Privacy preservation for on-chain data in the permissionless blockchain using symmetric key encryption and smart contract

• Published in: Mehran University research journal of engineering and technology Vol. 40; no. 2; pp. 305 - 313
• Main Authors: Ziar, Riaz Ahmad, Irfanullah, Syed, Khan, Wajid Ullah, Salam, Abdus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Mehran University of Engineering and Technology 01.04.2021
• Subjects: Computer programs; Cryptography; Data encryption (Computer science); Data processing; Data protection; Government computer systems; Information networks; Peer to peer computing; Privacy; Safety and security measures; Security measures
• ISSN: 0254-7821; 2413-7219
• DOI: 10.22581/muet1982.2102.05

Blockchain technology provides several suitable characteristics such as immutability, decentralization and verifiable ledger. It records the transactions in a decentralized way and can be integrated into several fields like eHealth, e-Government and smart cities etc. However, blockchain has several privacy and security issues, one of them is the on-chain data privacy. To deal with this issue we provide a privacy-preserving solution for permissionless blockchain to empower the user to take control of transaction data in the open ledger. This work focuses on designing and developing the peer-to-peer system using symmetric cryptography and ethereum smart contract. In this scheme, we create smart contracts for the interaction of the data provider, data consumer, and access control list. Data providers register authorized users in the access control list. Data consumers can check their validity in the access control list. After successful validation, data consumers can request the security key from data providers to access secret information. Based on successful validation, a smart contract that is created between the data provider and data consumer is executed to send a key to the data consumer for accessing the secret information. The smart contracts of this proposed model are modeled in solidity, and the performance of the contracts is assessed in the Ropsten test network.