Unlinkable Serial Transactions: Protocols and Applications

摘要

We present a protocol for unlinkable serial transactions suitable for a variety of network-based subscription services. It is the first protocol to use cryptographic blinding to enable subscription services. The protocol prevents the service from tracking the behavior of its customers, while protecting the service vendor from abuse due to simultaneous or cloned use by a single subscriber. Our basic protocol structure and recovery protocol are robust against failure in protocol termination. We evaluate the security of the basic protocol and extend the basic protocol to include auditing, which further deters subscription sharing. We describe other applications of unlinkable serial transactions for pay-per-use transactions within a subscription, third- party subscription management, multivendor coupons, proof of group membership, and voting.