Abstract:

This paper proposes a comprehensive framework for blockchainenabled trust models in nextgeneration information networks (NGINs)—encompassing 5G/6G core, edge–cloud fabrics, IoT/cyberphysical systems, and dataspace architectures. We synthesize cryptographic, economicincentive, and policygovernance mechanisms into an auditable “Trust-byDesign” stack spanning identity, provenance, attestation, privacy, and crossdomain compliance. A designscience methodology is used to elicit requirements from realworld ecosystems (smart cities, healthcare, energy), formalize threat models, and instantiate reference architectures with verifiable properties. We provide mathematical models for consensus, tokenless permissioned operation, verifiable compute (ZK), and policy automation (smart contracts); benchmark latency/throughput/energy against nonblockchain baselines; and report results from emulations on Fabric, Quorum, and Tendermint networks with 24–128 nodes across WAN latencies. Findings show that policy verifiability and auditability can be improved by 3.4–8.9× with <18% median latency overhead for subsecond control loops when edge anchoring and rollupstyle batching are employed. We discuss limitations, ethical considerations, and a roadmap for sovereign yet interoperable data spaces.