Biometric Blockchain: A Secure Solution for

Intelligent Vehicle Data Sharing

Bing Xu1, Tobechukwu Agbele 2, Qiang Ni3 and Richard Jiang4

Abstract – The intelligent vehicle (IV) has become a promising technology that
could revolutionize our life in smart cities sooner or later. However, it yet suffers
from many security vulnerabilities. Traditional security methods are incapable to
secure the IV data sharing against malicious attacks. Blockchain, as expected by
both research and industry communities, has emerged as a good solution to address
these issues. The major issues in IV data sharing are trust, data accuracy and
reliability of data sharing in the communication channel. Blockchain technology,
previously working for the cryptocurrency, has recently applied to build trust and
reliability in peer-to-peer networks with similar topologies of IV data sharing. In
this chapter, we present a new framework, namely biometric blockchain (BBC), for
secure IV data sharing. In our new scheme, biometric information is exploited as a
cue to record who is responsible in the data sharing activities, while the proposed
BBC technology serves as the backbone of the IV data-sharing architecture. Hence,
the proposed BBC technology provides a more reliable trust environment between
the vehicles while personal identities are traceable in the proposed new scheme.

Keywords: Intelligent vehicles, vehicular ad-hoc networks, IV data sharing,

biometric blockchain, distributed biometric credits.

1. Introduction

Intelligent vehicles (IVs) [1-5] are empowered by its capability of

internet access with real-time data processing and sharing over
Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANET), where moving IVs are
dynamically integrated into pervasive networks in smart cities. Within

1Computer & Information Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST,
UK, e-mail: [email protected].
2 Computing & Communication, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4WY, UK, e-mail:
[email protected].
3 Computing & Communication, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4WY, UK, e-mail :
[email protected].
4 Computing & Communication, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4WY, UK, e-mail :
[email protected].
2 Tobechukwu Agbele, Bing Xu and Richard Jiang

this context, IV data sharing faces the security challenges in two

typical scenarios: Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) data sharing and
Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) data sharing [1]. Consequently, a
secure protocol is needed to provide the regulation of any safety-
critical incidents and hazards.
The information gathered by the feedback of the nearby vehicles is
often vulnerable to various security attacks, and incorrect feedback
can result in higher network congestion and severe security hazards
[2]. Particularly, lacking of information on end users or stakeholders
will undermine the system with anonymous attacks, making it harder
to pin down the responsible parties or criminals.
In the IV data sharing networks, security is always a critical issue
during V2V or V2I communication. These networks requires a secure
solution that can respect privacy and meanwhile enable trust [3].
Recently researchers have attempted to combine IV with the new
blockchain technology [3], considering their applications based on
services and smart contracts. However, blockchain itself is an
anonymous technology based encryption, making it inconvenient to
identify who owns the data and who are accessing the data. Obviously,
lacking of knowing “who” will weaken the security of a VANET.
In this chapter, we propose a novel method, namely Biometric
Blockchain (BBC), and leverage it for IV data sharing. Such a
combination of biometrics and blockchain technology will enable a
better secure protocol with the additive biometric information.
In our solution, biometrics are combined with the blockchain
technology and provide an ID-aware credit-based trust system for
transmitting reliable data over the IV data sharing platform. Here, the
credit is associated with a unique biometric ID, which is then attached
to the message format for the transmission in V2V or V2I
communication.
The BBC based cloud storage manages the IV-targeted biometric
crediting (BC) protocol, and is accessible ubiquitously by the credited
end users. The IV-BC mechanism using blockchain can create the
unique crypto IDs with biometric cues, self-executing digital
contracts, and detailed information of IVs under the control over the
BBC-based cloud [4].
Fig.1 shows the standard intelligent vehicle Information sharing
environment with both V2V and V2I communication, where each
vehicle in moving is dynamically routed in a peer-to-peer queue to
Biometric Blockchain: A Secure Solution for Intelligent Vehicle Data Sharing 3

Fig. 1. Intelligent vehicles within V2I communication as well as

routed peer-to-peer V2V communication.

access the internet resources via the integration of V2V and V2I
communication.
We organize our chapter as follows. Section 2 presents the
background of our work. Section 3 presents the introduction of
biometric blockchain technology for Intelligent Vehicles data sharing.
Section 4 presents the detailed architecture of the BBC-based IV data
sharing framework. Section 5 concludes our chapter and discusses our
future work on BBC-based IV data sharing.

