Blockchain-Based Secure Vehicle Auction System with Smart Contracts
Ka Wai Wu
TL;DR
This work tackles the vulnerabilities of centralized vehicle marketplaces by leveraging Ethereum-based smart contracts to manage car listings, bidding, and ownership transfers. The authors implement a two-contract architecture (Car_Repo_Contract and Car_Bid_Contract) that automates the auction process, enforces bidding rules, and updates ownership on-chain, tested on the Ropsten network with Solidity. Key contributions include a complete design and on-chain implementation for a used-car bidding application that emphasizes security and privacy through contract-controlled records and agent-managed updates. The study demonstrates the potential of blockchain to enhance data integrity and transaction transparency in vehicle trading, while also acknowledging confidentiality enhancements via TEEs and future frontend development needs for a full dApp experience.
Abstract
The problem of a single point of failure in centralized systems poses a great challenge to the stability of such systems. Meanwhile, the tamperability of data within centralized systems makes users reluctant to trust and use centralized applications in many scenarios, including the financial and business sectors. Blockchain, as a new decentralized technology, addresses these issues effectively. As a typical decentralized system, blockchain can be utilized to build a data-sharing model. Users in a blockchain do not need to trust other users; instead, they trust that the majority of miner nodes are honest. Smart contracts enable developers to write distributed programs based on blockchain systems, ensuring that all code is immutable and secure. In this paper, we analyze the security of blockchain technology to illustrate its advantages and justify its use. Furthermore, we design a new system for storing and trading vehicle information based on the Ethereum blockchain and smart contract technology. Specifically, our system allows users to upload vehicle information and auction vehicles to transfer ownership. Our application provides great convenience to buyers and owners, while the use of smart contracts enhances the security and privacy of the system.