Blockchain-Based System for Multiparty Electronic Registered Delivery Services

Abstract

European Regulation (EU) 910/2014 lays down the rules for electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions. Qualified Electronic Registered Delivery is one of the trust services included in the regulation, and it requires nonrepudiation of origin and reception together with the integrity of the data. This kind of services usually relies heavily on the use of trusted third parties. These entities are an obstacle to extend the use of protocols. In this paper, we use the blockchain-based technologies to provide, for the first time, two multiparty registered eDelivery schemes that reduce the involvement of trusted third parties compared with traditional approaches while satisfying the requirements of the norms created by the European Union for registered eDeliveries. Since confidentiality is not considered a compulsory property in the directive, we propose two protocols. The first one is well suited for those deliveries that do not require the confidentiality of the message or delivered data or even for those in which it is required that the message can be public and accessible to everybody. The second solution for multiparty registered eDelivery allows the message to be hidden to others than the receiver. We present the smart contracts for both proposals and also a complete analysis of their properties and performance.INDEX TERMS Blockchain, registered electronic delivery services, certified notifications, smart contract, confidentiality, fairness, cryptocurrencies, certified electronic mail.

Blockchain-Based Multi-Party Authorization for Accessing IPFS Encrypted Data

“…Also, the re-encryption is performed using a centralized server that can not be trusted in most of the cases. In [13], the authors evaluated that the blockchain-based technologies can be very beneficial in the design of electronic registered multiparty delivery services as they can help to solve the problems/challenges related to the trusted third parties. The authors showed that the blockchain has the potential to meet privacy and performance requirements while satisfying the regulations imposed by the European Union for registered electronic deliveries.…”

Removing the Trusted Third Party in a Confidential Multiparty Registered eDelivery Protocol Using Blockchain

“…Consequently, we have classified and summarized such ideal properties, since registered eDelivery service is a special case of a fair exchange of values. We presented the ideal properties of a registered eDelivery system in [20]. The most important properties, that will be used in this paper are: 1) Effectiveness.…”

“…Among these proposals we can find in the literature solutions for certified notifications, digital signature of contracts, escrow protocols, fair payments and registered deliveries. In [20] two blockchain-based approaches for Registered electronic Delivery (eDelivery) services were presented. This service provides to the users a sender's proof of having sent a message via an electronic mailing system against an electronic verification that the message was delivered or that a delivery attempt was made (i.e.…”

“…In the protocols presented in [20] for eDelivery services, the elements to exchange are the data to be delivered along with non-repudiation of reception and origin proofs. The two protocols presented in [20] differ in the properties achieved and also in the use of trusted third parties. The first protocol is a blockchain-based solution without TTP for the eDelivery of non-confidential data.…”

“…However, this second proposal requires the involvement of a TTP in a nonmandatory resolution phase. Since the publication of [20] no new protocols for confidential eDelivery without TTP have been proposed.…”