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Blockchain for the Internet of Vehicles towards Intelligent Transportation Systems: A Survey

Muhammad Baqer Mollah, Jun Zhao, Dusit Niyato, Yong Liang Guan, Chau Yuen, Sumei Sun, Kwok-Yan Lam, Leong Hai Koh

arXiv:2007.06022v2cs.CRcs.NIcs.SI

TL;DR

Earlier surveys lacked coverage of blockchain specifically in IoV, a context relevant to ITS research. This paper surveys IoV application scenarios and integration challenges, identifying security and privacy, performance, IoV-specific consensus, and incentive mechanisms as key challenges.

  • Problem

    Earlier surveys lacked a survey of blockchain specifically in IoV, a gap relevant to researchers applying blockchain in ITS and related fields.

    Source: §I · p. 3

  • Method

    The paper reviews state-of-the-art blockchain-for-IoV research, focusing on vehicular data security, vehicle management, and on-demand transportation services.

    Source: §I · p. 2

  • Results

    The survey identifies security and privacy, performance, IoV-specific consensus, and incentive mechanisms as key blockchain–IoV integration challenges.

    Source: §I · p. 2

  • Takeaways & Limitations

    The survey offers a context-specific account intended to inform blockchain applications in ITS and related research fields.

    Source: §I · p. 3

Abstract

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Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is an emerging concept that is believed to help realise the vision of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). IoV has become an important research area of impactful applications in recent years due to the rapid advancements in vehicular technologies, high throughput satellite communication, Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems. IoV enables the integration of smart vehicles with the Internet and system components attributing to their environment such as public infrastructures, sensors, computing nodes, pedestrians and other vehicles. By allowing the development of a common information exchange platform between vehicles and heterogeneous vehicular networks, this integration aims to create a better environment and public space to the people as well as to enhance safety for all road users. Being a participatory data exchange and storage, the underlying information exchange platform of IoV needs to be secure, transparent and immutable in order to achieve the intended objectives of ITS. In this connection, the adoption of blockchain as a system platform for supporting the information exchange needs of IoV has been explored. Due to their decentralized and immutable nature, IoV applications enabled by blockchain are believed to have a number of desirable properties such as decentralization, security, transparency, immutability, and automation. In this paper, we present a contemporary survey on the latest advancement in blockchain for IoV. Particularly, we highlight the different application scenarios of IoV after carefully reviewing the recent literatures. We also investigate several key challenges where blockchain is applied in IoV. Furthermore, we present the future opportunities and explore further research directions of IoV as a key enabler of ITS.

I. INTRODUCTION · II. PRELIMINARIES OF THIS SURVEY

The survey examines blockchain’s role in IoV as an enabler of intelligent transportation systems, covering the IoV context, applications, architectures, integration challenges, and future research. It distinguishes this focus from prior surveys of blockchain in other domains.

I. INTRODUCTION

  • Blockchain’s open, immutable, distributed ledger supports decentralized trust, public verification, transparency, and resilience to single points of failure.Cryptographic chaining and distributed consensus protect records from undetected tampering after they are appended.Source: §I · pp. 1–2
  • IoV aims to connect smart vehicles, infrastructure, and pedestrians through a shared platform, enabling applications such as road safety, traffic efficiency, smart parking, and entertainment.High data volumes, mobility, low-latency needs, heterogeneity, and interoperability difficulties challenge traditional cloud-based management, motivating decentralized, scalable, secure, and privacy-preserving platforms.Source: §I · p. 2
  • The survey’s contributions include reviewing blockchain-IoV integration, discussing IoV challenges and blockchain motivations, and identifying challenges blockchain may address.Its stated coverage also includes preliminary background on blockchain, edge computing, ITS, and IoV.Source: §I · p. 2
  • The survey reviews blockchain-enabled IoV research with particular focus on vehicular data security, vehicle management, and on-demand transportation services.Source: §I · p. 2
  • It highlights IoV architectures combining blockchain with edge computing, vehicular communications, automotive technologies, and privacy-preserving techniques.Source: §I · p. 2
  • The survey investigates integration challenges in security and privacy, performance, IoV-specific consensus, and incentives, and outlines open issues as future research opportunities.Its stated future-research scope includes blockchain, IoV, and vehicular cyber-physical systems.Source: §I · p. 2
  • Unlike prior surveys focused on other IoT, CPS, and emerging domains, this survey addresses blockchain specifically in IoV and its relevance to intelligent transportation research.The authors identify this IoV-specific coverage as the survey’s distinction from earlier work.Source: §I · pp. 2–3

II. PRELIMINARIES OF THIS SURVEY

  • The preliminaries section introduces blockchain technology, edge computing, ITS, and IoV, including overviews and recent advances.This section establishes background for the survey’s subsequent discussion.Source: §II · p. 3

A. Blockchain Technology … IV. Applications of Blockchain-Enabled IoV

The paper introduces blockchain as a participant-maintained distributed ledger for trusted transactions without a trusted entity, then frames its IoV survey around motivations, preliminaries, and application areas.

