MARCO ZECCHINI

PhD Graduate

PhD program:: XXXV


supervisor: Andrea Vitaletti

Thesis title: Towards the Evolution of Digital Identity from Centralized to Decentralized Applications

In traditional Client/Server applications, trusted parties associate identity in the digital world with those in the physical one. Blockchain technology, based on the agreement of the status of the system through a consensus algorithm and not a trusted party, enables a new form of identity management where users are entirely in control of their identities. However, they still need authoritative entities certifying the identity of the users. This contrasts with the decentralized nature of the blockchain because it requires putting trust in some peer of the network. This thesis investigates a dichotomy between the decentralized nature of the blockchain and the necessity for a centralized creation of the identity attributes. Starting from the analysis of a concrete use case such as the Robinson List, we have shown that it is acceptable (and often necessary) a centralized creation of identity attributes by authoritative entities (e.g., the States), provided that their management is decentralized. Decentralized identity management is not limited to a single blockchain but can span over multiple ones to build more complex applications. However, the thesis also shows how to design decentralized protocols for creating some types of identity attributes. Indeed, we show how to certify that a blockchain identity controls a communication endpoint (e.g., phone number, email) in a decentralized fashion or how to enforce that some attributes, self-asserted by users, respect well-defined consistency rules concerning the previous blocks of the ledger. We exploit smart contracts for both cases to perform on-chain transparent verification. The thesis concludes that we still need trusted entities in blockchain applications to issue certificates defining identity attributes not challengeable through verification algorithms or protocols. However, identity management benefits from disintermediation provided by the blockchain because the user is always in control of its identity without the need for third parties.

Research products

11573/1678242 - 2023 - Blockchain for the supply chain of the Italian craft beer sector: tracking and discount coupons
Ariemma, Lorenzo; De Carlo, Niccolò; Pennino, Diego; Pizzonia, Maurizio; Vitaletti, Andrea; Zecchini, Marco - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PARALLEL, EMERGENT AND DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS (Taylor & Francis Group) pp. 1-16 - issn: 1744-5760 - wos: WOS:000969936200001 (2) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85153385946 (2)

11573/1678488 - 2023 - On-chain global maintenance services: technical, legal and managerial implications
Vitaletti, Andrea; Pizzonia, Maurizio; Zecchini, Marco; Pennino, Diego; Esposito De Falco, Salvatore; Pacileo, Francesco; Bellini, Alessandro; Bonifacio, Antonio; Sardanelli, Domenico; Vito And Simone Naldini, Pietro - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PARALLEL, EMERGENT AND DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS (Taylor & Francis Group) pp. 2-13 - issn: 1744-5760 - wos: WOS:000975264700001 (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85153480959 (0)

11573/1678240 - 2023 - On-chain global maintenance services: technical, legal and managerial implications
Vitaletti, Andrea; Pizzonia, Maurizio; Zecchini, Marco; Pennino, Diego; Esposito De Falco, Salvatore; Pacileo, Francesco; Bellini, Alessandro; Bonifacio, Antonio; Sardanelli, Domenico; Vito, Pietro; Naldini, Simone - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PARALLEL, EMERGENT AND DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS (Taylor & Francis Group) pp. 1-14 - issn: 1744-5760 - wos: WOS:000975264700001 (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85153480959 (0)

11573/1675581 - 2022 - On-chain global maintenance services
Esposito De Falco, S.; Bellini, A.; Bonifacio, A.; Naldini, S.; Pacileo, F.; Pennino, D.; Pizzonia, M.; Sardanelli, D.; Vitaletti, A.; Vito, P.; Zecchini, M. - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: DLT 2022 4th Workshop (Distributed Ledger Technology, June 20, 2022 Rome, Italy)
book: Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT 2022) co-located with the Italian Conference on Cybersecurity 2022 (ITASEC 2022), Rome, Italy, June 20, 2022 - ()

11573/1646285 - 2022 - Blockchain as IoT Economy Enabler: A Review of Architectural Aspects
Pennino, D.; Pizzonia, M.; Vitaletti, A.; Zecchini, M. - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: JOURNAL OF SENSOR AND ACTUATOR NETWORKS (Basel : MDPI) pp. 20- - issn: 2224-2708 - wos: WOS:000934064900001 (12) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85128482404 (17)

11573/1582254 - 2021 - Empowering citizens by a blockchain-Based Robinson list
Cirillo, A.; Dalena, V.; Mauro, A.; Mogavero, F.; Pennino, D.; Pizzonia, M.; Vitaletti, A.; Zecchini, M. - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTERS AND APPLICATIONS (Calgary: Acta Press.) pp. 1-9 - issn: 1206-212X - wos: (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85117001631 (3)

11573/1616705 - 2021 - The Blockchain Quadrilemma: When Also Computational Effectiveness Matters
Mogavero, F.; Visconti, I.; Vitaletti, A.; Zecchini, M. - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: 26th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications, ISCC 2021 (grc)
book: Proceedings - IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications - (978-1-6654-2744-9)

11573/1574435 - 2021 - Efficient Certification of Endpoint Control on Blockchain
Pennino, D.; Pizzonia, M.; Vitaletti, A.; Zecchini, M. - 01a Articolo in rivista
paper: IEEE ACCESS (Piscataway NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) pp. 133309-133334 - issn: 2169-3536 - wos: WOS:000704105500001 (4) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85115801703 (7)

11573/1441607 - 2020 - Decentralized Robinson List
Cirillo, Albenzio; Mauro, Antonio; Pennino, Diego; Pizzonia, Maurizio; Vitaletti, Andrea; Zecchini, Marco - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: 3rd Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains for Distributed Systems, CRYBLOCK 2020 (London; United Kingdom)
book: Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains for Distributed Systems - (9781450380799)

11573/1487494 - 2020 - Binding of Endpoints to Identifiers by On-Chain Proofs
Pennino, D.; Pizzonia, M.; Vitaletti, A.; Zecchini, M. - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: 2020 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications, ISCC 2020 (Rennes; France)
book: 2020 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC) - (978-1-7281-8086-1)

11573/1419386 - 2020 - On Refining Design Patterns for Smart Contracts
Zecchini, M.; Bracciali, A.; Chatzigiannakis, I.; Vitaletti, A. - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: International European Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing (was International Conference on Parallel Processing) (Göttingen; Germany)
book: Euro-Par 2019: Parallel Processing Workshops - (978-3-030-48339-5; 978-3-030-48340-1)

11573/1373658 - 2019 - Citizens Vote to Act: smart contracts for the management of water resources in smart cities
Bracciali, Andrea; Chatzigiannakis, Ioannis; Vitaletti, Andrea; Zecchini, Marco - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
conference: 2019 First International Conference on Societal Automation (SA) (Krakow; Poland)
book: 2019 First International Conference on Societal Automation (SA) - (978-1-7281-3345-4)

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