Recently, DigiCert announced joining
Linux Foundation and consequently Hyperledger. Additionally, we made an
announcement of becoming a steward for Sovrin Foundation. Our efforts in
both verticals is to protect identities on blockchain platforms in
order to provide a safer environment for our customers and other users
of the web while using blockchain platforms. The matter of a valid identity on blockchain is an important topic
that requires expertise in number of areas, first and foremost is
familiarity with the identity validation process. At DigiCert we have
crafted our validation framework to perform at the highest level of
security and efficiency while keeping its integrity with global industry
standards. Given that we have 20 years of expertise in identity
validation as an organization, we are striving to share our knowledge
and framework with the blockchain community. Historically, eliminating financial intermediates has been one of the bases for Bitcoin’s development
(an example of crypto currency based on public blockchain). That being
said, Bitcoin has also been described as a method to transact
anonymously. While this partially holds true and benefits some, it
simultaneously causes number of problems. For example, in February of
2011, an online marketplace in the name of Silk Road
was launched as a platform for selling illegal drugs. One of the main
technologies utilized by Silk Road was Bitcoin, since it provided an
ability of purchasing goods online while staying anonymous. Given this
use case, interacting with valid identities on the internet even with
the presence and protection of blockchain is important. It still holds
true that interacting with valid identities does not require revealing
the identity. It has been the focus of academic researchers to facilitate different
methods to preserve identities and process datasets without giving away
access to the identity or the original dataset. One example is the
advancement of Fully Homographic Encryption (FHE), which allows
computation on encrypted datasets such as Electronic Medical Records
(EMR) without the need to decrypt the original dataset (for a detailed
yet easy to read paper visit Computing Arbitrary Functions of Encrypted Data).
Similar to the approach taken by academic researchers, DigiCert’s
R&D team is working towards a solution which allows identities to be
validated yet stay anonymous on a permissioned or hybrid blockchain
platform. Given DigiCert’s relationship with the Hyperledger, we are
aiming to provide our first functional modular for the Hyperledger
Fabric in the near future. Additionally, with DigiCert’s scalable Managed PKI, we are working
towards the development of a modular specifically crafted for
Hyperledger Fabric. In addition to enabling the identity validation
process, this modular also provides a high-performance certificate
issuance engine. We are excited about our new development of identity for blockchain,
and we invite customers and partners to reach out via email to labs@DigiCert.com, if they believe they could contribute to our initiative.