Skip to main content
Log in

A survey of blockchain technology on security, privacy, and trust in crowdsourcing services

  • Published:
World Wide Web Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Blockchain is a new decentralized distributed technology, which guarantees trusted transactions in untrustworthy environments by realizing value transfer network. Because of its important value and significance to lead human society from the information transmission internet era to the value transmission internet era, it has attracted the attention of researchers in crowdsourcing services. This paper firstly observes the development trend of blockchain technology from the perspective of global government and enterprises. Then we briefly review the related concepts of blockchain and basic model of blockchain. On this basis, a comprehensive summary of the state of the blockchain research has been made on related articles which are recently published. In order to show its functional value, further investigation has been taken on the main technologies on security, privacy, and trust in crowdsourcing services and application scenarios related to this field. Finally, the advantages and challenges of blockchains are discussed. It is hoped to provide useful reference and help for the future research on blockchain technology used in crowdsourcing services.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. ethereum-whitepaper.http://ethfans.org/posts/ethereum-whitepaper

  2. ethereum-whitepaper.http://ethfans.org/posts/ethereum-whitepaper

References

  1. Agbo, C.C., Mahmoud, Q.H., Eklund, J.M.: Blockchain technology in healthcare: A systematic review. Healthcare 7(2), 56 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Alblooshi, M., Salah, K., Alhammadi, Y.: Blockchain-based ownership management for medical IoT (MIoT) devices. In: IIT, pp 151–156 (2018)

  3. Alzahrani, N., Bulusu, N.: Block-supply chain: A new anti-counterfeiting supply chain using NFC and blockchain. In: ACM Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains for Distributed Systems, pp 30–35 (2018)

  4. Antonopoulos A.M.: Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking digital crypto-currencies. O’Reily Media, Inc, Boston (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Azaria, A., Ekblaw, A., Vieira, T., Lippman, A.: Medrec: Using blockchain for medical data access and permission management. In: OBD, pp 25–30 (2016)

  6. Beck, R.: Beyond Bitcoin: The rise of blockchain world. Computer 51(2), 54–58 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Bhatia, G.K., Kumaraguru, P., Dubey, A., Buduru, A.B., Kaulgud, V.: WorkerRep: Building trust on crowdsourcing platform using blockchain. Doctoral dissertation, IIIT-Delhi (2018)

  8. Bitcoinwiki: Proof of work. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Proofofwork (2018)

  9. Buterin, V.: Ethereum: A next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform. http://ethereum.org/ethereum.html (2013)

  10. Castro, M., Liskov, B.: Practical Byzantine fault tolerance. In: OSDI, pp. 173–186 (1999)

  11. Chatzopoulos, D., Gujar, S., Faltings, B., Hui, P.: Privacy preserving and cost optimal mobile crowdsensing using smart contracts on blockchain. In: IEEE 15th International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS), pp 442–450 (2018)

  12. Chi, Z., Wang, Y., Huang, Y., Tong, X.: The novel location privacy-preserving CKD for mobile crowdsourcing systems. IEEE Access 6, 5678–5687 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Crosby, M., Pattanayak, P., Verma, S., Kalyanaraman, V.: Blockchain technology: Beyond bitcoin. Appl. Innov., 2(6–19) (2016)

  14. de la Rosa, J.L., Torres-Padrosa, V., el Fakdi, A., et al.: A survey of blockchain technologies for open innovation. In: WOIC, pp 14–15 (2017)

  15. Dinh, T.T.A., Liu, R., Zhang, M., Chen, G., Ooi, B.C., Wang, J.: Untangling blockchain: A data processing view of blockchain systems. IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng. 30(7), 1366–1385 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Durand, A., Gremaud, P., Pasquier, J.: Resilient, crowd-sourced LPWAN infrastructure using blockchain, pp 25–29 (2018)

