Combating Fake Reviews in Tourism: A Blockchain-Driven Approach to Secure Online Ratings

Abstract

Tourism relies on central review platforms which produces three major systemic issues that include fake content, unclear moderation activities and inadequate compensation systems for authentic consumer contributions. TrustChain resolves industry review challenges using a blockchain formation that combines Layer-2 scaling solutions with zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and tokenized governance system. The transaction cost reductions are huge following the implementation of a Proof-of-Stake consensus system on the Polygon-based architecture although the system maintains confirmation times shorter than 2 seconds. The implementation of Self-Sovereign Identity framework alongside transaction-linking smart contracts maintains highly accurate review authenticity in prototype evaluations through TripAdvisor datasets. Through its DAO governance structure users can verify review authenticity by using multi-signature checks which resolve all major disputes in less than one day. The integration of IPFS for multimedia storage generates an 83% decline in blockchain bloat that does not affect cryptographic security.