Mutual Authentication Protocol in a Distributed Heterogeneous Environment: A Blockchain-Based Approach

Most of the existing identity-based authentication solutions rely on a centralized key generation center, resulting in the potential risk of single point of failure. Furthermore, there is a lack of heterogeneous authentication schemes that can realize authentication between users in different cryptosystems. In this study, we first present an identity-based authentication protocol with distributed authorization centers based upon blockchain. Next, we extend our fundamental protocol to a heterogeneous environment by considering the mutual authentication between the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-based and the identity-based systems. Finally, the proposed work is validated through the comparisons with the benchmarks.