dMOBAs: A data marketplace on blockchain with arbitration using side-contracts mechanism

The emergence of a data-driven society has sparked interest in data trading marketplaces. Traditional centralized marketplaces are unable to meet the needs of a transparent, safe, and privacy-protected data marketplace. To address the above challenges, we propose a data marketplace on blockchain with arbitration using side-contracts mechanisms (dMOBAs), in which a consortium of data owners, data buyers, and arbitrators collaborate to create an ecosystem in the blockchain's witnesses. Our marketplace's goals are to provide a decentralized platform for trading personal data for both service providers and data owners. In the meantime, the transaction method can be arbitrated. The arbitrators alliance, which is responsible for resolving data disputes, is formed by a service provider jointly nominated by the buyer and seller. The integrity and value of transacted data can be validated thanks to the arbitrators’ consortium. The side-contracts concept decreases the public chain's overhead and enhances the marketplace's operating efficiency. The marketplace's orderly functioning is ensured by explicit incentives and rigorous arbitration methods. To demonstrate the utility and efficiency of the mechanisms, we implement dMOBAs on Ethereum, Fabric and IPFS platforms and analyze its performance. According to the testing results, our arbitration method is 2 times faster than full public chain-based arbitration.