A Vector-Based Trust Model for P2P E-commerce

Many current P2P trust models are not suitable for P2P e-commerce because the characteristics of P2P e-commerce are not taken into account. In addition, the simple representation of trust cannot be used to accurately gain assess to other peers in the e-commerce community because of the diversity and subjectivity of trust. In order to evaluate the peers for each other, this paper developed a vector-based trust model named VBTMod. There are two main features of the model. First, the specialty and complexity of e-commerce are considered and it reflects the characteristics of P2P e-commerce. Second, the trust is expressed with vector, which includes various factors of trust in e-commerce. With this model it is easier to extract useful information from the trust and accurately gain assess to other peers. Accordingly, the paper proposed a few assessment approaches for vector trust and strategies to defend attack. Simulation results show that VBTMod enables peers to have more accurate assessment to other peers according to their own needs and effectively defends a variety of attacks. Consequently the model can effectively reduce the risk in transactions.