An Evaluation of Privacy Protection in Blockchain-Based Self-Sovereign Identity
R.W.J.P. Duijsens (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
M.A. de Vos – Mentor (TU Delft - Data-Intensive Systems)
J.A. Pouwelse – Mentor (TU Delft - Data-Intensive Systems)
Fernando Kuipers – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Embedded Systems)
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Abstract
Digital identity management has been established in a mainly centralized manner. In response to a lack of control in current identity management systems, the concept of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) was defined to enable decentralization. Recently, this concept gained traction, and several implementations have been proposed. The decentralized nature of blockchain technology was combined with the concept of SSI. However, no critical review on the privacy protection of this technology in combination with SSI currently exists. This research evaluates current blockchain-based SSI implementations in the lights of privacy protection. It proposes a model for determining the privacy protection that specific solutions can offer based on defined criteria. The technology to be able to satisfy these privacy criteria in blockchain-based SSI is available. However, the evaluation shows that most implementations do not satisfy all privacy criteria, of which some even score poorly on privacy protection.