Off-line incentive mechanism for long-term P2P backup storage

This paper presents a micro-payment-based incentive mechanism for long-term peer-to-peer storage systems. The main novelty of the proposed incentive mechanism is to allow users to be off-line for extended periods of time without updating or renewing their information by themselves. This feature is enabled through a digital cheque, issued by the user, which is later employed by the peers to get a gratification for storing the user’s information when the user is off-line. The proposed P2P backup system also includes a secure and lightweight data verification mechanism. Moreover, the proposed incentive also contributes to improve the availability of the stored information and the scalability of the whole system. The paper details the verification and cheque-based incentive mechanisms in the context of a P2P backup service and analyzes its scalability and security properties. The system is furthermore validated by means of simulation, proving the effectiveness of the proposed incentive. 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.