and incentive mechanisms among vehicles enhances the enthusiasm for information sharing and improves the accuracy of identifying false messages.