Abstract
Traditionally, government systems managed citizen identities through disconnected data systems, using simple identifiers and paper-based processes, limiting digital trust and requiring citizens to request identity verification documents. The digital era offers a shift towards unique digital identifiers for each citizen, enabling a ‘citizen wallet’ for easier access to personal documents like academic records and licences, with enhanced security through digital signatures. The European Commission’s initiative for a digital wallet for every EU citizen aims to improve mobility and integration, leveraging the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) for harmonised citizen integration. This paper discusses how EBSI and the GLASS project can advance governance and streamline access to identity documents.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
GLASS is funded within the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 959879.
References
Addo, A., Senyo, P.K.: Advancing e-governance for development: digital identification and its link to socioeconomic inclusion. Gov. Inf. Q. 38(2), 101568 (2021)
Akpan-Obong, P.I., Trinh, M.P., Ayo, C.K., Oni, A.: E-governance as good governance? Evidence from 15 west African countries. Inf. Technol. Dev. 1–20 (2022)
Anand, N., Brass, I.: Responsible innovation for digital identity systems. Data Policy 3 (2021)
Baldacci, E., Frade, J.R.: Advancing digital transformation in the public sector with blockchain: a view from the European union. In: Kaili, E., Psarrakis, D. (eds.) Disintermediation Economics, pp. 281–295. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65781-9_13
Bazhenova, T.: Digitalization of Belarus economy: prospects of the industry. Section 1 Globalized Economy: Challenges and Prospects, p. 21 (2018)
Benet, J.: IPFS-content addressed, versioned, P2P file system (DRAFT 3). arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.3561 (2014). https://arxiv.org/abs/1407.3561v1
Bittins, S., Kober, G., Margheri, A., Masi, M., Miladi, A., Sassone, V.: Healthcare data management by using blockchain technology. In: Namasudra, S., Deka, G.C. (eds.) Applications of Blockchain in Healthcare. SBD, vol. 83, pp. 1–27. Springer, Singapore (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9547-9_1
Buldas, A., Kroonmaa, A., Laanoja, R.: Keyless signatures’ infrastructure: how to build global distributed hash-trees. In: Riis Nielson, H., Gollmann, D. (eds.) NordSec 2013. LNCS, vol. 8208, pp. 313–320. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41488-6_21
Chrysoulas, C., et al.: GLASS: towards secure and decentralized egovernance services using IPFS. In: Katsikas, S., et al. (eds.) ESORICS 2021. LNCS, vol. 13106, pp. 40–57. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95484-0_3
Coursey, D., Norris, D.F.: Models of e-government: are they correct? An empirical assessment. Public Adm. Rev. 68(3), 523–536 (2008)
Dalla Palma, S., Pareschi, R., Zappone, F.: What is your distributed (hyper) ledger? In: 2021 IEEE/ACM 4th International Workshop on Emerging Trends in Software Engineering for Blockchain (WETSEB), pp. 27–33. IEEE (2021)
Delos, O., et al.: A pan-European framework on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market. In: Reimer, H., Pohlmann, N., Schneider, W. (eds.) ISSE 2015, pp. 173–195. Springer, Wiesbaden (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-10934-9_15
Directive, N.: Directive (EU) 2016/1148 of the European parliament and of the council of 6 July 2016 concerning measures for a high common level of security of network and information systems across the union. OJ L 194(19.7), 2016 (2016)
Dizme: Position statement toward EBSI (2022). https://lissi.id/about
Dizme, Lissi, F., MeineSichereID: position statement toward EBSI (2022). https://networkofnetworks.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/EBSI_Network-of-Networks_esatus_Danube_Tech_TNO.pdf
Draheim, D.: Blockchains from an e-governance perspective: potential and challenges. In: Proceedings of the EGOSE (2020)
Draheim, D., et al.: On the narratives and background narratives of e-government (2020)
EA: EA Resolution 2014 (34) 22. European cooperation for Accreditation (2014). https://european-accreditation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/34th-ea-ga-approved-resolutions-.pdf
EBSI: Architecture - EBSI Documentation. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/wikis/display/EBSIDOC/Architecture
ETSI: Electronic Signatures and Infrastructures (ESI) Trust Service Provider Conformity Assessment—Requirements for conformity assessment bodies assessing Trust Service Providers (2015). eN 319 403
European Commission: Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 as regards establishing a framework for a European Digital Identity. Technical report (2021). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2021%3A281%3AFIN &qid=1622704576563
European Union: EU 910/2014 Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC. DG CONNECT (2014). oJ L 257, 28.8.2014, pp. 73–114
European Union: EU 2015/1501, Implementing Act on interoperability framework. European Commission (2015). eU 2015/1501
European Union: EU 2015/1984, Implementing Act defining the circumstances, formats and procedures of notification. European Commission (2015). eU 2015/1984
European Union: EU 2016/650, Standards for the security assessment of qualified signature and seal creation devices. European Commission (2016). eU 2016/650
Fulli, G., Kotzakis, E., Nai Fovino, I.: Policy and regulatory challenges for the deployment of blockchains in the energy field (2021)
GLASS: GLASS for Citizens (2020). https://www.glass-h2020.eu/for-citizens. Accessed 10 Feb 2021
