PIN: Application-Level Consensus for Blockchain-Based Artificial Intelligence Frameworks

Integrating AI into blockchain consensus, such as Proof-of-Learning and Proof of Useful Work, necessitates AI enablers. However, current consensus protocols cannot ensure AI enabler quality, crucial for AI-powered distributed blockchain and federated learning. Traditional consensus middleware between network and application layers proves inadequate for AI-focused blockchain and federated learning. Thus, an AI-driven application-level consensus with quality-assured enablers is imperative. We propose Proof-of-INtelligence (PIN), an application-level consensus for AI-based blockchain and federated learning, ensuring AI enabler quality. To the best of our knowledge, PIN pioneers the first AI-centric application-level consensus for distributed environments. Employing enablers like accuracy and training quality, PIN is showcased in the federated learning setup “PIN in BlOckchAin-based fedeRateD learning (PIN-BOARD),” the first AI-specific consensus application in blockchain-based federated learning. Both PIN and PIN-BOARD are the highlights of our contributions to the presented work and emphasize the novelty. PIN is the first AI-centric application-level consensus for blockchain and pioneers decentralized AI assurance; PIN addresses the limitations of existing consensus protocols and advances blockchain-based federated learning through the novel framework called PIN-BOARD. Experimental evaluation involves PIN’s accuracy, confirmation time, and a new AI-assurance factor metric. PIN-BOARD’s assessment includes testing accuracy and reward accuracy. A thorough security analysis ensures the strength of PIN and PIN-BOARD. The comparative evaluation highlights PIN’s 20% throughput enhancement and efficient artificial index. PIN-BOARD reduces epochs by 28.5% for peak federated learning accuracy as compared to existing federated models. Thus, PIN emerges as an efficient AI-driven application-level consensus with AI assurance.