Secure large‐scale E‐voting system based on blockchain contract using a hybrid consensus model combined with sharding

The evolution of blockchain-based systems has enabled researchers to develop next-generation e-voting systems. However, the classical consensus method of blockchain, that is, Proof-of-Work, as implemented in Bitcoin, has a significant impact on energy consumption and compromises the scalability, efficiency, and latency of the system. In this paper, we propose a hybrid consensus model (PSC-Bchain) composed of Proof of Credibility and Proof of Stake that work mutually to address the aforementioned problems to secure e-voting systems. Smart contracts are used to provide a trustworthy public bulletin board and a secure computing environment to ensure the accuracy of the ballot outcome. We combine a sharding mechanism with the PSC-Bchain hybrid approach to emphasize security, thus enhancing the scalability and performance of the blockchain-based e-voting system. Furthermore, we compare and discuss the execution of attacks on the classical blockchain and our proposed hybrid blockchain, and analyze the security. Our experiments yielded new observations on the overall security, performance, and scalability of blockchain-based e-voting systems.