Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Billing via Temporary IDs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Online transactions in decentralized peer-to-peer networks often compromise user privacy by revealing transaction data that links a user profile to a service provider, allowing for profiling and potential identity exposure.
Innovation Solution
A method where a user device obtains a temporary ID from an Identification Service entity, which is used for a single transaction with a content distributor. Payment information is cryptographically encrypted and transmitted, ensuring that no single participant can link transactions, thus preserving user anonymity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If traditional online transaction systems are used, then payment processing and service delivery are efficient, but user privacy is compromised as transaction data links user profiles to service providers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces temporary identifiers (TIDs) and cryptographic intermediaries that mediate between users and service providers. The TID acts as a mediator that allows transaction processing while preventing direct linking of user identities to service provider interactions. Cryptographic protocols serve as intermediaries to enable secure payment verification without exposing sensitive user information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts identifying information from the transaction process by using temporary identifiers instead of permanent user IDs. User identity is extracted and kept separate from the transaction record, allowing the transaction to proceed without exposing the user's true identity to the service provider.
2Loss of information
If temporary identifiers are used for each transaction, then user anonymity is preserved, but transaction tracking and billing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses cryptographic copies of user information rather than the actual user identity. The temporary identifier is a cryptographic copy that preserves the necessary transactional properties while eliminating the privacy risks associated with using real user identifiers throughout the billing system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs disposable temporary identifiers that are created for each transaction and then discarded. These short-lived identifiers are computationally inexpensive to generate and manage, allowing the system to maintain anonymity without the long-term storage and management complexity of permanent identifying information.
3Reliability
If cryptographic encryption is implemented for payment information, then security is enhanced, but processing time and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs cryptographic operations in advance where possible. User public keys are obtained beforehand, and encryption/decryption operations are prepared in advance of the actual transaction processing, reducing the time required during the critical transaction moment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex cryptographic verification mechanisms with simpler zero-knowledge proof protocols and cryptographic signatures that can be verified efficiently. This substitution maintains high security while reducing computational overhead and processing time compared to traditional cryptographic approaches.
Data Source
AI summary
A privacy-preserving process for communicating over a decentralized peer-to-peer network is described in which a user device receives a digitally signed temporary user ID from an identification service, and initiates a transaction with an online content provider using the digitally signed temporary user ID and cryptographically encrypted user payment information. The user device receives data from the content distributor in response to the content distributor receiving a first indication of payment for the transaction from a payment service. In this method, the first indication of payment for the transaction to the content distributor was to have been transmitted by the payment service device in response to: the payment service device receiving the temporary user ID and linking the temporary user ID to the user information; and the payment service receiving a second indication of payment based on the user information.