2. Background of Our Work

Currently intelligent transport systems (ITS) in smart cities are mostly

based on ad-hoc networks for vehicle communication. These ad-hoc
networks such as DSRC, WAVE, and Cellular Network do not
guarantee secure data transmission. Traditional security protocols for
vehicle communication applications based on cellular and IT standard
security mechanisms are often fragile to malicious attacks. They are
also out of date with little suitability for real ITS applications in smart
cities. So far, many researchers on ITS are advocating various new
protocols to provide a robust security mechanism for IVs.
Our proposed BBC-based mechanism has many advantages. It is
blockchain-based and hence very easy to be compatible to the
4 Tobechukwu Agbele, Bing Xu and Richard Jiang

dynamic peer-to-peer communication; the blockchain mechanism

provides a natural protection to each node using its cross-validation
mechanism as well as its encryption keys; with biometrics, it can
easily trace down and link services to specific users or customers with
lifelong historic records; and last but not least, it provides a secure and
trust environment for vehicle communication with cloud-based
database and ubiquitous data access in a secure way.
Our solution is based on a very simple concept of using biometric
blockchain based trust environment for data sharing among Intelligent
Vehicles. The proposed Intelligent Vehicle Biometric Crediting (IV-
BC) protocol allows us to exploit the features of blockchain such as
distributed ledgers, Merkel tree, Hash function (SHA-256), and
consensus mechanism (proof of work algorithm) to build a better
secure environment with the awareness of user identities. More details
will be included in the following sections.

Fig. 2. Blockchain technology [6] with features such as digital

signatures, shared ledger, signed blocks of transactions,
cryptography.
Biometric Blockchain: A Secure Solution for Intelligent Vehicle Data Sharing 5

3. Biometric Blockchain for Intelligent Vehicle Systems

3.1 Blockchain Technology

Blockchain is a new technology derived from Bitcoins. It has become
a hot topic due to its high value for data security. A blockchain
consists of distributed open ledgers saved at each node in a peer-to-
peer network. Each-node is self-maintained. The blockchain integrity
is based on a strong cryptography algorithm that validates blocks and
then chains them together on transactions, making it impossible to
tamper with any individual transaction without being detected.
Overriding a single node in the peer-to-peer network will not hijack
the whole chain and therefore it is secured from random attacks from
unexpected invaders.
Fig.2 shows an overview of such blockchain technology. Within
the core of blockchain, shared ledgers advocate a decentralized
storage over peer-to-peer networks, the consensus protocol
strengthens the data integrity by all-party validation, the smart
contract mechanism enables the ledgers executed within data
transmission, and a cryptography algorithm safeguards the ledgers
from any malicious tampering.

3.2 Blockchain Technology in Vehicle

The blockchain based systems proposed in Ref.[7] employ a seven-
layer conceptual model of blockchain for ITS to implement a secured,
trusted and decentralized autonomous ecosystem. In Ref.[8], a self-
managed blockchain-based solution is integrated with vehicular ad-
hoc networks (VANET).
The introduction of blockchain technology enables the smart
contract system with VANET, and promotes the combination of
multiple applications at system level. For example, mandatory
applications (such as traffic regulation, vehicle insurance, vehicle tax,
etc.) can be easily integrated with optional applications (such as
weather forecasts, traffic guidance, entertainments, e-commercial
access, and other smart city functions), while blockchain technology
can assist the integration of these services with trust and privacy.
With its encryption, blockchain can allow the access to peer-to-
peer communication without disclosing personal information,
strengthen the security in data sharing, and secure multiple
communications between vehicles, etc.. In Ref.[9], a blockchain-
6 Tobechukwu Agbele, Bing Xu and Richard Jiang

based mechanism was proposed that will not disclose any private data
information of vehicles user when providing and updating the remote
wireless software and other vehicles services. In Ref.[10], the
blockchain technology was exploited for securing the IV
communication through the visible light and acoustic side channels.
Their proposed mechanism was successfully verified via a session
cryptographic key, leveraging both side-channels and blockchain
public key infrastructure.
In this chapter, we propose a new technology coined as biometric
blockchain and leverage it for the secure IV communication. We
develop a new framework with BBC to build a secure credit-based
environment for peer-to-peer communication between intelligent
vehicles without interfering/disturbing other intelligent vehicles.

