Avoiding white washing in P2P networks

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks provide a decentralized way of sharing resources. In an unsolicited network the peers have too less incentive to behave honestly. To avoid tragedy of commons some sort of an incentive mechanism has to be introduced. Reputation systems provide a good solution for this problem. In a reputation system boot strapping remains a problem. In systems where pseudonyms are cheap (i.e. a peer can enter and get an id and establish itself for a ldquocheaprdquo cost) white washing becomes a problem. Whereas systems with ldquocostlyrdquo pseudonyms become highly prohibitive for new entrants thereby reducing the scalability of the system. In this paper, we propose a mechanism for acquiring pseudonyms so as to avoid white washing while maintaining low entry barriers for new comers.