  17. Egelund-Muller, B., Elsman, M., Henglein, F., Ross, O.: Automated execution of financial contracts on blockchains. Business Inf. Syst. Eng. 59(6), 457–467 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Esposito, C., De Santis, A., Tortora, G., et al.: Blockchain: A panacea for healthcare cloud-based data security and privacy?. IEEE Cloud Comput. 5(1), 31–37 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Eyal, I.: Blockchain technology: Transforming libertarian cryptocurrency dreams to finance and banking realities. Computer 50(9), 38–49 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Fairley, P.: Blockchain world-Feeding the blockchain beast if bitcoin ever does go mainstream, the electricity needed to sustain it will be enormous. IEEE Spectr. 54 (10), 36–59 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Feng, W., Yan, Z.: MCS-Chain: Decentralized and trustworthy mobile crowdsourcing based on blockchain. Futur. Gener. Comput. Syst. 95, 649–666 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Fernandez-Carames, T.M., Fraga-Lamas, P.: Design of a fog computing, blockchain and IoT-based continuous glucose monitoring system for crowdsourcing mHealth. Multidiscip. Digital Publ. Instit. Proc. 4(1), 37 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Ferreira, M., Rodrigues, S., Reis, C., Maximiano, M.: Blockchain: A tale of two applications. Appl. Sci. 8(9), 1506 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Foundation, L.: Hyperledger architecture, Available: https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/release-1.2/ (2018)

  25. Gramoli, V.: From blockchain consensus back to Byzantine consensus. Future Generation Computer Systems, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2017.09.023 (2017)

  26. Griggs, K.N., Ossipova, O., Kohlios, C.P., et al.: Healthcare blockchain system using smart contracts for secure automated remote patient monitoring. J. Med. Syst. 42(7), 130 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Guan, Z., Si, G., Zhang, X., et al.: Privacy-preserving and efficient aggregation based on blockchain for power grid communications in smart communities. IEEE Commun. Mag. 56(7), 82–88 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Hepp, T., Wortner, P., Schnhals, A., Gipp, B.: Securing physical assets on the blockchain: Linking a novel object identification concept with distributed ledgers. In: ACM Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains for Distributed Systems, pp 60–65 (2018)

  29. Howe, J.: The rise of crowdsourcing. Wired Mag. 14(6), 1–4 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Hu, J., Huang, L., Li, L., Qi, M., Yang, W.: Protecting location privacy in spatial crowdsourcing. In: Asia-Pacific Web Conference, pp 113–124 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Hurlburt, G.: Might the blockchain outlive Bitcoin? It Professional 18(2), 12–16 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Jacynycz, V., Calvo, A., Hassan, S., Sanchez-Ruiz, A.A.: Betfunding: A distributed bounty-based crowdfunding platform over ethereum. In: 13th International Conference in distributed computing and artificial intelligence, pp 403–411 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Jia, B., Zhou, T., Li, W., Liu, Z., Zhang, J.: A blockchain-based location privacy protection incentive mechanism in crowd sensing networks. Sensors 18(11), 3894 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Kasgar, A.K., Agrawal, J., Sahu, S.: New modified 256-bi MD5 algorithm with SHA compression function. Int. J. Comput. Appl. 42(12), 47–51 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Kiayias, A., Koutsoupias, E., Kyropoulou, M., Tselekounis, Y.: Blockchain mining games. In: EC, pp 365–382 (2016)

  36. Kraft, D.: Difficulty control for blockchain-based consensus systems. Peer-to-Peer Network. Appl. 9(2), 397–413 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Kshetri, N., Voas, J.: Blockchain in developing countries. It Professional 20 (2), 11–14 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Larimer, D.: Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPOS). Technical Report. http://v3.bitshares.org/security/delegated-proof-of-stake.php (2014)

  39. Li, X., et al.: A survey on the security of blockchain systems. Fut. Gen. Comput. Syst., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2017.08.020 (2017)

