Résumé
Some recent trends in distributed intelligent systems
rely extensively on agent-based approaches. The so-called Multi-
Agent Systems (MAS) are taking over the management of
sensitive data on behalf of their producers and users (e.g., medical
records, financial investment, energy market). Therefore, trusted
interactions are needed more than ever, while accountability and
transparency among the agents seem crucial characteristics to be
achieved. To do so, recent trends advocate the use of blockchain
technologies (BCT) in MAS. The blockchain is a distributed
ledger technology that can execute programmable transaction
logic, and provides a shared, immutable, and transparent appendonly
register of all the actions happening in the network.
Although a few theoretical approaches have already been
proposed, the quest for such a system consolidating BCT and
MAS to guarantee privacy, scalability, transparency, and efficiency
continues. This paper presents a reconciling system
including BCT within the dynamics of a MAS. Such a system
aims at (i) building a solid ground for trusted interactions and
(ii) enabling more characterizing feature-based and trustworthy
ways of computing agent reputation. The system has been tested
in four scenarios with different configurations (regular executions
and involving down-agents or malicious behaviors).
Finally, the paper summarizes and discusses the experience
gained, argues about the strategic choice of binding MAS and
BCT, and presents some future challenges.