Digital Identity Relationship Verification for Secure Account Linking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems face challenges in securely linking user accounts across multiple institutions due to security and authenticity concerns, which hinder the ability to combine rewards balances or credit limits across accounts.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs) on a public blockchain network to verify relationships between user accounts, enabling institutions to issue and verify claims about user relationships, thereby reducing fraud risk in account linking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional account linking methods are used across institutions, then account linking functionality is achieved, but security and authenticity concerns arise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a blockchain network as an intermediary layer between institutions. The blockchain serves as a trusted mediator that stores and verifies decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs), eliminating the need for institutions to directly trust each other's account linking mechanisms. This intermediary blockchain infrastructure provides cryptographic verification of relationships while maintaining system modularity and reducing overall complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical/trust-based account linking systems with cryptographic verification mechanisms. Instead of relying on institutional trust or manual verification processes, the system uses blockchain-based cryptographic proofs (DIDs and VCs) to automatically verify relationships. This substitution of mechanical trust with cryptographic mathematics enhances security while simplifying the verification process.
2Reliability
If decentralized identifiers and verifiable credentials are used on blockchain, then fraud risk is reduced and relationship verification is improved, but system complexity and implementation difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-issuing decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs) to users before account linking is needed. Institutions can issue DIDs to users and store them on the blockchain in advance. When account linking is required, the verification process simply retrieves and validates these pre-established credentials, significantly simplifying the actual linking operation and reducing implementation complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses copying by creating verifiable credential copies that can be presented and verified across multiple institutions. A user's relationship credentials are copied and presented to different verifying institutions without requiring the original issuing institution to be involved in each verification. This copying mechanism enables universal verification while maintaining security, as each copy contains all necessary cryptographic proof.
3Adaptability or versatility
If account linking is enabled across institutions, then combined rewards balances and credit limits can be accessed, but security vulnerabilities and fraud risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The blockchain network acts as a trusted intermediary that mediates all account linking transactions. Instead of institutions directly linking accounts (which creates security vulnerabilities), the blockchain intermediary verifies relationships through cryptographic proofs before enabling linkages. This intermediary layer allows versatile account linking across multiple institutions while systematically reducing fraud risk through immutable verification.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the blockchain continuously verifies and validates account relationships. Each account linking attempt triggers a verification feedback loop that checks the validity of DIDs and VCs against the blockchain record. This real-time feedback ensures that only authenticated relationships are linked, enabling versatile account combinations while maintaining security through continuous validation.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are various embodiments for relationship verification using digital identities. A computing device can receive a request to link a first user profile with a second user profile, the request including at least a first user decentralized identifier (first user DID) associated with the first user profile and a second user decentralized identifier (second user DID) associated with the second user profile. Next, the computing device can obtain a verifiable credential (VC) claiming a relationship between the first user DID and the second user DID and verify the relationship between the first user DID and the second user DID based at least in part on the VC. Then, the computing device can link the first user profile and the second user profile.