CONSENSUS-BASED VOTING FOR NETWORK MEMBER IDENTIFICATION EMPLOYING BLOCKCHAIN-BASED IDENTITY SIGNATURE MECHANISMS

A communication method and a method for operating the communication network are disclosed. The method includes: obtaining a network identifier (NI) for a first member of the communication network, where the first member is un-validated and associated with a first user; obtaining a vote value regarding the first user from a second user of a second member in the communication network, where the second member is validated; generating a trust score for the NI based on the vote value; and validating the first member, in response to the trust score satisfying a trust score threshold, by inserting a first validated member identity hash block (MIHB) based on the NI into a master blockchain ledger for the communication network.