Blockchain-based Digital Locker using BigchainDB and InterPlanetary File System

Our identity as a human being is determined by the documents, not by appearance or physicality. The most important thing to prove the identity of humans is to show a government-issued document. Generally, from birth to death humans are recognized by documents because they are born with a birth certificate and they die with a death certificate. The main problem with these documents is that, they can be falsified or manipulated by others. Moreover in this digital era, they are stored in a centralized manner, which is prone to a cyber threat. This study aims to develop a blockchain environment to create, verify, and securely share documents in a decentralized manner. With the help of bigchainDB, interplanetary file system (IPFS), and asymmetric encryption, this research work will prototype the proposed solution called blockchain-based digital locker, which is similar to the DigiLocker released by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Govt. of India. BigchainDB will help in treating each document as an asset by making it immutable with the help of IPFS and asymmetric encryption, where documents can not only be shared but also verified.