Trust and Security in the Internet of Vehicles through Blockchain Technology

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) represents a rapidly evolving paradigm in intelligent transportation systems, enabling seamless communication between vehicles, roadside infrastructure, and cloud-based services. However, the proliferation of connected vehicles introduces significant challenges related to data integrity, privacy, and trust, making robust security mechanisms essential. This study explores the potential of blockchain technology to address these challenges by providing decentralized, tamper-resistant, and transparent frameworks for vehicular communication. Blockchain’s distributed ledger architecture ensures secure data sharing, authentication, and transaction traceability without reliance on centralized authorities, mitigating risks such as data breaches, spoofing, and unauthorized access. The paper presents a comprehensive review of existing blockchain-based solutions for IoV security, highlighting consensus mechanisms, smart contract implementation, and scalability considerations. Additionally, it examines integration challenges, including latency, computational overhead, and interoperability with vehicular networks. The analysis demonstrates that blockchain can enhance trust, preserve privacy, and improve overall security in IoV environments, offering a resilient foundation for future intelligent transportation applications. The study concludes by identifying open research directions, including lightweight consensus protocols, hybrid architectures, and AI-assisted security strategies, emphasizing the role of blockchain as a cornerstone for secure, trustworthy, and efficient vehicular networks. The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is an emerging component of intelligent transportation systems, enabling real-time communication among vehicles, roadside units, and cloud-based services to improve traffic efficiency, safety, and autonomous driving capabilities. Despite its potential, the extensive connectivity of IoV networks introduces critical security and trust challenges, including data tampering, unauthorized access, privacy leakage, Sybil attacks, and replay attacks. Traditional centralized security architectures are often inadequate due to single points of failure, limited scalability, and vulnerability to cyberattacks.