MinerRepu: A Reputation Model for Miners in Blockchain Networks

Blockchain technology holds several promises for many application areas; however, it is not without its limitations. One of the most significant weaknesses of blockchain technology is its substantial energy consumption. Many researchers have proposed solutions to reduce the energy demands of this technology - such as the use of alternative consensus algorithms and the use of renewable energy. However, the use of alternative trust and reputation models to improve sustainability (by, for instance, selecting miners based on these trust or reputation values) has not been widely investigated. In this paper, we propose a reputation model that quantifies and compares the trustworthiness of miners based on their behaviours within a blockchain network. The model is evaluated analytically and compared to other trust and reputation models for miners. The evaluation shows that our model fulfils several desirable properties that should always be satisfied by reputation models, whereas other models do not always meet these requirements. In addition, we perform experimental evaluations to represent the performance of our model and its accuracy in detecting malicious miners. We also report the effectiveness of using the model in reducing the energy consumption of blockchain-based systems.