Xingxing Chen, Xiaohong Zhang, Shaojiang Zhong, Shuling Liu
Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are now a pivotal component of Intelligent Transportation Systems. However, ensuring secure vehicle identity authentication and protecting user privacy remain two challenging issues in VANETs. Addressing these challenges, this paper seamlessly integrates blockchain technology with the InterPlanetary File System to realize a fully decentralized storage solution for identity verification information. Simultaneously, it employs zk-SNARK and elliptic curve cryptography to allow vehicle users to anonymously complete identity verification. Additionally, the lightweight identity authentication proof obtained after successful verification maintains credibility while reducing the computational and communication costs for both roadside units and vehicles. The security and performance analysis of the system show that the proposed scheme has significant advantages in both communication and computation compared with similar research, while also offering superior security and a broader range of functional attributes compared to existing competitive approaches.