Efficient Credential Revocation Using Cryptographic Accumulators

Credential revocation is a critical component of identity management. Credentials must be revoked on time to avoid legal issues, information misuse, and potential economic damage. A cryptographic accumulator is the most efficient data structure to record whether a credential is valid. However, credential holders must keep their verification proof, or witness, whenever a credential is revoked in the system. The witness update operation is expensive and may not be feasible for applications with limited computational power, such as mobile phones. This paper proposes a credential revocation management framework that removes the need for witness updates and yet still utilises the beneficial properties of the cryptographic accumulator. Our solution involves three accumulators, the notion of an epoch, and the replication of accumulator transition from one state to another for verification. The evaluation shows our method is efficient and suitable for credential holders with limited computing resources.