Blockchain-based secure digital asset exchange scheme with QoS-aware incentive mechanism

As the Internet of things (IoT) is increasingly popular, the number of IoT devices such as sensors and smart equipments are growing at an astonishing rate and data generated by these devices is exploding. However, these massive IoT data, stored in the form of isolated data centers, can not be shared by others who also need it. Moreover, data exchange is now needing a secure and fair mechanism to guarantee the data provider's rights and data security. Data providers also lack the motivation to share their data, as no effective mechanism exists to reward this behavior. To solve these problems, we propose a digital asset exchange mechanism based on blockchain technology, in which we record the behavior of data publishing and exchanging into the blockchain, which can ensure the reliability and transparency of data exchange without the restriction of trusted third-party payment institutions. Especially, to inspire the data providers to share their high-quality data, we design an incentive mechanism based on QoS, which gives higher rewards to those who provide high-quality data. Experimental results of this prototype demonstrate that this mechanism is appropriate to be applied in practice.