A Privacy-Preserving Authentication Scheme for a Blockchain-Based Energy Trading System

Abstract

The adoption of renewable energies such as solar power, heat pumps, and wind power is on the rise, and individuals have started generating energy using their own solar panels. In recent years, many blockchain-based energy trading schemes have been proposed. However, existing schemes cannot fully address privacy issues and dependency on energy brokers during energy trading. In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving authentication scheme for blockchain-based energy traders. An energy user encrypts a request message through lightweight attribute-based encryption, and only energy sellers who have proper attribute keys can decrypt and conduct further processes with the energy user. We analyze the proposed scheme using both informal and formal methods, such as the BAN logic, AVISPA simulation tool, and RoR model. Furthermore, we compare the computational and communication costs of our scheme with related schemes and show that the proposed scheme has competitive performance.

Keywords

• access control
• lightweight attribute-based encryption (ABE)
• consortium blockchain
• energy trading
• mutual authentication