Arbitrary Identifier Registry for Secure Digital Transactions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for identifying and trusting individuals and businesses in digital transactions prioritize entities providing services over consumers, leading to privacy concerns and lack of control for individuals, who must compromise their personal identity to participate, risking data breaches and diminished privacy.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method using encrypted messages and digital signatures with arbitrary identifiers, allowing users to create and validate exchange records on a registry without divulging personal information, enabling secure and trustworthy transactions by dissociating users from personal identifiers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If current methods for identifying and trusting individuals are used, then entities providing services can manage identity and authenticate users, but individuals lose control over their personal identifiers and face privacy risks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces arbitrary identifiers as an intermediary between users and personal information. These identifiers serve as mediators that allow authentication and transaction verification without directly exposing sensitive personal data. The identifier acts as a buffer layer that protects users' private information while enabling service providers to verify user identities and maintain transaction integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the essential authentication function from personal identifiers and relocates it to arbitrary identifiers. By separating the authentication mechanism from personal information, the system maintains the ability to verify user identities while removing the necessity of exposing sensitive personal data such as names, addresses, or social security numbers.
2Adaptability or versatility
If personal identifiers are collected for authentication and individualized services, then users can access services, but the complexity of managing multiple identifiers across organizations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal identifier system that can be used across multiple organizations and services. The arbitrary identifier serves multiple functions: authentication, transaction verification, and privacy protection. This single universal identifier replaces the need for users to manage separate personal identifiers with each organization, simplifying the overall system while maintaining service accessibility.
3Reliability
If more identifiers are provided to entities for secure transactions, then transaction security may improve, but the risk of identity exploitation and privacy loss increases
Solution Approach 1:
The arbitrary identifier serves as a protective intermediary that enables secure transactions without exposing users' true personal information. Service providers can verify user identities and conduct secure transactions using these identifiers, but the identifiers themselves do not contain exploitable personal data, thereby eliminating the risk of identity theft or misuse while maintaining transaction security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the potential harm of identifier collection into a benefit by using arbitrary identifiers that cannot be exploited for identity theft. What would traditionally be a security risk (collecting identifiers) is transformed into a protective mechanism, where the identifiers provide security functionality without containing sensitive personal information that could be misused.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method for completing transactions includes a first user creating and encrypting a message with an identifier associated with a second user. The first user then digitally signs the message with the encrypted message and a privately held key. From there, an exchange record is created which includes an identifier associated with the first user, an identifier associated with the second user, the encrypted message, and the digital signature of the first user. The second user validates the exchange record and decrypts the message by providing a privately held key that is associated with the second user's identifier. A verification record, which includes the identifier of the second user, the identifier of the first user, the encrypted message, and a digital signature of the second user, is then created. The exchange record and verification record together constitute a completed transaction.