A Privacy-Preserving Payment Model for EV Charging

Abstract

Due to the rapid spread of electric vehicles worldwide, the importance of building an efficient and safe electric vehicle charging system is increasing. In order to implement the decentralized vehicle network, blockchain technology is being leveraged in the electric charging system. However, since the blockchain ledger is public, the charging payment and authentication information is visible. While there have been attempts by blockchain-based charging systems to safeguard an electric vehicle’s privacy and anonymity, the electric vehicle’s identity can still be revealed by the electric vehicle service provider. Thus, we proposed a privacy-preserving payment model for electronic charging. We applied a traceable ring signature so that the electric charging station and the electric vehicle service provider cannot specify the electric vehicle within the ring group. When the EV reuses the token, it will be discovered during the tracing process. In addition, by using a blockchain-based smart contract, malicious user information can be stored and shared in a blockchain. As a result, secure token authentication and energy trading are possible. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.