Processes for Verifying and Digitally Signing Electronic Documents Based on Electronic Identity, Single-Use Digital Certificates and Blockchain

Abstract

A process for signing documents and for verifying digital signatures. This invention concerns a new process for digitally signing digital documents, such as a text written in a word processor and saved as a PDF. Digital signatures can currently be produced in several ways, the most widely accepted being a digital certificate. A digital signature is analogous to a handwritten signature on a physical document. What sets this process apart from the state of the art is the concept of a single-use certificate: a document is bound to a certificate, and that certificate cannot be used for anything other than signing that specific document. A second difference is that the validity of a signature depends on three records in a blockchain, one for each entity involved in the signature, namely the identity provider, the signature service and the certification authority. Forging a signature therefore requires corrupting all three entities, which raises the security of the signature.