A. Blockchain Technology

  • Blockchain links transaction, record, and script blocks into a participant-maintained distributed ledger that supports trusted tasks in an untrusted environment without a trusted entity.Source: A. Blockchain Technology · p. 3
  • The technology relies on cryptography, consensus, structure, and smart contracts; hash links and Merkle trees support immutability, integrity, and lower storage overhead.Lightweight entities can use Merkle hash trees to check integrity quickly; digital signatures are also identified as a commonly used cryptographic technique.Source: A. Blockchain Technology · p. 3
  • Consensus mechanisms let untrusted entities agree on a valid block version, maintaining a transparent and consistent view while resolving forks and conflicts.Examples include Proof of Work, Proof of Stake, and Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance.Source: A. Blockchain Technology · p. 3

III. Motivations of this Survey

  • The survey’s motivation section identifies challenges associated with IoV and motivations for using blockchain in IoV scenarios.Source: §III · p. 4

II. Preliminaries of this Survey

  • The preliminaries cover blockchain technology, edge computing, and intelligent transportation systems and the Internet of Vehicles.Source: §II · p. 4

IV. Applications of Blockchain-Enabled IoV

  • The application section covers data protection and management, trading, resource sharing, vehicle management, ride sharing, content broadcasting, traffic control, and forensics.Source: §IV · p. 4

V. Blockchain for IoV Architectures and Frameworks … C. Intelligent Transportation System and Internet of Vehicles

The passages describe IoV as part of ITS, connecting smart vehicles with people and infrastructure, and outline blockchain architectures, integration mechanisms, and edge computing. They also describe the technologies and infrastructure that support this ecosystem.

V. Blockchain for IoV Architectures and Frameworks

  • The architecture section identifies blockchain-based IoV architecture, blockchain-assisted EV cloud and edge computing, and blockchain-centric automotive system architecture.Source: §V · p. 4

VI. Blockchain & IoV Integration Challenges

  • Blockchain integration uses digital signatures for authentication and non-repudiation, ring and multi-signatures to hide signer identity, and zero-knowledge proofs to improve block-content privacy.ECDSA is widely applied in blockchain applications such as Bitcoin.Source: §VI · p. 4
  • Smart contracts are block-resident scripts that execute automatically when triggered or when predefined rules are met, enabling services without dependence on a trusted entity.Their stated aim is a highly autonomous system providing efficient and consistent services.Source: §VI · p. 4
  • Blockchain data structures include linear chains and DAGs, while data management can be on-chain, off-chain, or through parallel side-chains linked to the main chain.On-chain contents are visible across the network; off-chain processing occurs outside it, usually through a trusted entity.Source: §VI · p. 4

B. Edge Computing

  • Edge computing processes and stores data near its source, enabling location-aware, low-latency, real-time services and reducing remote-cloud bandwidth use, while introducing security and privacy challenges.For IoV and ITS, edge nodes are frequently distributed alongside roads to account for mobility.Source: B. Edge Computing · p. 5

C. Intelligent Transportation System and Internet of Vehicles

  • Smart vehicles combine computing and storage units, control systems, sensors, cameras, and wireless devices, with wired and wireless communications linking their components.Control units rely on sensor and camera data to take necessary actions.Source: C. Intelligent Transportation System… · p. 5
  • IoV extends CPS within ITS by connecting vehicles, people, and infrastructure to monitor nearby environments and support safer, more intelligent driving.ITS aims for more comfortable, safer, dynamic, and efficient transportation and urban infrastructure.Source: C. Intelligent Transportation System… · p. 5
  • V2X connects vehicles with vehicles, infrastructure, grids, pedestrians, and other nodes; RSUs support vehicular communications and can act as edge nodes when equipped with computing and storage.RSUs also act as access points and base stations for vehicular communication systems.Source: C. Intelligent Transportation System… · p. 5

III. MOTIVATIONS OF THIS SURVEY · A. The Challenges Associated with IoV

The survey frames IoV challenges as motivation for examining blockchain integration and its potential opportunities. IoV’s rapid growth and resource sharing create distinct demands across connectivity, performance, interoperability, and AI.

III. MOTIVATIONS OF THIS SURVEY

  • The survey first outlines IoV challenges, then examines blockchain integration as a source of promising opportunities for IoV.Source: §III · p. 5

A. The Challenges Associated with IoV

  • Rapid IoV development will expand vehicular services and data sharing, with AI tasks offloaded to cloud and edge nodes or processed through shared vehicle resources.Source: A. The Challenges Associated with IoV · p. 5
  • IoV integration raises interconnected challenges in security, privacy, trust, transparency, connectivity, and performance, while its distinctive ecosystem creates challenges beyond other IoT and VANET settings –.The challenges grow as IoV connectivity expands, and the requirements and solutions differ from those in vehicular ad hoc networks.Source: A. The Challenges Associated with IoV · pp. 5, 7
  • High and diverse vehicle mobility makes stable communication with numerous peers difficult, even when vehicles have sufficient energy and dedicated channels.Source: A. The Challenges Associated with IoV · pp. 5–6
  • Coexisting wireless technologies, vehicle links to peers and roadside units, and changing network topologies make IoV network complexity significant.Examples include Bluetooth and mmWave coverage below 100m and 10m, respectively, while DSRC usually has high communication coverage.Source: A. The Challenges Associated with IoV · p. 6
  • Latency-critical applications such as emergency and safety services need low source-to-destination delay, making unnecessary Internet transmission delays unacceptable.Source: A. The Challenges Associated with IoV · p. 6
  • IoV must scale across wide geographic areas while integrating heterogeneous devices, protocols, and platforms, with interoperability requiring components to collaborate and exchange information.Source: A. The Challenges Associated with IoV · pp. 6–7
  • Dynamic and heterogeneous IoV conditions complicate machine-learning implementation because many AI algorithms rely on vehicular data to train models.AI supports data-driven learning and autonomous, optimal decision-making across IoV application scenarios.Source: A. The Challenges Associated with IoV · p. 7

B. Motivations of Using Blockchain in IoV · IV. APPLICATIONS OF BLOCKCHAIN-ENABLED IOV · A. Data Protection and Management

The paper motivates blockchain for IoV by its potential to support secure, decentralized, and automated data exchange in real-time, data-intensive networks. It surveys applications including vehicular data security, vehicle management, and on-demand transportation, with data protection and management addressing edge-node security, privacy, and trust concerns.

B. Motivations of Using Blockchain in IoV

  • Blockchain is proposed for IoV’s real-time, mobile, data-intensive scenarios, where classic techniques may be unsuitable and connectivity creates attack vectors; it may improve security, privacy, trust, performance, and automation.The paper argues that blockchain-like technology can accommodate flexibility and massive data exchange.Source: B. Motivations of Using Blockchain in… · p. 7
  • Decentralized blockchain networks let vehicles, RSUs, and people manage operations independently, replacing central decision-making; blockchain and smart contracts can also reduce reliance on cloud storage and third-party managers, lowering operational costs.The paper links decentralization to improved user experience of vehicular services.Source: B. Motivations of Using Blockchain in… · p. 7
  • Peer replication can help IoV services continue despite compromised nodes, while cryptography supports security and privacy; linked blocks resist tampering and enable auditing, and smart contracts enforce predefined rules.These properties are presented as responses to interruption, single-point-of-failure, and availability attacks.Source: B. Motivations of Using Blockchain in… · p. 7
  • Peer-to-peer communication enables direct, intermediary-free data and resource sharing between vehicles and RSUs, supporting low-latency services; consensus and smart contracts can establish trust among heterogeneous, untrusted entities and automate decisions.Public blockchains are permissionless and may provide full access to stored data, enhancing IoV transparency.Source: B. Motivations of Using Blockchain in… · p. 7

IV. APPLICATIONS OF BLOCKCHAIN-ENABLED IOV

  • The survey identifies vehicular data security, vehicle management, and on-demand transportation services as IoV application areas for blockchain.Source: §IV · p. 7

A. Data Protection and Management

  • Distributed roadside edge nodes face security and privacy attacks, while multiple service providers complicate regulation and trust, leading vehicles to hesitate to share data.Source: A. Data Protection and Management · pp. 7–8
  • Blockchain-based data management addresses security, privacy, and trust concerns in vehicular edge networks through consortium blockchain and smart contracts, while DrivMan combines blockchain, PUF, and PKI for trust, provenance, and privacy.In, smart contracts support secure data sharing and storage and prevent unauthorized sharing; a reputation scheme uses interaction frequency, event timeliness, and trajectory similarity. In DrivMan, PUF assigns vehicle crypto fingerprints, while PKI supports registration and certificate revocation and reduces identity-public-key linkability.Source: A. Data Protection and Management · p. 8
  • Blockchain supports multimedia sharing in vehicular social networks by enabling tamper-resistant data tracing, while cryptography protects privacy; a vehicle-sharing scheme adds traceable, authenticated key negotiation.The scheme in uses automated key exchanges, timestamps for confirmability and public traceability, and scripts, channel availability, and negotiation timeliness to defend against packet-dropping attacks.Source: A. Data Protection and Management · p. 8

B. Data and Resource Trading · C. Resource Sharing

The sections survey blockchain-based data and resource trading and sharing in IoV, describing how these approaches address trust, security, privacy, and participation challenges while enabling decentralized exchange and resource use.

