Hasso-Plattner-Institut
 
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Self-Sovereign Identity with Blockchain Technology

Background

The innovation of Blockchain technology is found in its successful combination of already existing approaches: such as decentralised networks, cryptography, and consensus models. This innovative concept makes it possible to exchange values in a decentralised system. At the same time, there is no requirement for trust between its nodes.
The Blockchain can enable a new approach to identity management too. Currently identities in the Internet are contained in silos, controlled by large identity providers such as Facebook or Google. Through the use of distributed ledger technology, individuals are able to retain control over their data while at the same time staying verifiable for relying parties through the public recording of verified claims. This Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) could be considered the next step in identity managements.

Goal

In this project, we will further examine the concept of SSI and design a self-sovereign identity system for a certain use case.

Tasks

  • Source analysis of current projects and approaches
  • Conception of a self-sovereign identity system for a certain use case
  • Prototypical implementation of the developed concept
  • Comparison to current approaches and development of best practices

Topics to be investigated

  • Blockchain network properties (permissioned/unpermissioned, consensus algorithms)
  • Authentication method (asymmetric key, one-time password, biometrics)
  • Data storage method (on-chain, decentralised (IPFS), distributed (cloudRaid), local (user device))

Dates

  • 22.10.2018 Kick-off

Team

  • Sebastian Schmidl
  • Benedikt Bock
  • Volker Schiewe
  • Alexander Meissner

Supervisors

  • Prof. Dr. Christoph Meinel
  • Alexander Muehle
  • Tatiana Gayvoronskaya