A Blockchain-based Trust System for Decentralised Applications: When trustless needs trust

TL;DR

This paper proposes a decentralized trust system for blockchain-based DApps that enhances service quality assurance by providing a trust feedback mechanism, complementing blockchain's security features.

Contribution

It introduces a novel decentralized trust framework that operates alongside DApps to mitigate fraud and promote trustworthy interactions in blockchain ecosystems.

Findings

Developed a trust feedback mechanism for DApps.

Enhanced trustworthiness in decentralized applications.

Strengthened the security and reliability of blockchain services.

Abstract

Blockchain technology has been envisaged to commence an era of decentralised applications and services (DApps) without the need for a trusted intermediary. Such DApps open a marketplace in which services are delivered to end-users by contributors which are then incentivised by cryptocurrencies in an automated, peer-to-peer, and trustless fashion. However, blockchain, consolidated by smart contracts, only ensures on-chain data security, autonomy and integrity of the business logic execution defined in smart contracts. It cannot guarantee the quality of service of DApps, which entirely depends on the services' performance. Thus, there is a critical need for a trust system to reduce the risk of dealing with fraudulent counterparts in a blockchain network. These reasons motivate us to develop a fully decentralised trust framework deployed on top of a blockchain platform, operating along with DApps in the marketplace to demoralise deceptive entities while encouraging trustworthy ones. The trust system works as an underlying decentralised service providing a feedback mechanism for end-users and maintaining trust relationships among them in the ecosystem accordingly. We believe this research fortifies the DApps ecosystem by introducing an universal trust middleware for DApps as well as shedding light on the implementation of a decentralised trust system.