Advances in Blockchain Technology for the Internet of Vehicles: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Blockchain technology has emerged as a promising enabler for the Internet of Vehicles (IoV). It offers decentralized coordination, immutable data sharing, programmable smart contract logic, and adaptive consensus mechanisms to meet stringent vehicular requirements. This comprehensive review reviews the state-of-the-art blockchain-IoV systems from 2019 to 2025, systematically classifying them into five dimensions: architectural models & smart contracts, consensus & scalability, security & privacy, federated learning & decentralized AI, and data dissemination with digital twin integration. We analyze lightweight consensus variants (e.g., PBFT extensions, DAG and sharding designs) that achieve millisecond-scale latencies and thousand-transactions-per-second throughput, as well as cryptographic frameworks (ring/group signatures, zero-knowledge proofs, TEEs) that preserve anonymity and secure key material. We highlight anchored-on-chain federated learning workflows to incentivize collaborative model training under non-IID data, 5 G/6G-enabled digital twins for provenance-aware simulation, and massive heterogeneity in edge-cloud architectures. Our comparative evaluation underscores advantages including resilience to Byzantine faults, privacy-preserving data exchange, energy-efficient consensus, and scalable deployments. Finally, we identify open challenges, including dynamic consensus tuning, cross-domain interoperability, real-world testbeds, and postquantum resilience, and outline a research roadmap toward robust, production-grade blockchain-enabled IoV ecosystems.