GLASS: Moving to another member state (2022). https://www.glass-h2020.eu/moving-to-another-member-state
Grech, A., Sood, I., Ariño, L.: Blockchain, self-sovereign identity and digital credentials: promise versus praxis in education. Front. Blockchain 4, 616779 (2021)
Hyperledger Fabric: Smart Contracts and Chaincode (2020). https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/release-2.2/smartcontract/smartcontract.html#system-chaincode. Accessed 31 Aug 2021
ISO: ISO/IEC 17065:2012(E) Conformity assessment—Requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services
Khera, R.: Impact of Aadhaar in welfare programmes. Available at SSRN 3045235 (2017)
Li, D., Wong, W.E., Guo, J.: A survey on blockchain for enterprise using hyperledger fabric and composer. In: 2019 6th International Conference on Dependable Systems and Their Applications (DSA), pp. 71–80. IEEE (2020)
Lo, O., Buchanan, W.J., Sayeed, S., Papadopoulos, P., Pitropakis, N., Chrysoulas, C.: GLASS: a citizen-centric distributed data-sharing model within an e-governance architecture. Sensors 22(6), 2291 (2022)
Lykidis, I., Drosatos, G., Rantos, K.: The use of blockchain technology in e-government services. Computers 10(12), 168 (2021)
Marko Hölbl Marko KomparaOrcID, A.K., Zlatolas, L.N.: A systematic review of the use of blockchain in healthcare. MDPI Symmetry (2018)
multiformats: multiformats/cid: self-describing content-addressed identifiers for distributed systems (2020). https://github.com/multiformats/cid
Papadopoulos, P., Pitropakis, N., Buchanan, W.J.: Decentralised privacy: a distributed ledger approach. In: Hussain, C.M., Di Sia, P. (eds.) Handbook of Smart Materials, Technologies, and Devices: Applications of Industry 4.0, pp. 1–26. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58675-1_58-1
Pasupathinathan, V., Pieprzyk, J., Wang, H.: An on-line secure E-passport protocol. In: Chen, L., Mu, Y., Susilo, W. (eds.) ISPEC 2008. LNCS, vol. 4991, pp. 14–28. Springer, Heidelberg (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79104-1_2
Politou, E., Alepis, E., Patsakis, C., Casino, F., Alazab, M.: Delegated content erasure in IPFS. Futur. Gener. Comput. Syst. 112, 956–964 (2020)
Priem, R.: A european distributed ledger technology pilot regime for market infrastructures: finding a balance between innovation, investor protection and financial stability. J. Financ. Regulat. Compliance (2022)
Queiruga-Dios, A., Pérez, J.J.B., Encinas, L.H.: Self-sovereign identity in university context. In: 2022 31st Conference of Open Innovations Association (FRUCT), pp. 259–264. IEEE (2022)
Rathee, T., Singh, P.: A systematic literature mapping on secure identity management using blockchain technology. J. King Saud Univ. - Comput. Inf. Sci. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksuci.2021.03.005, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319157821000690
Sandner, P.G., Ferreira, A., Dunser, T.: Crypto regulation and the case for Europe. In: Tran, D.A., Thai, M.T., Krishnamachari, B. (eds.) Handbook on Blockchain. Springer Optimization and Its Applications, vol. 194, pp. 661–693. Springer, Cham (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07535-3_21
Saunders, F.S.: The Terrible Truth About ID Cards - UK Indymedia (2006). https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/04/338263.html
Singanamalla, S., et al.: TeleChain: bridging telecom policy and blockchain practice. arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.12350 (2022)
Tang, X., Jia, Z., Yang, W.: Blockchain application status and ecology. In: Tang, X., Deng, X., Bie, R. (eds.) Blockchain Application Guide, pp. 35–48. Springer, Singapore (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5260-9_3
Thales: Thales Major Citizen Survey Predicts Warm Welcome for New European Digital ID Wallet (EDIW). https://www.afp.com/en/news/1312/\(\backslash \)thales-major-citizen-survey-predicts-warm-welcome-\(\backslash \)new-european-digital-id-wallet-\(\backslash \)ediw-202206050050101, urldate = \(\{\)2022-06-16\(\}\), year = \(\{\)2021\(\}\)
ToIP: Achieving trusted digital transactions across the globe: OIX and ToIP align to make it happen (2022). https://trustoverip.org/news/2022/06/15/achieving-trusted-digital-transactions-across-the-globe-oix-and-toip-align-to-make-it-happen/
Tsakalakis, N., Stalla-Bourdillon, S., O’Hara, K.: Identity assurance in the UK: technical implementation and legal implications under eIDAS. J. Web Sci. 3(3), 32–46 (2017)
Turkanović, M., Podgorelec, B.: Signing blockchain transactions using qualified certificates. IEEE Internet Comput. 24(6), 37–43 (2020)
Vasile, P.C., Dinu, A.: eDIS–electronic diploma integrity service
Voigt, P., Von dem Bussche, A.: The EU general data protection regulation (GDPR). A Practical Guide, 1st edn. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57959-7
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
Disclosure of Interests
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organisation or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kasimatis, D. et al. (2024). Transforming EU Governance: The Digital Integration Through EBSI and GLASS. In: Pitropakis, N., Katsikas, S., Furnell, S., Markantonakis, K. (eds) ICT Systems Security and Privacy Protection. SEC 2024. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 710. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65175-5_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65175-5_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-65174-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-65175-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)