B. Data and Resource Trading

  • Trading faces access-control and privacy risks, DoS or jamming attacks, and disruption concerns, while blockchain offers secure, peer-to-peer, decentralized solutions.Attacks may also be unintentional, and trading must remain intermittent and trustworthy.Source: B. Data and Resource Trading · pp. 8–9
  • In, a consortium blockchain and iterative double auction support transparent, traceable data trading while optimizing prices, social welfare, privacy, and transmission costs.Local aggregators audit and verify transactions; the framework also addresses unauthorized data modification.Source: B. Data and Resource Trading · p. 9, Figure 5 · p. 9
  • In, a broker uses an iterative double-sided auction to allocate computing resources and set prices, aiming for truthful bids, maximum social welfare, individual rationality, and a balanced budget.The platform targets edge-cloud resource trading and permits both buyers and sellers to participate.Source: B. Data and Resource Trading · p. 9, Figure 6 · p. 9
  • In, D2D-ECN combines blockchain, smart contracts, edge computing, and device-to-device communication for latency-aware task assignment and trusted resource management.Swarm intelligence balances latency and decision time, while proof-of-reputation replaces PoW; reputation reflects current performance and history, and game theory provides participant rewards.Source: B. Data and Resource Trading · p. 9

C. Resource Sharing

  • IoV resource sharing can let stationary and moving vehicles share spare computing and spectrum resources for latency-sensitive services and AI, but requires trust and participation incentives.Blockchain is presented as a means to establish trust between vehicles; economic mechanisms are needed to encourage sharing.Source: C. Resource Sharing · pp. 9–10
  • At least 30% superior to contemporary unified pricing schemes, the resource-sharing pricing scheme uses deep reinforcement learning to match demand and supply under vehicle mobility and location conditions.The scheme combines reputation-based lightweight consensus with RSU-maintained records; it separates sharing vehicles from block validators to preserve privacy and reduce block-publication delays.Source: C. Resource Sharing · p. 10
  • In [94], Parkingchain enables parked vehicles to securely share idle computing and networking resources, using reputation-weighted DBFT consensus and contract-theory incentives.Highly reputed vehicles verify and audit transactions, with the incentive scheme intended to motivate resource sharing.Source: C. Resource Sharing · p. 10

D. Vehicle Management · E. Ride Sharing

The sections describe blockchain applications in vehicle management and ride sharing, including privacy-preserving parking, platooning, autonomous ride sharing, and carpooling. They identify centralized management, privacy, and coordination challenges and outline decentralized or privacy-preserving approaches.

D. Vehicle Management

  • Vehicle management covers smart parking and platooning, while centralized management complicates privacy and large-scale coordination; blockchain is presented as a way to address these problems.Source: D. Vehicle Management · p. 10
  • A blockchain-based parking scheme combines a parking-owner consortium, private information retrieval, anonymous booking with conditional privacy, and anonymous payment.Drivers can query offers without disclosing destinations; a trusted authority can reveal identities in cases of malicious activity.Source: D. Vehicle Management · p. 11
  • The platooning model matches AVs by path, selects a platoon head by reputation, tracks members, and uses blockchain and smart contracts for secure payments.In long-distance truck platoons, members pay the head for services under the contract; Fig. 9 shows the model's components and workflow.Source: D. Vehicle Management · p. 11, Figure 9 · p. 11

E. Ride Sharing

  • Ride sharing can reduce congestion, emissions, and road vehicle counts, but cloud-assisted services face communication delays and privacy risks.Source: E. Ride Sharing · p. 11
  • The autonomous ride-sharing framework uses a decentralized, owner-maintained blockchain and Hyperledger Fabric chaincode to connect riders with community-driven AV fleets and support flexible pricing and profit sharing.The chaincode is intended to secure data as client applications connect to the blockchain network.Source: E. Ride Sharing · p. 11
  • CoRide combines blockchain, smart contracts, PoS, and RSUs for collaborative ride sharing, privacy-preserving matching, conditional passenger privacy, and defenses against location attacks and malicious RSUs.It brings service-provider datasets together, uses private proximity tests and privacy-preserving queries for matching, and adapts Zerocash for anonymous payments.Source: E. Ride Sharing · p. 12
  • FICA uses fog nodes for privacy-preserving carpool matching and authentication, reducing cloud-related delays and communication overhead while maintaining conditional privacy.Its private PoS blockchain, maintained by fog nodes, stores verifiable carpool records for auditability; a trusted authority can recover malicious users' identities.Source: E. Ride Sharing · p. 12

