Toward Blockchain-Based Trust and Reputation Management for Trustworthy 6G Networks

6G is envisioned to enable futuristic technologies, which exhibit more complexities than the previous generations, as it aims to bring connectivity to a large number of devices, many of which may not be trustworthy. Proper authentication can protect the network from unauthorized adversaries. However, it cannot guarantee in situ reliability and trustworthiness of authorized network nodes, as they can be compromised post-authentication and impede the reliability and resilience of the network. Trust and reputation management (TRM) is an effective approach to continuously evaluate the trustworthiness of each participant by collecting and processing evidence of their interactions with other nodes and the infrastructure. In this article, we argue that blockchain-based TRM is critical to build trustworthy 6G networks, where blockchain acts as a decentralized platform for collaborativeIy managing and processing interaction evidence with the end goal of quantifying trust. We present a case study of resource management in 6G networks, where blockchain-based TRM quantifies and maintains reputation scores by evaluating fulfillment of a resource owner's obligations and facilitating resource consumers to provide feedback. We also discuss inherent challenges and future directions for the development of blockchain-based TRM for next-generation 6G networks.