  40. Li, M., Weng, J., Yang, A., et al.: CrowdBC: A blockchain-based decentralized framework for crowdsourcing. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst. 30(6), 1251–1266 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Lin, J., Shen, Z., Miao, C., et al.: Using blockchain to build trusted LoRaWAN sharing server. Int. J. Crowd Sci. 1(3), 270–280 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Liu, G., Liu, Y., Zheng, K., Liu, A., Li, Z., Wang, Y., Zhou, X.: MCS-GPM: Multi-constrained simulation based graph pattern matching in contextual social graphs. IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng. 30(6), 1050–1064 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Liu, G., Wang, Y., Orgun, M.A.: Optimal social trust path selection in complex social networks. In: Twenty-Fourth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (2010)

  44. Liu, G., Wang, Y., Orgun, M.A., Lim, E.P.: Finding the optimal social trust path for the selection of trustworthy service providers in complex social networks. IEEE Trans. Serv. Comput. 6(2), 152–167 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Liu, G., Zheng, K., Wang, Y., Orgun, M.A., Liu, A., Zhao, L., Zhou, X.: Multi-constrained graph pattern matching in large-scale contextual social graphs. In: 2015 IEEE 31st International Conference on Data Engineering, pp. 351–362 (2015)

  46. Liu, P.T.S., Liu, P.T.S.: Medical record system using blockchain, big data and tokenization. In: ICICS, pp 254–261 (2016)

  47. Liu, B., Yu, X.L., Chen, S., Xu, X., Zhu, L.: Blockchain based data integrity service framework for IoT data. In: ICWS, pp 468–475 (2017)

  48. Liu, A., Wang, W., Shang, S., Li, Q., Zhang, X.: Efficient task assignment in spatial crowdsourcing with worker and task privacy protection. GeoInformatica 22 (2), 335–362 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Lu, Q., Xu, X.: Adaptable blockchain-based systems: A case study for product traceability. IEEE Softw. 34(6), 21–27 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Lu, Y., Tang, Q., Wang, G.: On enabling machine learning tasks atop public blockchains: A crowdsourcing approach. In: IEEE International Conference on Data Mining Workshops (ICDMW), pp 81–88 (2018)

  51. Lu, Y., Tang, Q., Wang, G.: Zebralancer: Private and anonymous crowdsourcing system atop open blockchain. In: IEEE 38th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), pp 853–865 (2018)

  52. Merkle, R.C.: Protocols for public key cryptosystems. In: IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp 122–122 (1980)

  53. Mougayar, W.: The Business Blockchain: Promise, Practice, and Application of the Next Internet Technology. Wiley (2016)

  54. Nakamoto, S.: Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system [EB/OL].https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf (2019)

  55. Neudecker, T., Hartenstein, H.: Network layer aspects of permissionless blockchains. IEEE Commun. Surveys Tutor. 21(1), 838–857 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  56. Nordrum, A.: Is it time to become a blockchain developer? IEEE Spectr. 54(9), 21–21 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  57. Noyes, C.: Efficient blockchain-driven multiparty computation markets at scale. Technical report (2016)

  58. Peck, M.E.: Blockchain world - Do you need a blockchain? This chart will tell you if the technology can solve your problem. IEEE Spectr. 54(10), 38–60 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  59. Peck, M.E., Moore, S.K.: The blossoming of the blockchain. IEEE Spectr. 54(10), 24–25 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  60. Pierro, M.D.: What is the Blockchain? Comput. Sci. Eng. 19(5), 92–95 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  61. Pinto, G.V., Dias, J.P., Ferreira, H.S.: Blockchain-based PKI for crowdsourced IoT sensor information. In: International Conference on Soft Computing and Pattern Recognition, pp 248–257 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  62. Proof-of-Work[OL]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proofof-work_system (2019)

