Digital arbitration for trusted communication

Dan Brownstein,Shlomi Dolev,Ofer Hermoni,Niv Gilboa

doi:10.1186/s40493-016-0024-x

Dan Brownstein, Shlomi Dolev + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40493-016-0024-x

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Abstract

We introduce the notion of digital-arbitration which enables resolving disputes between servers and users with the aid of arbitrators. Arbitrators are semi-trusted entities in the social network that facilitate communication or business transactions. The communicating parties, users and servers, agree before a communication transaction on a set of arbitrators they trust (reputation systems may support their choice). Then, the arbitrators receive a resource, e.g., a deposit, and a terms-of-use agreement between participants such that the resource of a participant is returned if and only if the participant acts according to the agreement. We demonstrate the usage of arbitrators in the scope of conditional anonymity. A user interacts anonymously with a server as long as the terms for anonymous communication are honored. If a server identifies a violation of the terms, it proves to the arbitrators that a violation took place and the arbitrators publish the identity of the user.

Highlights

The number of transactions carried out on the Internet has grown exponentially
The contract contains three parts; a Terms of Use agreement (ToU) that defines what is legitimate, namely, what the user is allowed to do during the communication, a set of arbitrators, and a resource which the server receives in case the user violates the agreement
In Section “Digital arbitration” we provide a strict definition of the ToU and the arbitration process

Summary

Introduction

The number of transactions carried out on the Internet has grown exponentially. The scalability of the Internet is based on the distribution of tasks among participants. A digital arbitration scheme ensures user security if for any set of messages M signed by the user such that f (ToU, M) = 0 and there are at most t dishonest arbitrators, the server does not receive any information on the digital goods DG. A digital arbitration scheme ensures server security if for any set of messages M signed by the user such that f (ToU, M) = 1 and there are at least t + 1 honest arbitrators, the server receives the digital goods DG.

Results

Conclusion