{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,11]],"date-time":"2025-12-11T05:14:59Z","timestamp":1765430099757,"version":"3.46.0"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,5]],"date-time":"2025-12-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1764892800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Future Internet"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism is increasingly used in blockchain systems; however, resource allocation for PoS-based mobile blockchain networks remains underexplored, particularly given the constraints of mobile devices. This work introduces MEC-Chain, a new framework that integrates Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) with mobile blockchain to support efficient validator-node execution under PoS. MEC-Chain formalizes a multi-objective resource-allocation problem that jointly considers latency, reliability, and cost from both the validator and MEC-provider perspectives. To address this challenge, we develop a deep reinforcement learning-based allocation agent using the Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm. Experimental results show that PPO achieves a 30\u201340% reduction in total execution time, 25\u201335% lower transmission latency, and 10\u201315% higher reliability compared to A2C (Advantage Actor\u2013Critic) and DQN (Deep Q-Network), while offering comparable cost savings across all methods. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of MEC-Chain in enabling low-latency, reliable, and resource-efficient PoS validation within mobile blockchain environments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/fi17120563","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,5]],"date-time":"2025-12-05T16:37:02Z","timestamp":1764952622000},"page":"563","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["MEC-Chain: Towards a New Framework for a MEC-Enabled Mobile Blockchain Network Under the PoS Consensus"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6995-465X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rima","family":"Grati","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Technological Innovation, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 144534, United Arab Emirates"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6744-711X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Khouloud","family":"Boukadi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Economics and Management of Sfax, Multimedia, Information Systems and Advanced Computing Laboratory (MIRACL), Sfax University, Sfax 3000, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Safa","family":"Elleuch","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Economics and Management of Sfax, Multimedia, Information Systems and Advanced Computing Laboratory (MIRACL), Sfax University, Sfax 3000, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/3434776","article-title":"Data privacy based on IoT device behavior control using blockchain","volume":"21","author":"Loukil","year":"2021","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Internet Technol. (TOIT)"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"707","DOI":"10.1007\/s10586-023-03981-4","article-title":"A blockchain-based framework for circular end-of-life vehicle processing","volume":"27","author":"Grati","year":"2024","journal-title":"Clust. Comput."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Feki, E., Boukadi, K., Loukil, F., and Abed, M. (2022, January 5\u20138). BELONG: Blockchain basEd pLatform fOr donation & social project fuNdinG. Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE\/ACS 19th International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications (AICCSA), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.","DOI":"10.1109\/AICCSA56895.2022.10017836"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Loukil, F., Boukadi, K., Hussain, R., and Abed, M. (2021). Ciosy: A collaborative blockchain-based insurance system. Electronics, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/electronics10111343"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"182","DOI":"10.1109\/TSMC.2019.2930418","article-title":"ManuChain: Combining permissioned blockchain with a holistic optimization model as bi-level intelligence for smart manufacturing","volume":"50","author":"Leng","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Syst."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Decentralized Bus. Rev., 21260."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Vasin, P. (2025, September 05). Blackcoin\u2019s Proof-of-Stake Protocol v2. 2014; Volume 71. Available online: https:\/\/blackcoin.org\/blackcoin-pos-protocol-v2-whitepaper.pdf."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kiayias, A., Koutsoupias, E., Kyropoulou, M., and Tselekounis, Y. (2016, January 24\u201328). Blockchain mining games. Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation, Maastricht, The Netherlands.","DOI":"10.1145\/2940716.2940773"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"760","DOI":"10.1109\/LWC.2018.2820009","article-title":"Evolutionary game for mining pool selection in blockchain networks","volume":"7","author":"Liu","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Wirel. Commun. Lett."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4544","DOI":"10.1109\/TCYB.2019.2915253","article-title":"Cooperative mining in blockchain networks with zero-determinant strategies","volume":"50","author":"Tang","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Cybern."