Authors: Harish V. Reddy
Abstract: In a rapidly digitalizing world, identity verification has become the cornerstone of secure online interaction. Traditional authentication models, which depend on centralized authorities and password-based systems, are increasingly vulnerable to breaches, identity theft, and data manipulation. Blockchain-backed identity systems offer a promising alternative by decentralizing trust, ensuring immutability, and empowering users with self-sovereign control over their credentials. This review explores how blockchain technology enhances authentication reliability through decentralization, cryptographic assurance, and automation. The paper first examines the fundamentals of blockchain-based identity management, including decentralized identifiers (DIDs), verifiable credentials (VCs), and smart contracts that automate credential verification and revocation. It then presents the architectural components of blockchain identity systems, highlighting how cryptographic hashing, distributed consensus, and off-chain storage combine to create secure yet compliant authentication workflows. The analysis demonstrates that blockchain-backed identity frameworks significantly improve authentication reliability by removing single points of failure, enhancing data integrity, and enabling privacy-preserving verification through mechanisms like zero-knowledge proofs. Comparative evaluation with traditional systems reveals that blockchain ensures superior resilience, transparency, and user control, albeit with challenges in scalability, interoperability, and key management.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17799857
