Digital ID Generation and Management Framework Using Blockchain

Abstract

In the age of digitization and Internet, one of the most compelling need is to have a user identity management system that is decentralized, secure, and interoperable across different online service domains. The success of cryptographically secured, decentralized ledger system, called blockchain, as the underlying platform for Bitcoin cryptocurrency system, has made it a promising candidate for research and development in the identity management domain as well. One of the challenges in designing blockchain-based digital identity management solutions is to balance the degree of decentralization and self-sovereignty in order to maximize security, credibility of personal data mapped with the digital identity (ID), and increase usability. In this work, a novel digital ID generation and management framework over blockchain is proposed that balances centralized digital ID issuance process with a decentralized peer verification of the issued ID on the blockchain before the ID is confirmed and ready to be shared. The proposed work has been simulated on the Hyperledger-Sawtooth blockchain framework to demonstrate its feasibility. The results show the efficacy and usability of the proposed work. The work is concluded by showing future research directions for improving privacy of the proposed identity management system.