IKP: Turning a PKI Around with Blockchains

Stephanos Matsumoto; Raphael M.  Reischuk

Paper 2016/1018

IKP: Turning a PKI Around with Blockchains

Stephanos Matsumoto and Raphael M. Reischuk

Abstract

Man-in-the-middle attacks in TLS due to compromised CAs have been mitigated by log-based PKI enhancements such as Certificate Transparency. However, these log-based schemes do not offer sufficient incentives to logs and monitors, and do not offer any actions that domains can take in response to CA misbehavior. We propose IKP, a blockchain-based PKI enhancement that offers automatic responses to CA misbehavior and incentives for those who help detect misbehavior. IKP’s decentralized nature and smart contract system allows open participation, offers incentives for vigilance over CAs, and enables financial recourse against misbehavior. We demonstrate through a game theoretic model and through an Ethereum prototype implementation that the incentives and increased deterrence offered by IKP are technically and economically viable.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Applications
Publication info: Preprint. MINOR revision.
Keywords: public-key infrastructures blockchain smart contracts incentives
Contact author(s): steve @ stevematsumoto net
History: 2016-10-27: received
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2016/1018
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2016/1018,
      author = {Stephanos Matsumoto and Raphael M.  Reischuk},
      title = {{IKP}: Turning a {PKI} Around with Blockchains},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2016/1018},
      year = {2016},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1018}
}