Blockchain-Enabled Secure Wireless Sensor Networks for Transparent E-Governance: An Analysis of Data Integrity, Trust Management, and Service Efficiency

Abstract

The use of a wireless sensor network is increasingly supporting e-governance functions such as municipal utility monitoring, environmental monitoring, grievance-based field reporting, and smart public service delivery. Most wireless sensor network architectures rely on a gateway or database. However, this introduces vulnerabilities to data integrity, node accountability, and auditability. This study examines transparency through a blockchain-enabled WSN architecture for e-governance. The study applies a reproducible Python-based Monte Carlo simulation with a fixed random seed, five node densities, three architectural scenarios, and 450 observations. The scenarios that are compared in this work are a normal WSN, a centralized secure WSN, and a permissioned blockchain-enabled WSN with smart-contract-based identity registration, hash-linked data records, trust scoring, and tamper verification. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, Welch t-tests, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression analysis. The blockchain-assisted WSN, as evidenced by the simulation findings of our project, produced the highest mean data integrity score, tampering detection rate, trust score, malicious node detection rate, and packet delivery ratio. The architecture also improved the composite service efficiency index relative to the conventional baseline, even though it introduced higher latency, transaction confirmation time, and energy consumption. The research indicates that the permissioned blockchain can enhance public-sector WSN transparency with edge aggregation and lightweight cryptographic operations along with carefully tuned endorsement rules. The methods presented in this study allow for scrutiny of secure WSN designs tailored for e-governance.