3.3 Biometric Blockchain for Intelligent Vehicles

Despite the seemingly reliable and convenient services offered by the
features of blockchain technology for applications, there is a host of
security concerns and issues [11-20], and its understanding is relevant
to the research community, governments, vehicle industry, investors,
regulators and other stakeholders.
Given the complexity and the infrastructure of the blockchain, it is

Fig.3. The proposed BBC framework for IV data sharing.

Biometric Blockchain: A Secure Solution for Intelligent Vehicle Data Sharing 7

not a surprise that it would have some downsides especially in sharing

data among different systems or regions, and securing data for a
centralised infrastructure is a challenging task since potential attacks
and exploits lead to a single-point-of-contact requiring trust for this
individual authority. This implies that more research efforts need to
be done in order to assure that information are secured in terms of
privacy, assuring that only authorized users are able to access the data.
To address these challenges, recent research [20] has started to
think about bring biometrics [21, 22] into blockchain with a hope to
achieve better security, scalability and privacy. Based on this
initiative we proposed a new blockchain framework, namely
biometric blockchain (BBC) for IV data sharing.
Fig.3 shows our proposed framework, where biometrics is used as
the signatures to sign off ledgers and generate unique IDs that can be
associated with individuals. Cloud-based Biometrics as a Service
(BaaS) is engaged to provide extra support to local IV data sharing.
The benefits of such a BBC-based framework are apparent. First,
we can easily associate the activities in the IV data sharing to a
specific individual or customer, and then the services can be easily
tailored to specific users with their historic records over the BBC-
based cloud servers.
Moreover, a personal credit-based system can be associated with
user-specific services, and the security of IV data sharing is then
double guaranteed by the individual credit system. Hence, BBC as
proposed in Fig.3 could be a valuable solution for practical
applications in IV data sharing.

4. BBC based Credit Environment for IV Data Sharing

In this section, we give the details of our proposed credit-based IV

communication using biometric blockchain technology. Our
proposed mechanism consists of three basic aspects including
vehicular cloud computing (VCC), ad-hoc network enabled
connected device and biometric blockchain (BBC).
Fig.4 shows a typical data-sharing environment for intelligent
vehicles. Vehicles on the roads communicate with the proposed
BBC-based IV data sharing platform, where each vehicle can be
connected with BBC-based platform and store their IV-BC over
8 Tobechukwu Agbele, Bing Xu and Richard Jiang

Fig.4. Proposed BBC-based intelligent vehicle communication

BBC-based cloud services. More details are explained below.

4.1 Vehicular Cloud Computing

Vehicular cloud computing (VCC) has produced a remarkable impact
on traffic management and road safety by equipping intelligent
vehicles with digital resources, such as cloud computing, data storage,
traffic guiding, and decision-making.
VCC is a hybrid technology that vividly integrates the IV data
management with cloud computing via network communication. On
the other side, it faces new challenges coming from both aspects and
need to handle with potential issues coming from local vehicular
communication and remote cloud services.

4.2 Network enabled Connected Devices

While each intelligent vehicle connects itself to the infrastructure and
other vehicles via an internet-enabled biometric-certificated device,
such an Internet-of-Things (IoT) end-user device with biometric
Biometric Blockchain: A Secure Solution for Intelligent Vehicle Data Sharing 9

identification can authenticate, approve, and organize any instant

communication over VANET such as Smartphone, PDA, Intelligent
Vehicles, etc.
Moreover, enabled with biometric IDs, the cloud-based service
can easily provide extra support based on individual information by
tailoring the services to one’s individual needs. Such a personalized
VCC service over VANET may greatly facilitate the service
providers as well as the end users.

4.3 BBC-Supported Intelligent Vehicles

Biometric blockchain consists of a technically unlimited number of
blocks or legders that are linked together cryptographically in
chronological order, signed off with individual biometric signatures.
Each block consists of various transactions that are the actual data to
be stored in the chain.
As shown in Fig.5, the overall system model has seven layers as a
standard architecture for the intelligent communication network.
Here, we briefly explain the key features of the proposed BBC-based
network model, as below.
1) Physical layer: This layer includes the network-enabled end-user
devices such as IoT devices, fingerprint ID device, face ID device,
camera, GPS receiver, PDA, and other devices that are mounted

Fig.5. The proposed BBC based IV communication network

framework.
10 Tobechukwu Agbele, Bing Xu and Richard Jiang

on intelligent vehicles for various purpose. Mostly these devices

can be involved into dynamic V2I and V2V communications with
blockchain mechanism.
2) Data Layer: This layer process the data blocks or ledgers with
cryptography features, typically using Merkle tree and Hash
algorishm to generate secured blocks. Fig.6 gives the typical
structure of the blocks in a blockchain, consisting of a header that
specifies the previous hash and nonce with current hash (root)
following by a Merkle tree. Hash keys generated by the double
SHA 256 algorithm are used to index the chained sequence.