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2292","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2016.2566339","article-title":"Blockchains and smart contracts for the Internet of Things","volume":"4","author":"Christidis","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10843","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2021.3050804","article-title":"Energy-efficient task offloading and resource allocation via deep reinforcement learning for augmented reality in mobile edge networks","volume":"8","author":"Chen","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zuo, Y., Zhang, S., Han, Y., and Jin, S. (2020, January 9\u201311). Computation resource allocation in mobile blockchain-enabled edge computing networks. Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE\/CIC International Conference on Communications in China (ICCC), Chongqing, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCC49849.2020.9238904"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.future.2021.09.031","article-title":"Auction method to prevent bid-rigging strategies in mobile blockchain edge computing resource allocation","volume":"128","author":"Qiu","year":"2022","journal-title":"Future Gener. Comput. Syst."},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"(2023, December 22). ethereum.org. Proof-of-Stake (PoS) | Ethereum.org. Available online: https:\/\/ethereum.org\/en\/developers\/docs\/consensus-mechanisms\/pos\/."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2018.1701095","article-title":"When mobile blockchain meets edge computing","volume":"56","author":"Xiong","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"366","DOI":"10.1007\/s10586-025-05153-y","article-title":"The impact of connectivity and software in Ethereum validator performance","volume":"28","year":"2025","journal-title":"Clust. Comput."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"450","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2017.2750180","article-title":"Mobile edge computing: A survey","volume":"5","author":"Abbas","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11008","DOI":"10.1109\/TVT.2018.2866365","article-title":"Computation offloading and content caching in wireless blockchain networks with mobile edge computing","volume":"67","author":"Liu","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jiao, Y., Wang, P., Niyato, D., and Xiong, Z. (2018, January 20\u201324). Social welfare maximization auction in edge computing resource allocation for mobile blockchain. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Kansas City, MO, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICC.2018.8422632"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1975","DOI":"10.1109\/TPDS.2019.2900238","article-title":"Auction mechanisms in cloud\/fog computing resource allocation for public blockchain networks","volume":"30","author":"Jiao","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108674","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comnet.2021.108674","article-title":"Optimal pricing-based computation offloading and resource allocation for blockchain-enabled beyond 5G networks","volume":"203","author":"Zhang","year":"2022","journal-title":"Comput. Netw."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107186","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cie.2021.107186","article-title":"A new differential evolution algorithm for joint mining decision and resource allocation in a MEC-enabled wireless blockchain network","volume":"155","author":"Wang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Comput. Ind. Eng."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"142","DOI":"10.1186\/s13677-023-00497-5","article-title":"Resource allocation strategy for blockchain-enabled NOMA-based MEC networks","volume":"12","author":"Ding","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Cloud Comput."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e8161","DOI":"10.1002\/cpe.8161","article-title":"SharpEdge: A QoS-driven task scheduling scheme with blockchain in mobile edge computing","volume":"36","author":"Gu","year":"2024","journal-title":"Concurr. Comput. Pract. Exp."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1889","DOI":"10.1049\/cmu2.12703","article-title":"Task offloading and resource allocation for blockchain-enabled mobile edge computing","volume":"18","author":"Fang","year":"2024","journal-title":"IET Commun."},{"key":"ref_27","first-page":"1","article-title":"Coding theorems for a discrete source with a fidelity criterion","volume":"4","author":"Shannon","year":"1959","journal-title":"IRE Nat. Conv. Rec"},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Raffin, A., Hill, A., Gleave, A., Kanervisto, A., Ernestus, M., and Dormann, N. (2025, September 05). Stable-Baselines3: Reliable Reinforcement Learning Implementations, 2021. Software. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/DLR-RM\/stable-baselines3."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Mnih, V. (2016). Asynchronous Methods for Deep Reinforcement Learning. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"529","DOI":"10.1038\/nature14236","article-title":"Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning","volume":"518","author":"Mnih","year":"2015","journal-title":"Nature"}],"container-title":["Future Internet"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/17\/12\/563\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,11]],"date-time":"2025-12-11T05:11:53Z","timestamp":1765429913000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/17\/12\/563"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,5]]},"references-count":30,"journal-issue":{"issue":"12","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]}},"alternative-id":["fi17120563"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/fi17120563","relation":{},"ISSN":["1999-5903"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1999-5903"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,5]]}}}