Addressing Audit and Accountability Issues in Self-Sovereign Identity Blockchain Systems Using Archival Science Principles

Self-sovereign identity (SSI) systems are novel blockchain-based solutions that are said to shift the control of data records from organizations to individuals. Contrary to conventional blockchains, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, many SSI systems do not capture on ledger the exchange of transactional data between individuals. By not capturing the exchange of transaction data such SSI systems have the advantage of complying with privacy regulations such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations, but, at the same time, have the disadvantage of not capturing evidence that an exchange has happened. Such evidence, however, may be needed for audit and accountability purposes. To achieve these objectives and to preserve privacy, we leverage archival principles to introduce a novel concept of a proof registry, which we define as a set of technical components, data structures, and process flows, that assures that authoritative records offering evidence of transactions is captured, stored, and accessible. This solution solves the compliance and accountability problem while preserving the self-sovereignty and privacy of involved parties.