  63. Queiroz, M.M., Wamba, S.F.: Blockchain adoption challenges in supply chain: An empirical investigation of the main drivers in India and the USA. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 46, 70–82 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  64. Randall, D., Goel, P., Abujamra, R.: Blockchain applications and use cases in health information technology. J. Health Med. Informat 8(276), 2 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  65. Rashid, M.A., Deo, K., Prasad, D., Singh, K., Chand, S., Assaf, M.: TEduChain: A platform for crowdsourcing tertiary education fund using blockchain technology. arXiv:abs1901.06327 (2019)

  66. Salman, T., Zolanvari, M., Erbad, A., et al.: Security services using blockchains: A state of the art survey. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2018.2863956 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  67. Sarier, N.D.: Privacy preserving biometric identification on the bitcoin blockchain. In: International Symposium on Cyberspace Safety and Security, pp 254–269 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  68. Shae, Z., Tsai, J.J.: On the design of a blockchain platform for clinical trial and precision medicine. In: ICDCS, pp 1972–1980 (2017)

  69. Sikorski, J.J., Haughton, J., Kraft, M.: Blockchain technology in the chemical industry: Machine-to-machine electricity market. Appl. Energy 195, 234–246 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  70. Smith, T.D.: The blockchain litmus test. In: Big Data, pp 2299–2308 (2017)

  71. Swan, M.: Block chain thinking: The brain as a decentralized autonomous corporation. IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 34(4), 41–52 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  72. Swan, M.: Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy. O’Reilly Media Inc, USA (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  73. Szabo, N.: Smart contracts: Building blocks for digital markets. EXTROPY: J. Transhumanist Thought 16, 18 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  74. Toyoda, K., Mathiopoulos, P.T., Sasase, I., Ohtsuki, T.: A novel blockchain-based product ownership management system (POMS) for anti-counterfeits in the post supply chain. IEEE Access 5, 17465–17477 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  75. Tseng, L.: Bitcoin’s consistency property. In: PRDC, pp 219–220 (2017)

  76. Vo, H.T., Kundu, A., Mohania, M.K.: Research directions in blockchain data management and analytics. In: EDBT, pp 445–448 (2018)

  77. Wang, K., Qi, X., Shu, L., Deng, D.J., Rodrigues, J.J.: Toward trustworthy crowdsourcing in the social internet of things. IEEE Wirel. Commun. 23 (5), 30–36 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  78. Wang, L., Yang, D., Han, X., Wang, T., Zhang, D., Ma, X.: Location privacy-preserving task allocation for mobile crowdsensing with differential geo-obfuscation. In: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on World Wide Web, pp 627–636 (2017)

  79. Wang, J., Li, M., He, Y., Li, H., Xiao, K., Wang, C.: A blockchain based privacy-preserving incentive mechanism in crowdsensing applications. IEEE Access 6, 17545–17556 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  80. Wang, S., Taha, A.F., Wang, J.: Blockchain-assisted crowdsourced energy systems. In: 2018 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), pp 1–5 (2018)

  81. Wang, T., Luo, H., Zheng, J.X., Xie, M.: Crowdsourcing mechanism for trust evaluation in CPCS based on intelligent mobile edge computing. ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1145/3324926 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  82. Wang, T., Qiu, L., Xu, G., Sangaiah, A.K., Liu, A.: Energy-efficient and trustworthy data collection protocol based on mobile fog computing in internet of things. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, https://doi.org/10.1109/TII.2019.2920277(2019)

  83. Wang, X., Zeng, P., Patterson, N., Jiang, F., Doss, R.: An improved authentication scheme for internet of vehicles based on blockchain technology. IEEE Access 7, 45061–45072 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  84. Wu, Y., Huang, H., Wu, Q., Liu, A., Wang, T.: A risk defense method based on microscopic state prediction with partial information observations in social networks. J. Parallel Distrib. Comput., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpdc.2019.04.007(2019)

