Multi-platform wallet for privacy protection and key recovery in decentralized applications
Cristòfol Daudén-Esmel, Jordi Castellà‐Roca, Alexandre Viejo, Ignacio Miguel-Rodríguez · Blockchain Research and Applications · 2024
In recent years, the rise of blockchain technology and its applications has led the software development industry to consider blockchain-powered Decentralized Applications (dApps) as serverless REST APIs. However, to engage with dApps, users require a blockchain wallet. This tool facilitates the generation and secure storage of a user's private key and verifies their identity, among other functionalities. Despite their utility, blockchain wallets present significant challenges, such as reliance on trusted third parties, vulnerability to adversaries observing and potentially linking user interactions, key recovery issues, and synchronization of cryptographic keys across multiple devices. This paper addresses these challenges by introducing a fully decentralized multi-platform wallet that leverages blockchain and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) technologies for managing asymmetric keys and enabling key recovery. This novel approach empowers users to interact with dApps built on blockchain smart contracts while preserving their privacy and ensuring seamless key recovery in the case of device theft or damage. The proposed system is economically viable, with in-depth cost analysis, and demonstrates resilience against security and privacy attacks. A comparative analysis highlights the advantages of the new scheme over existing mainstream and state-of-the-art solutions. Finally, a preliminary prototype implementation is presented to validate the system's feasibility.