Biometric Data Management in Blockchain-Based Self-Sovereign Identities

State: Assigned to Justin Verhoek

Published: 2023-12-19

Description:

With increased adaptations of digital identities across governmental services, the shift toward Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) management is the next important improvement. However, current identity solutions (such as eID and ePassports) utilise biometric data for identity verification. The use of biometrics is still a challenge in SSI systems, with one of the papers pointed out that it leads to linkability [1]. That is, each transaction conducted by the same identity holder can be linked together, establishing a pattern of interactions and leading to its permanent record [1].

Problem:

Use of biometrics in SSI leads to linkability, connection between each transaction and potentially a permanent record of interactions [1].

Goals:

Investigate current use of biometrics in SSI, its purpose and benefits (why it is used).
Investigate the security and privacy aspects of the biometric data in blockchain and SSI.
Investigate how biometric data causes linkability between transactions.
Design a solution / outline potential solutions for how linkability can be preserved in SSI while still using biometrics for identity verification.
Implement a solution.
Evaluate based on security and privacy of data, performance and costs.

References:

G. Goodell and T. Aste, “A Decentralized Digital Identity Architecture”, Frontiers in Blockchain, 2019. DOI: 10.3389/fbloc.2019.00017.
C. Allen, “The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity”, 2016. Available: https://www.lifewithalacrity.com/article/the-path-to-self-soverereign-identity/.
C. Allen, “Self-Sovereign Identity: 5 Years On The Initial Design, Development, and Deployment of SSI”, 2021. Available: https://www.lifewithalacrity.com/article/SSI-5-Years-On/.
S. Cucko, S. Becirovic, A. Kamisalic, S. Mrdovic and M. Turkanovic, “Towards the Classification of Self-Sovereign Identity Properties”, IEEE Access, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2112.04155.

20% related work, 25% design, 25% implementation, 20% evaluation, 10% documentation

Supervisors: Daria Schumm