The preservation of digital signatures on the blockchain
Thompson, Stephen · Open Collections · 2016
The blockchain is a distributed network that records digital transactions on a publicly-accessible ledger. This paper explores whether blockchain technology is a suitable platform for the preservation of digital signatures and key pairs (public and private keys). Conventional infrastructures use digital certificates, issued by certification authorities, to declare the authentication of key pairs and digital signatures. However, this paper suggests that the blockchain’s hash functions can replace those certificates on the grounds of better privacy, that the nature of the network removes the problem of a single point of failure and that hashing is a form of authentication that does not require trust in a third-party authority. This article was an appendix to the research paper, Blockchain Technology for Recordkeeping which is available in the Reports section at http://www.blockchainubc.ca/main/dissemination.