Blockchain-based energy trading with multi-factor trust: Ensuring fairness and security in peer-to-peer energy trading with blockchain technology

Contemporary power grid systems increasingly rely on sophisticated energy trading mechanisms to optimize resource allocation and operational performance. While prior studies have examined the coordination roles of energy intermediaries and utility operators, particularly through distributed ledger technologies that ensure data provenance and transaction verifiability in decentralized energy marketplaces, significant security vulnerabilities persist. Notably, fraudulent practices by energy suppliers characterized by payment collection without corresponding energy delivery pose substantial risks to market integrity and participant confidence. This research presents the Blockchain-based Energy Trading with Multi-Factor Trust Framework (BC-ET-MF), a novel architecture that addresses critical security deficiencies through advanced cryptographic protocols and consensus mechanisms. The framework utilizes anonymous credential systems to safeguard participant privacy while implementing time-locked commitment schemes that ensure transaction fairness and verifiability. The architecture incorporates granular access control mechanisms for secure service orchestration and establishes a consortium blockchain infrastructure among energy intermediaries to facilitate distributed transaction validation and immutable record-keeping. To mitigate computational overhead associated with conventional consensus algorithms, we introduce a Proof-of-Verifiability protocol that dynamically calibrates to real-time energy production and consumption patterns. This adaptive mechanism reduces system resource requirements while maintaining security guarantees. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that BC-ET-MF achieves substantial performance improvements: energy consumption reduction of 43.0 %, peak-to-average ratio optimization from 8.27 to 3.21 and 5.88 under 25 % and 50 % demand reduction scenarios respectively, and establishment of 92.5 % participant trust levels. The framework additionally yields 37.6 % transaction latency reduction while preserving user anonymity and enabling comprehensive audit capabilities, thus establishing a secure, efficient, and trustworthy energy trading ecosystem.