INTRODUCING PEER-TO-PEER NOTARIZATION
Peer-to-peer (P2P) notarization is a distributed architecture that partitions the validation of documents authenticity between peers. Let’s take a look at who are the main protagonists and how they interact:
- document issuer who legitimately is the one to declare that an issued document is authentic
- recipient of the authentic document (for nominative issuing)
- anyone requiring at any time the proof of issued document authenticity
In the professional world, the issuer is usually a legal entity, in most of cases a commercial company. In practice, documents are validated by validators on behalf of the issuer on condition of a proof of delegation which can — judiciously — be made using the same p2p notarization mechanism.
In a nutshell, that’s how works the protocol offered by CVProof.com to notarize Professionals.aero credential documents by leveraging blockchain top technical and operational advantages.
The duplicated ledger in multiple nodes forming the blockchain network method has demonstrated over the past 10 years* that the underlying bitcoin technology was unrivaled for building trustworthy digital platforms suitable to many sectors due to the dissuasive efforts required to be tampered. Furthermore, a hack would be immediately detected by the community.
The other important innovation with the blockchain model is the absence of a centralized party to trust. <A> can transact with <B> without having to expressly involve <C> to arbitrate the transaction and play a notary role. That certainly constitutes the most disruptive dimension in blockchain, presaging numerous use cases implementations to come soon and removing the need to refer to centralized third parties to guarantee authenticity.
CVProof.com uses blockchains as “safety-deposit blocks” to seal proofs of files and the notaries are directly the files issuers or their legitimate validators. Proofs of files are intended for answering on-demand verification requests from the public and bypassing middlemen.
Q&A
If a document’s authenticity can be proved in using a public blockchain like Ethereum, does this mean that the entire document de facto accessible to anyone able to read the blockchain?
NO, the notarized document is not recorded in the blockchain, avoiding two important problems. The notarized document size is not limited and most importantly there is no privacy concern as only the file hash code (fingerprint or authenticity proof) is captured in the blockchain. From a mathematical standpoint, each file corresponds to a unique fingerprint, and two files have the same fingerprint if they are strictly identical. It is also impossible from the fingerprint to reverse-engineer the original file.
Is it required to hold Bitcoin or any other blockchain cryptocurrency to work with P2P notarized documents?
NO, although blockchain transactions generally incur fees paid in cryptocurrency accepted by the specific blockchains, the CVProof.com platform interlays and absorbs those direct costs for its users.
Does notarized document in blockchain need to be compliant with a specific document format?
NO, it is possible to notarize in blockchain all types of files including PDF, word, all other market document files formats, sounds, images, videos, unstructured binaries etc. In practice some formats like PDF for professional credentials are more common (convenient).
What P2P notarization does better v.s “standard” digital signature?
A digital signature is either an object which can be inserted in only some specific digital file formats or it is a mechanism involving a proprietary container in which the file is stored. A P2P notarization doesn’t necessary entail to modify the original digital document neither it requires to encapsulate the file into any specific container. P2P notarization can apply to any type of digital file without any restriction. P2P notarization is based on the file signature itself combined with unlimited additional information related to the authenticity validation including protagonists digital signatures if desired but not limited to.
* The concept of blockchain has been invented in 2008 with the publication of the bitcoin white paper
