A Secure E-Coupon Service Based on Blockchain Systems

Aim:

        Our study aims to introduce a new e-coupon service that does not allow unauthorized forging of      e-coupons and manipulation of information on the e-coupon server. To this end, we devise an e-coupon service based on a blockchain system.

Abstract:

          As the popularity of e-commerce grows, an electronic coupon (e-coupon) is widely used due to its convenience and portability. In most e-coupon services, the information of e-coupons is managed on a decentralized server. However, e-coupon services are often vulnerable to security issues because of centralization. For example, when the e-coupon information which is stored in a centralized e-coupon server is forged, it becomes difficult to match the user and the e-coupon’s owner, and an expired e-coupon can be used repetitively (i.e., double-spending). To handle this issue, we propose a new e-coupon service by exploiting a blockchain system to improve the security of the service. To do this, we first design a server to enable the e-coupon service and communicate with the blockchain system. Second, we devise a smart contract on the blockchain system to provide integrity of the e-coupon business logic and the e-coupon’s information. We implemented the proposed service on an Ethereum-based blockchain system. The experimental results show that our proposed service improves higher security with a minor performance overhead compared with an existing e-coupon service.

Existing System:

          We investigate the existing e-coupon processing mechanism in terms of security and e-coupon trading. However, e-coupon services are often vulnerable to security issues because of centralization. For example, when the e-coupon information which is stored in a centralized e-coupon server is forged, it becomes difficult to match the user and the e-coupon’s owner, and an expired e-coupon can be used repetitively.

Disadvantage:

          Verifying an e-coupon is the most important task because the forged or manipulated e-coupons by malicious attacks lead to a financial problem.

 Proposing System:

        We propose a new service that enables secure e-coupon trading via an e-coupon smart contract on a blockchain system and deploys the e-coupon smart contract automatically. We first design a server to enable the e-coupon service and communicate with the blockchain system. Second, we devise a smart contract on the blockchain system to provide integrity of the e-coupon business logic and thee-coupon’s information. We implemented the proposed service on an Ethereum-based blockchain system. The experimental results show that our proposed service improves higher security with a minor performance overhead compared with an existing e-coupon service.

Advantage: 

• Customers can easily manage the e-coupons via their mobile devices or PCs.
• For easy management, most e-coupon services manage e-coupon information in a decentralized system.
• The information can be easily manipulated by an administrator.