DCANon: Towards Distributed Certification Authority (CA) with Non-fungible Token (NFT)

Abstract

Distributed applications rely on Certification Authorities (CAs) entities associated with a few institutions around the world. There are countless trusted institutions on the networks, e.g., universities, governments, banks, making effective use of CAs. Although largely used, the decentralized management of CAs is an administrative challenge. In this context, the joint emergence of digital ledgers and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) compose a new opportunity to effectively decentralize single assets safely. Towards Distributed Certification Authority with Non-Fungible Token (DCANon) is a distributed Certification Authority (CA) built to trusted institutions and supported by Non-Fungible Token (NFT) concepts. DCANon changes the way revocation may be find, permitting that all consortium member crawler the blockchain for revoked certificates, independently from which CA this revocation occurs. A proof-of-concept prototype was implemented with Hyperledger Fabric demonstrating the benefits of DCANon.