A Protocol for Anonymously Establishing Digital Provenance in Reseller Chains (Short Paper)

摘要

An increasing number of Internet traders exclusively sell digital products. These digital products can include media files, licenses, services, or subscriptions. We consider the concept of digital provenance in reseller chains. The goal of this work is to provide an honest customer with a guarantee on the origin and ownership history for a digital item even when the reseller they are dealing with is untrusted. We introduce a protocol called the Tagged Transaction protocol which uses a third party called the Tag Generation Centre (TGC) to provide a method for honest customers to check they are purchasing a legitimate item, anonymity for customers and resellers, a method for customers to resell items they have purchased to other customers, and verification of the TGC.