F. Contents Broadcasting · G. Traffic Control and Management · H. Forensics Application

The surveyed IoV applications use blockchain to support content broadcasting, traffic control and management, and digital forensics. They combine decentralized data exchange with mechanisms for privacy, access control, automation, and evidence management.

F. Contents Broadcasting

  • Blockchain-assisted peer-to-peer content sharing over V2V and V2I is described as an efficient, inexpensive, and trustworthy platform, with reward schemes to accelerate broadcasting.Contents broadcasting supports in-vehicle and safety services, while RSUs can cache and broadcast popular content to nearby vehicles to reduce latency.Source: F. Contents Broadcasting · p. 12
  • [100] proposes decentralized advertisement publishing with smart contracts, Merkle trees, and zero-knowledge proofs to support fairness, vehicle privacy, and service availability.Proof-of-ad-receiving helps deter false or repeated reward claims, while zero-knowledge proofs support anonymity and conditional linkability; the scheme also addresses external DDoS attacks and internal single points of failure or compromise.Source: F. Contents Broadcasting · p. 12
  • [101] proposes a blockchain-, edge-, and 5G-enabled event-driven message protocol for emergency announcements, using local processing and lightweight multi-receiver signcryption.Blockchain supports distributed storage and auditability; the proposal uses edge computing to reduce response time and 5G for scalability and low latency, while addressing processing time, security, and access control challenges.Source: F. Contents Broadcasting · pp. 12–13

G. Traffic Control and Management

  • Vehicle-generated traffic data can support dynamic control, monitoring, and congestion mitigation, but transfer and storage raise availability, integrity, privacy, and autonomous-management challenges.Blockchain is presented as supporting decentralized management, availability, automaticity, and immutability for these use cases.Source: G. Traffic Control and Management · p. 13
  • [102] proposes SCTSC, using attribute-based access control and blockchain voting to set anonymous, dynamic signal timings; it targets better efficiency and vehicle passing rates than pretimed control.The system collects data from vehicle sensors and drivers, with vehicle groups based on attributes such as location and destination.Source: G. Traffic Control and Management · p. 13
  • [103] combines blockchain with IoT-connected vehicle sensors and credit tokens for service use and misuse; the work aims to reduce congestion and improve road safety.Source: G. Traffic Control and Management · p. 13

H. Forensics Application

  • [104] presents Block4Forensic, a permissioned blockchain and VPKI framework that brings vehicles and investigation parties together to preserve accident evidence and related vehicle data.It stores hashed data in a fragmented distributed ledger and detailed vehicle data in a shared ledger to reduce storage and processing overhead; pseudonyms protect vehicle identities from unauthorized users.Source: H. Forensics Application · p. 13
  • [105] proposes a blockchain, smart-contract, and SDN architecture for digital forensics and data provenance, aiming to address integrity and reliability limitations of centralized forensic management.The SDN controller records cloud-received evidence as a block; secure ring verification supports authorized access, sensitive-aware deep ECC supports confidentiality, and a fuzzy smart contract traces data provenance.Source: H. Forensics Application · p. 13

I. Remarks … B. Blockchain-Assisted EVs Cloud and Edge Computing

The paper summarizes blockchain-enabled IoV application scenarios and surveys architectures and frameworks integrating blockchain with IoV. It describes both a multi-chain IoV architecture and an EV cloud-edge model supporting energy and information exchanges.

I. Remarks

  • The survey groups blockchain-assisted IoV applications into eight categories, from data protection and trading to traffic management and forensics.Table III summarizes their descriptions, blockchain opportunities, and related papers.Source: §I · pp. 13–14, Table III · p. 14
  • IBM and Deloitte reports describe blockchain applications in mobility services and opportunities across the automotive industry,.IBM cites managing vehicular data and personalized preferences; Deloitte identifies blockchain as an accelerating automotive technology.Source: §I · pp. 14–15

V. BLOCKCHAIN FOR IOV ARCHITECTURES AND FRAMEWORKS

  • The paper presents representative architectures and frameworks that integrate blockchain technology with IoV applications.It motivates these designs by blockchain’s benefits for IoV applications.Source: §V · p. 15

