{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T02:13:10Z","timestamp":1760235190175,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,28]],"date-time":"2021-07-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1627430400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100012338","name":"Alan Turing Institute","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["EP\/N510129\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["EP\/N510129\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100012338","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Smart devices have accentuated the importance of geolocation information. Geolocation identification using smart devices has paved the path for incentive-based location-based services (LBS). However, a user\u2019s full control over a smart device can allow tampering of the location proof. Witness-oriented location proof systems (LPS) have emerged to resist the generation of false proofs and mitigate collusion attacks. However, witness-oriented LPS are still susceptible to three-way collusion attacks (involving the user, location authority, and the witness). To overcome the threat of three-way collusion in existing schemes, we introduce a decentralized consensus protocol called MobChain in this paper. In this scheme the selection of a witness and location authority is achieved through a distributed consensus of nodes in an underlying P2P network that establishes a private blockchain. The persistent provenance data over the blockchain provides strong security guarantees; as a result, the forging and manipulation of location becomes impractical. MobChain provides secure location provenance architecture, relying on decentralized decision making for the selection of participants of the protocol thereby addressing the three-way collusion problem. Our prototype implementation and comparison with the state-of-the-art solutions show that MobChain is computationally efficient and highly available while improving the security of LPS.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21155096","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,28]],"date-time":"2021-07-28T05:23:48Z","timestamp":1627449828000},"page":"5096","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["MobChain: Three-Way Collusion Resistance in Witness-Oriented Location Proof Systems Using Distributed Consensus"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8505-6980","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Faheem","family":"Zafar","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Islamabad 42000, Pakistan"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2712-1956","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Abid","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK"}]},{"given":"Saif Ur Rehman","family":"Malik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cybernetica AS, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2034-1403","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mansoor","family":"Ahmed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Islamabad 42000, Pakistan"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4715-212X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carsten","family":"Maple","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Secure Cyber Systems Research Group, WMG, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5083-0019","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Adeel","family":"Anjum","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Islamabad 42000, Pakistan"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Mohapatra, D., and Suma, S.B. 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