A Secure Content Trading for Cross-Platform in the Metaverse With Blockchain and Searchable Encryption

In a rapidly evolving metaverse, where the physical and virtual realms naturally merge, users are actively participating in interactive experiences, content creation, and content trading, transcending spatial and temporal constraints. However, with the spread of the metaverse, security concerns have been raised about privacy and the integrity of digital transactions. Several studies have thus focused on enhancing the security and privacy in metaverse. However, there is still a lack of security research on content trading between metaverse platforms. Therefore, this paper proposes a secure content trading system for cross-platform interactions within the metaverse. Leveraging the blockchain technology, the proposed system delivers an ecosystem that ensures secure content management, data integrity, and verifiable transactions. We use smart contracts that enable reliable and automated purchase methods, empowering users and building their trust. In addition, we incorporate searchable encryption to further enhance the user experience within the metaverse by allowing avatars to seamlessly search for and obtain the desired content across different metaverse platforms. The security of the proposed scheme is comprehensively assessed via vulnerability analyses, including BAN logic and Scyther, to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities in various content trading scenarios. The security and performance of the proposed system are compared with those of the related schemes. Result reveals that the proposed scheme is robust and can be applied to content trading systems in dynamic and ever-expanding metaverse environments.