# Authenticity, and Approval Framework for Bus Transportation Based on Blockchain 2.0 Technology
## 1 Introduction
### Motivation  
Intelligent transportation is a crucial component of smart cities, as it plays a vital role in enhancing the quality of life. Smart transport systems employ advanced technologies and data, to provide safe, reliable, and convenient transportation solutions. Intelligent transport systems can optimize traffic flow, traffic delays, passenger queries, vehicle registration, maintenance checks, and transportation approvals from the concerned authorities (the bus approval process involves an administrator, a coordinator, and bus companies). To provide citizens with efficient and convenient transport services, intelligent transport systems must automate processes, such as registration, seat reservations, and vehicle-related approvals, which fall under intelligent transport's inter-process communication. Automation can help expedite processes like bus route registration and seat reservations, thereby improving the overall passenger experience. However, during inter-process communication in the transport system, it is essential to keep in mind that security is a top priority. Regarding vehicle approvals in a conventional transportation system around the world, three entities are usually involved: the authorized organization, the coordinator, and the bus operators providing transportation facilities. Bus companies acquire approval from the authorized organization through the coordinator, by going through the documentation process. The coordinator acts as an agent who deals with the bus companies and the authorized organization. The bus approval process may undergo data breaches at different levels during its execution. For example, data may be altered by the coordinator and sent to the authorized entity, bus companies may wrongly register a bus that does not exist or data from the coordinator may be misplaced. Therefore, it is essential to make the entire process secure, smooth, and immutable. The solution is to develop a blockchain-based framework for the bus approval system, as represented in this research work. With blockchain at its core, the system becomes virtually impervious to tampering or unauthorized access. Each piece of data, from bus certifications to maintenance records, is securely stored in a decentralized and immutable ledger (record of entries). This means that once information has been recorded, it cannot be altered or manipulated by any malicious entity. The integrity of the data remains intact, assuring passengers and authorities that they can trust the information provided by the system. This level of data security not only protects against fraudulent certifications or attempts to compromise safety standards but also ensures that every aspect of the bus transportation system operates with transparency and accountability. It guarantees that the bus transportation approval system is not just a technological advancement but a safeguard for the well-being and convenience of our citizens, providing them with a public transportation system they can trust and rely on without hesitation. The overall problems faced by the transport sector are highlighted in Figure 1. The contributions of this paper are multifold:  
1. Understanding the bus approval system of a transportation system. 2. Developing a blockchain-based bus approval system (BC-BAS), using blockchain 2.0 technology. 3. Evaluating the BC-BAS performance, by considering various metrics, such as processing time, transaction fees, and registration time. 4. Analyzing the proposed solution, by comparing its performance with and without the use of stochastic algorithms, in terms of processing time. 5. Performing DEMATEL analysis, to identify critical factors of the proposed approach, their effect, and their influence on one other. 6. Deployment of the BC-BAS, and testing of the deployed system. Figure 1: Problems faced by the Transport sector. The rest of the article is organized as follows: Section 2 presents a blockchain-based deployed system. The problem statement is presented in Section 3, and a review of the literature is provided in Section 4.