A. Blockchain-Based IoV Architecture

  • The architecture in uses blockchain for distributed big-data storage and security management, classifying monitored driving, sensor, passenger, insurance, and transaction data.Vehicles, roadside edge units, toll and fuel stations, and insurance authorities connect to its blockchain networks.Source: A. Blockchain-Based IoV Architecture · p. 15
  • Its five independent sub-blockchains serve different purposes, with blocks generated by roadside nodes, vehicles, toll stations, and service-provider stations.Vehicles rely on nearby nodes to transmit blocks or use a wireless network when no neighbor is available.Source: A. Blockchain-Based IoV Architecture · p. 15

B. Blockchain-Assisted EVs Cloud and Edge Computing

  • The EVCE architecture in introduces energy coins and data coins for energy and information exchanges, supporting V2G, V2I, and V2V services.The design uses blockchain decentralization and distributed consensus to support information intelligence, energy sharing, and security protection.Source: B. Blockchain-Assisted EVs Cloud and… · p. 15
  • EVCE combines local collaborative processing through mobile vehicular cloudlets with cloud pooling of idle vehicular energy and computational resources.The cloud interacts with roadside units and local aggregators to provide services to connected, mobile EVs.Source: B. Blockchain-Assisted EVs Cloud and… · p. 15

C. Blockchain-Centric Automotive System Architecture · D. Privacy-Preserving and Decentralized IoV Architecture · E. Remarks

The sections describe blockchain-based automotive and IoV architectures that distribute network roles, data access, and consensus across participants. They also identify throughput, fair contribution models, and IoV-specific deployment challenges as conditions for practical adoption.

C. Blockchain-Centric Automotive System Architecture

  • Work proposes a blockchain-centric architecture for smart-vehicle ecosystem security and privacy, comprising smart vehicles, equipment manufacturers, and service providers that jointly develop an overlay network to communicate.Source: C. Blockchain-Centric Automotive… · p. 15
  • Cluster heads act as overlay block managers, managing their blockchain networks, broadcasting transactions, and verifying blocks to remove centralized control [110].Source: C. Blockchain-Centric Automotive… · p. 16
  • Vehicles retain privacy-sensitive data, such as location traces, in-vehicle and use access control to choose what to share [110].Other security and privacy properties are mainly inherited from blockchain technology.Source: C. Blockchain-Centric Automotive… · p. 16

D. Privacy-Preserving and Decentralized IoV Architecture

  • The decentralized IoV architecture assigns data generation to vehicles and sensors, blockchain storage and block confirmation to RSUs, and backup storage to cloud nodes.Vehicle ratings of other vehicles and RSUs are broadcast as trust levels; actuators control vehicle moving parts.Source: D. Privacy-Preserving and… · p. 16
  • The architecture separates data exchange into InterChain for V2R and V2V sharing and IntraChain for communication among in-vehicle sensors, actuators, and people.Source: D. Privacy-Preserving and… · p. 16
  • A reconfigured structure aims to make blockchain lighter and more efficient for resource-constrained entities; InterChain uses delegated PoS and multi-weight reputation to reach agreement and deter internal collusion.Source: D. Privacy-Preserving and… · p. 17

E. Remarks

  • IoV architectures will not reach industrial or practical use unless their throughput can support IoV applications and services, and fair business models address participant contributions.The paper argues that such models can help obtain the full advantages of contributors’ resources.Source: E. Remarks · p. 17
  • Blockchain’s monetary origins, IoT’s different characteristics, and IoV-specific properties create deployment challenges that must be addressed before implementation.Source: E. Remarks · p. 17

VI. BLOCKCHAIN & IOV INTEGRATION CHALLENGES · A. Security and Privacy · B. Performance

The survey frames blockchain–IoV integration as requiring solutions to security and privacy limitations and performance demands: immutability alone does not guarantee security or privacy, while mobility and transaction volume challenge performance.

VI. BLOCKCHAIN & IOV INTEGRATION CHALLENGES

  • The survey identifies four challenges in blockchain–IoV integration and introduces the challenges and related work subsection by subsection.This section discusses blockchain and smart-contract challenges.Source: §VI · p. 17

