Privacy-Preserving Reputation Systems Based on Blockchain and Other Cryptographic Building Blocks: A Survey

The purpose of a reputation system is to hold the users of a distributed application accountable for their behavior. The reputation of a user is computed as an aggregate of the feedback provided by fellow users in the system. Truthful feedback is clearly a prerequisite for computing a reputation score that accurately represents the behavior of a user. However, it has been observed that users can hesitate in providing truthful feedback because, for example, of fear of retaliation. Privacy-preserving reputation systems enable users to provide feedback in a private and thus uninhibited manner. In this survey, we propose analysis frameworks for privacy-preserving reputation systems. We use these analysis frameworks to review and compare the existing approaches. Emphasis is placed on blockchain-based systems as they are a recent significant development in the area. Blockchain-based privacy-preserving reputation systems have properties, such as trustlessness, transparency, and immutability, which prior systems do not have. Our analysis provides several insights and directions for future research. These include leveraging blockchain to its full potential in order to develop truly trustless systems, to achieve some important security properties, and to include defenses against common attacks that have so far not been addressed by most current systems.