BSSSQS: A Blockchain Based Smart and Secured Scheme for Question Sharing in the Smart Education System

Existing education systems are facing a threat of question paper leaking (QPL) in the exam which jeopardizes the quality of education. Therefore, it is high time to think about a more secure and flexible question sharing system which can prevent QPL issue in the future education system. Blockchain enables a way of creating and storing transactions, contracts or anything that requires protection against tampering, accessing etc. This paper presents a new scheme for smart education, by utilizing the concept of blockchain, for question sharing. A two-phase encryption technique for encrypting question paper (QSP) is proposed. In the first phase, QSPs are encrypted using timestamp and in the second phase, previous encrypted QSPs are encrypted again using a timestamp, salt hash and hashes from previous QSPs. These encrypted QSPs are stored in the blockchain along with a smart contract which helps the user to unlock the selected QSP. An algorithm is also proposed for selecting a QSP for the exam which picks a QSP randomly. Moreover, a timestamp based lock is imposed on the scheme so that no one can decrypt the QSP before the allowed time. Finally, security is analyzed by proving different propositions and the superiority of the proposed scheme over existing schemes is proven through a comparative study based on the different features.