SECURE AND REPUTATION-DRIVEN PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING USING ENCRYPTED CHANNELS AND BLOCKCHAIN CONSENSUS PROTOCOLS

The emergence of decentralized file-sharing platforms has introduced new challenges in ensuring secure data transmission, preserving node reputation, and preventing unauthorized access. This study presents an advanced peerto-peer (P2P) file-sharing system that integrates encrypted communication channels with blockchain-based consensus mechanisms to strengthen data confidentiality and trust evaluation. By employing protocols such as Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS), the proposed architecture establishes a tamper-resistant and verifiable ledger of interactions. Cryptographic techniques are used to protect data in transit and maintain privacy-preserving trust scores without revealing user identities. The system's reputation module continuously aggregates behavioural metrics, adjusting trust values through dynamic weighting and anomaly detection. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that this approach achieves high resilience against Sybil and eavesdropping attacks while preserving the integrity and confidentiality of shared content. The proposed model offers a scalable and secure foundation for next-generation decentralized file-sharing systems.