Automatic blockchain network configuration and optimisation for credible and authorised data sharing in social manufacturing networks

The management of social manufacturing networks (SMN) faces sophisticated situations due to the customer's personalisation demands, leading to reduced trust among entities. Therefore, credible and authorised data sharing among different participants becomes vital to operate SMN well. Although blockchain has been applied to SMN to ensure credibility and authority, there is little work on how to configure and optimise a blockchain network for SMN, especially when the structure of SMN changes over time. This paper discusses an automatic blockchain network configuration and optimisation mechanism to enable credible and authorised data sharing in SMN. First, a system architecture for automatic blockchain network configuration and optimisation is built. Then, the structure of SMN and blockchain network model are established using complex network and hypergraph. Then, an automatic blockchain network configuration mechanism is studied to configure blockchain networks from certain SMN structures. Afterward, an automatic blockchain network optimisation mechanism is studied to optimise blockchain networks for SMN when dynamic events occur. Finally, the mechanisms are validated through a case study of SMN to produce air conditioners. The results show that our mechanisms can help core enterprises efficiently deploy a blockchain network for credible and authorised data sharing among different participants in the SMN.