  85. Wu, Y., Tang, S., Zhao, B., Peng, Z.: BPTM: Blockchain-based privacy-preserving task matching in crowdsourcing. IEEE Access 7, 45605–45617 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  86. Xia, Q., Sifah, E., Smahi, A., et al.: BBDS: Blockchain-based data sharing for electronic medical records in cloud environments. Information 8(2), 44 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  87. Xiao, M., Wu, J., Huang, L., Cheng, R., Wang, Y.: Online task assignment for crowdsensing in predictable mobile social networks. IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput. 16(8), 2306–2320 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  88. Xiao, M., Ma, K., Liu, A., Zhao, H., Li, Z., Zheng, K., Zhou, X.: SRA: Secure reverse auction for task assignment in spatial crowdsourcing. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1109/TKDE.2019.2893240 (2019)

  89. Yaga, D.J., Mell, P.M., Roby, N., Scarfone, K.: Blockchain technology overview (no NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR)-8202) (2018)

  90. Yang, K., Zhang, K., Ren, J., et al.: Security and privacy in mobile crowdsourcing networks: Challenges and opportunities. IEEE Commun. Mag. 53, 75–81 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  91. Yang, M., Zhu, T., Liang, K., Zhou, W., Deng, R.H.: A blockchain-based location privacy-preserving crowdsensing system. Futur. Gener. Comput. Syst. 94, 408–418 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  92. Yuan, Y., Wang, F.Y.: Block chain: The state of the art and future trends. Acta Automatica Sinica 42(4), 481–494 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  93. Yuan, Y., Wang, F.Y.: Blockchain and cryptocurrencies: Model, techniques, and applications. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern.: Syst. 48(9), 1421–1428 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  94. Yue, L., Junqin, H., Shengzhi, Q., Ruijin, W.: Big data model of security sharing based on blockchain. In: BIGCOM, pp 117–121 (2017)

  95. Zhai, D., Sun, Y., Liu, A., Li, Z., Liu, G., Zhao, L., Zheng, K.: Towards secure and truthful task assignment in spatial crowdsourcing. World Wide Web, 1–24 (2018)

  96. Zhao, K., Tang, S., Zhao, B., Wu, Y.: Dynamic and privacy-preserving reputation management for blockchain-based mobile crowdsensing. IEEE Access 7, 74694–74710 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  97. Zheng, Z., Xie, S., Dai, H.N., et al.: Blockchain challenges and opportunities: A survey. Work Pap.-2016, 363–364 (2016)

  98. Zhu, B., Zhu, S., Liu, X., Zhong, Y., Wu, H.: A novel location privacy preserving scheme for spatial crowdsourcing. In: IEEE 6th International Conference on Electronics Information and Emergency Communication (ICEIEC), pp 34–37 (2016)

  99. Zhu, H., Zhou, Z.Z.: Analysis and outlook of applications of blockchain technology to equity crowdfunding in China. Financ. Innov. 2(1), 29 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  100. Zhu, J., Jiang, W., Liu, A., Liu, G., Zhao, L.: Effective and efficient trajectory outlier detection based on time-dependent popular route. World Wide Web 20(1), 111–134 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  101. Zou, J., Ye, B., Qu, L., Wang, Y., Orgun, M.A., Li, L.: A proof-of-trust consensus protocol for enhancing accountability in crowdsourcing services. IEEE Trans. Serv. Comput. 12(3), 429–445 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61502404), Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (Grant No. 2019J01851), Distinguished Young Scholars Foundation of Fujian Educational Committee (Grant No. DYS201707), Xiamen Science and Technology Program (Grant No. 3502Z20183059), and Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Data mining and Intelligent Recommendation, Fujian Province University. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their great helpful comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ying Ma or Yu Sun.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Special Issue on Trust, Privacy, and Security in Crowdsourcing Computing

Guest Editors: An Liu, Guanfeng Liu, Mehmet A. Orgun, and Qing Li

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ma, Y., Sun, Y., Lei, Y. et al. A survey of blockchain technology on security, privacy, and trust in crowdsourcing services. World Wide Web 23, 393–419 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11280-019-00735-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11280-019-00735-4

Keywords

Navigation