A. Security and Privacy

  • Blockchain immutability can prevent data manipulation, but security and privacy also rely on cryptography, pseudonyms, and off-chain storage.These techniques help protect block contents and the privacy of users and devices.Source: A. Security and Privacy · p. 18
  • An anonymous reputation system records vehicle trust scores on-chain and uses pseudonyms for conditional privacy, while decentralizes key management and varies transaction collection with traffic.The reputation system uses interaction histories and indirect vehicle votes; uses security managers to authenticate key transfers and supports handover rekeying.Source: A. Security and Privacy · p. 18
  • Blockchain and ECC support decentralized fog-network authentication, while a blockchain-based scheme distributes connected-vehicle message authentication using public-key cryptography, message authentication codes, PBFT, and PoW.The fog mechanism also provides user anonymity and reauthentication; aims to make message broadcasting anonymous and decentralized.Source: A. Security and Privacy · p. 18
  • RASM uses identity authentication and record summarization for V2X attestation; BSPEFB enables decentralized keyword search with forward and backward privacy.For, smart contracts help prevent a single point of attack and check returned results; RASM is designed for decentralization, traceability, and non-repudiation.Source: A. Security and Privacy · p. 18
  • Policy-driven signatures restrict participation to signers meeting access policies, while a trust-based blockchain scheme targets malicious vehicles and location-privacy leakage.PDS uses attribute-based signatures and certificateless cryptography to avoid a trusted certificate authority; records vehicle trustworthiness for location-based services.Source: A. Security and Privacy · pp. 18–19

B. Performance

  • IoV blockchain must handle dynamic, high-volume transactions, with latency, energy, throughput, and scalability at issue; clustering cuts energy 40.16% and transactions 82.06% versus the traditional approach.The distributed clustering approach controls transaction volume to reduce vehicle energy consumption.Source: B. Performance · p. 19
  • A deep reinforcement learning framework addresses scalability and vehicle-generated big data by selecting block producers and adjusting block size and interval time to maximize throughput while considering decentralization, security, and latency.The framework first presents a quantitative methodology for evaluating blockchain performance and adapts its decisions to vehicle distribution.Source: B. Performance · p. 19

C. IoV-specific and Optimized Consensus … A. Security of Offloading

The paper surveys IoV-specific consensus and incentive mechanisms, then identifies trustworthy verification of edge-offloaded blockchain computations as a future research need.

C. IoV-specific and Optimized Consensus

  • An IoV-optimized, security-enhanced DPoS scheme selects miners by reputation and incentivizes standby candidates to re-audit blocks, aiming to reduce collusion.It uses multi-weight subjective logic to assess candidate reputations and contract theory to model interactions between active and standby candidates.Source: C. IoV-specific and Optimized Consensus · pp. 19–20
  • The IoV consensus algorithm [123] removes the central node, includes vehicle and roadside nodes in Byzantine consensus, and uses time sequencing and gossip to improve communication and consensus efficiency.The algorithm is intended to let nodes authenticate without a central authority and reach consensus despite malicious nodes failing or spreading false data.Source: C. IoV-specific and Optimized Consensus · p. 20
  • 77.7% more profit and 39.2% less energy are achieved by ECbroker when vehicles offload PoS validation; SMT lets them choose local or edge/cloud processing based on resources and mobility.The method aims to validate more transactions at high throughput while reducing processing overhead.Source: C. IoV-specific and Optimized Consensus · p. 20

D. Incentive Mechanisms

  • Incentives can expedite contributors’ block verification, validation, data production, and storage; BSIS uses pricing to coordinate vehicle charging and discharging for vehicle utility and regional energy balance.Its permissioned blockchain uses proof of reputation to select validators and enhance network security.Source: D. Incentive Mechanisms · p. 20
  • For vehicle data sharing, incentivizes standby auditors to mitigate DPoS collusion; uses RSU-managed trust ratings to reward or penalize vehicles and bars low-trust vehicles from sending messages.The reported numerical results for indicate optimized validator utilities and improved DPoS security against collusion; aims to increase network trustworthiness and efficiency.Source: D. Incentive Mechanisms · pp. 20–21

E. Remarks

  • The paper summarizes blockchain–IoV challenges as security and privacy, performance, IoV-specific and optimized consensus, and incentive mechanisms, alongside proposed solutions in Table IV.Source: E. Remarks · p. 21

VII. FUTURE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

  • The future-research section considers open challenges and directions for combining blockchain with state-of-the-art technologies to augment IoV and build future transportation systems.Source: §VII · p. 21

A. Security of Offloading

  • Vehicles can offload blockchain validation to stationary RSUs, but third-party edge results may be untrusted, motivating efficient verifiable computing with proofs that let vehicles check correctness.Vehicles have computing resources for block validation but may use edge computing because of mobility; verifiable computing is proposed to check the correctness of edge processing.Source: A. Security of Offloading · p. 21

B. PKI for Blockchain-Enabled IoV · C. Deferentially-Privacy Preserving Solutions · (v) After analyzing the movement and communication behav-

The sections describe PKI’s role and deployment challenges in blockchain-enabled IoV, then outline privacy risks and approaches, including differential privacy’s tunable privacy–accuracy trade-off.

