Biometric Verifiable Credentials Using Irreversible Identity Tokens
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing verifiable credentials lack robust biometric security, leading to potential fraud and privacy risks, especially when private keys are compromised, and conventional biometric methods expose sensitive personal data.
Innovation Solution
Introduce a biometrically-enhanced verifiable credential system that uses irreversible biometric tokens, which are non-sensitive personally identifiable information, to enhance security and prove ownership, while preserving privacy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional biometric templates or raw images are used in verifiable credentials, then biometric identification capability is improved, but privacy protection deteriorates because sensitive personally identifiable information is exposed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces biometric tokens as an intermediary between raw biometric data and identification systems. These tokens are one-way transformations that cannot be reverse-engineered to reveal the original biometric information, thus mediating between the need for identification and the need for privacy protection
Solution Approach 2:
The biometric tokens are designed as disposable, non-reversible identifiers. Once used for verification, they cannot be reused or reverse-engineered, effectively discarding the sensitive information after its useful purpose is fulfilled, similar to disposable security measures
2Object-affected harmful factors
If encrypted biometric templates are stored in verifiable credentials, then privacy is improved, but security deteriorates because encryption may be broken in the future
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of encrypting biometric data to protect it, the patent inverts the approach by using one-way hashing functions that transform biometric data into irreversible tokens. This inversion makes the data unusable for identification purposes once transformed, providing security through irreversibility rather than confidentiality
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the potential harm of having biometric data stored (security risk) into a benefit by transforming it into tokens that cannot be reverse-engineered. The very act of irreversible transformation that might seem to lose information actually provides the security benefit of making the data useless to attackers
3Reliability
If verifiable credentials use only cryptographic signatures, then verification trust is improved, but fraud prevention deteriorates when private keys are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the verification process into two independent layers: cryptographic verification of the credential's authenticity and biometric verification of the holder's identity. This segmentation ensures that compromise of one layer (private key) does not automatically compromise the other (biometric verification)
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite verification mechanism combining cryptographic signatures and biometric tokens. This composite approach merges two different security paradigms (mathematical cryptography and biological uniqueness) to create a system more secure than either component alone
Data Source
AI summary
Biometrically-enhanced verifiable credentials of an individual. In one embodiment, an electronic device including a biometric capture circuitry, a memory, and an electronic processor. The biometric capture circuitry configured to capture one or more biometrics of an individual. The memory storing a digital identity application. The electronic processor, when executing the digital identity application, is configured to receive the one or more biometrics of the individual that are captured by the biometric capture circuitry, generate a biometric token of the individual based on the one or more biometrics, receive identity information of the individual, generate biometrically-enhanced verifiable credentials including the identity information and the biometric token, and control the memory to store the biometrically-enhanced verifiable credentials.