Fig.6. The structure of blocks in a blockchain.

3) Network Layer: This layer handles the forwarding of data over

peer-to-peer network communication. It also copes with the
verification of the peer-to-peer communication, while the legality
of the broadcasted message is validated and managed over the
peer-to-peer interconnection between two IVs.
4) Consensus Layer: The consensus layer, also known as the
handshake layer, provides a decentralized control in the network
communication. It helps to build up the trust between unknown
Biometric Blockchain: A Secure Solution for Intelligent Vehicle Data Sharing 11

users in the wild communication environment, where biometric

credits is exploited for such a mutual trust mechanism.
Typically in IV communication networks, Proof-of-Driving (PoD)
can be a preferred consensus algorithm. It verifies and validates
the vehicles involved in the ad-hoc communication networks. In
our BBC framework, this can be also traced down to end users
with their biometric credits.
5) Biometric credit layer: This layer handles with IV-BC issues, as
proposed in this chapter. The proposed IV-BC protocol has a
crypto data that is assigned to each vehicle, and the consensus
competition will favour a vehicle with higher credits in records.
The winner will be rewarded an extra credit associated with its
biometric ID. The vehicle with the maximum IV-BC credit will
take a lead in the communication network. Such an IV-BC credit
system helps to build a reliable user-credited trust environment in
the vehicles communication.
6) Presentation Layer: This layer encapsulates multiple algorithms,
contracts and scripts that are provided by the vehicles and users
involved in the network.
7) Service Layer: This layer contains the scenarios and user cases of
IV communication system.
Currently lots of research organizations as well as startup companies
are trying to implement the blockchain technology in different areas
and services. In our proposed scheme, the novelty is to include
personal biometric information to authorize the responsibility in a
robust way and secure the environment by tracing down the history
of associated key managers or users.

5. Privacy Issues in Biometric Blockchain

Biometrics could help secure data in blockchain. On the other side, it

is also sensitive to expose the privacy of individuals. The deployment
of BBC based framework will inevitably request the biometric
information from individuals, such as managers or users. Hence, BBC
obviously needs a privacy-protected mechanism when biometric
information is collected from IV users.
Recent research has enlightened the privacy issues with a nice
solution by using encrypted biometrics [21, 22, 23]. As shown in
Fig.7, a set of biometric features such as faces can be encrypted and
12 Tobechukwu Agbele, Bing Xu and Richard Jiang

combined into a ledger as an encrypted signature. The modern

biometric technology [21, 22, 23] has revealed that we do not need to
decrypt these biometric information and can directly verify in the
encrypted domain, making the use of biometrics much less sensitive
in term of privacy concerns when it is used for blockchain technology,
while BBC can identify or validate the user without knowing who the
user really is.
The implementation of BBC may be associated with the online
biometric verification, and can be based on multimodal biometrics
[24]. Classically, feature (such as LBP or SIFT) based [25, 26]
biometric verification is popular though it could be a bit time-
consuming. Recently new approaches such as deep neural networks
[27-30] are taking over the field of biometric verification. Such
biometric verification can be carried out on cloud servers, leading to
a new topic called Biometrics-as-a-Service (BaaS).
There may rise concerns on the computing resources while
biometrics-as-a-service is accessed via cloud platforms, as shown in
Fig.5. However, in a BBC-based platform, biometrics is verified only
when it is necessary. This implies the biometric information could
mostly be dormant and hence the requirement on extra computing is
minimized.

Fig.7. Privacy protection using encrypted biometrics [21].

6. Conclusion

In conclusion, we have presented a biometric credit based intelligent

vehicle communication framework, where biometric blockchain is
engaged to secure the IV data sharing and associate any activities or
Biometric Blockchain: A Secure Solution for Intelligent Vehicle Data Sharing 13

services with key individuals via the biometric cues. Such BBC-based
IV-BC protocol can secure fast and credible communication between
IVs over VANET. It also helps to detect the detailed history of the
communication among IVs and end users, and a biometrics-based
credit recording system can be associated to an IV with its associated
individuals. Such detailed records can be further available to various
user-specific individual services such as IV service providers,
insurance companies, entertainment providers, and other fancy smart
city functions.

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