B. PKI for Blockchain-Enabled IoV

  • Classic PKI supports public-key encryption and signature verification in permissioned IoV blockchains, but its reliance on certificate and registration authorities can create latency, availability, and scalability issues.PKI binds entities to public keys through certificates issued by certificate authorities; registration authorities validate registration processes. PKI has been used in blockchain-assisted IoV cases,.Source: B. PKI for Blockchain-Enabled IoV · p. 21
  • Locating issuance and verification authorities near vehicles and using smart contracts are proposed as research directions for low-latency, trusted PKI services resilient to availability attacks.The passage presents smart contracts as a suitable candidate for localizing authority functions and maintaining trust.Source: B. PKI for Blockchain-Enabled IoV · p. 21

C. Deferentially-Privacy Preserving Solutions

  • Sharing vehicle-generated data, driving information, and locations with clouds, RSUs, and neighboring vehicles can expose real identities, current locations, and location histories to malicious users.The passage connects these data exchanges to driving experience and location-based services, while identifying privacy concerns.Source: C. Deferentially-Privacy Preserving… · p. 21

(v) After analyzing the movement and communication behav-

  • A proposed scheme is described as making the network more secure and trustworthy while restricting the sending of false messages.Source: (v) After analyzing the movement and… · p. 22
  • Blockchain pseudonyms can hide vehicles’ real identities, while cryptographic techniques can protect transaction privacy.The passage notes that several cryptographic techniques are discussed in Section V.Source: (v) After analyzing the movement and… · p. 22
  • Cryptography-based privacy approaches may be insufficiently robust and can require key management, substantial computation, and performance sacrifices.The passage motivates exploring privacy-preserving approaches suited to varying blockchain data structures, architectures, and key techniques.Source: (v) After analyzing the movement and… · pp. 22–23
  • Differential privacy adds computed noise to datasets or real-time query data, including perturbed locations and identities, to protect privacy from observers.Users can control the privacy level through the amount of perturbation.Source: (v) After analyzing the movement and… · p. 23
  • More location and identity perturbation strengthens privacy but reduces reported-data accuracy, potentially complicating IoV applications that require accurate blockchain-integrated reporting.The passage characterizes differential privacy as having substantial privacy-enhancement potential despite this trade-off.Source: (v) After analyzing the movement and… · p. 23

D. Exploring other Blockchain-Assisted IoV Applications … VIII. CONCLUSION

The paper surveys blockchain-IoV applications, architectures, challenges, and future opportunities, while outlining additional uses and research questions for intelligent transportation systems.

D. Exploring other Blockchain-Assisted IoV Applications

  • Blockchain and smart contracts may extend beyond surveyed IoV applications by providing decentralization, autonomy, and security in other use cases.The section introduces road safety, vehicular big data auctions, and content caching as examples of additional applications.Source: D. Exploring other Blockchain-Assisted… · p. 23

1) Road Safety Applications:

  • Blockchain networks among RSUs and peer vehicles could support trust in road-safety applications by recording hazardous data and informing others to take preventive steps.The passage presents this integration as future work.Source: 1) Road Safety Applications · p. 23

2) Vehicular Big Data Auction:

  • Blockchain and smart contracts could address processing costs and insider or outsider threats in vehicular big-data auctions.The passage notes that auctions using trusted centralized authorities were acceptable to traders but still raised these concerns.Source: 2) Vehicular Big Data Auction · p. 23

3) Content Caching:

  • For IoV content caching, lightweight blockchain headers could speed trust enforcement, while incentive-oriented smart contracts could encourage cache contributors.Caching popular content on RSUs and vehicles can reduce backhaul dependence and latency while improving user experience.Source: 3) Content Caching · p. 23

E. Distribution of Economic Profits and Incentives

  • Research questions include collaboratively aggregating vehicle and edge resources, distributing profits according to contributions, and pricing resources to motivate participation.The passage also asks how to quantify resources and optimize profits for all parties.Source: E. Distribution of Economic Profits… · p. 23
  • Further challenges include maintaining stable links and trustworthy resource trading, detecting dishonest participants, and fairly accounting for contributors who disconnect.The passage raises repudiation of transactions and failure to provide agreed incentives or resources as risks.Source: E. Distribution of Economic Profits… · pp. 23–24

VIII. CONCLUSION

  • The survey examines blockchain-IoV applications, integrated techniques, functionalities, architectures, and key challenges, and identifies future research opportunities for transportation systems.It covers security and privacy, performance, IoV-optimized consensus, and incentive mechanisms; the authors expect blockchain with IoV to add new transportation-system functionalities.Source: §VIII · p. 24

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