Zero-Trust Architecture for Legal Entities

Zero-Trust Architecture for Legal Entities

Nieuwlaar, Erwin (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)

Pouwelse, J.A. (mentor)
Lofi, C. (graduation committee)
Ubacht, J. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Computer Engineering | Distributed Systems

2023-04-26

The European Commission is developing a European Digital Identity (EDI), which will enable a trustworthy digital proof of identity for its citizens. We present a proof of identity in combination with cryptographic evidence of the natural person being authorized to act on behalf of a legal entity. Our study achieves this by connecting users of our system with trusted issuers, the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), and verifiers. Accordingly, we provide a zero-trust architecture for legal entity representation, making trust portable by providing irrefutable proof of a natural person acting as a legal representative of an organization. Our zerotrust architecture aims to change how we represent legal entities and delegate authorizations with powers of attorney (PoA) as a legal primitive, making trust portable and secure. With government assistance, we conducted a pilot deployment of our prototype with live connectivity to the legal source of truth, the Kamer van Koophandel (KVK). In our pilot, a commercial business-only retailer acted as the verifier of the PoA. We shorten legally binding delegation that is cross-border, decentralized, verifiable, and revokable from a week-long process to mere seconds.

power of attorney
European Blockchain Services Infrastructure
decentralized zero-trust architecture
Self-Sovereign Identity
IPv8
Legal Entities

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ac27c1a9-0497-41e2-9fb5-44943b40df0c

Student theses

master thesis

© 2023 Erwin Nieuwlaar