BlockU: Extended usage control in and for Blockchain

Abstract

An electronic business transaction among untrusted bodies without consulting a mutually trusted party has remained widely accepted problem. Blockchain resolves this problem by introducing peer-to-peer network with a consensus algorithm and trusted ledger. Blockchain originally introduced for cryptocurrency that came with proof-of-work consensus algorithm. Due to some performance issues, scientists brought concept of permissioned Blockchain. Hyperledger Fabric is a permissioned Blockchain targeting business-oriented problems for industry. It is designed for efficient transaction execution over Blockchain with pluggable consensus model; however, there is limitation of rapid application development. Hyperledger introduced a new layer called Hyperledger Composer on top of the Fabric layer, which provides an abstract layer to model the business application readily and quickly. Composer provides a smart contract to extend the functionality and flexibility of Fabric layer and provides a way of communication with other systems to meet business requirements. Hyperledger Composer uses role-based access control (RBAC) model to secure access to its valuable assets. However, RBAC is not enough because many business deals require continuous assets monitoring. Our proposed model, BlockU, covers all possible access control models required by a business. BlockU can monitor assets continuously during transactions and updates attributes accordingly. Moreover, we incorporate hooks in Hyperledger Composer to implement extended permission model that provides extensive permission management capability on an asset. Subsequently, our proposed enhanced access control model is implemented with a minimal change to existing Composer code base and is backward compatible with the current security mechanism. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd