Confidential Token-Based License Management

Abstract: In a global economy with many competitive participants, licensing and tracking of 3D printed parts is desirable if not mandatory for many use-cases. We investigate a blockchain-based approach, as blockchains provide many attractive features, like decentralized architecture and high security assurances. An often neglected aspect of the product life-cycle management is the confidentiality of transactions to hide valuable business information from competitors. To solve the combined problem of trust and confidentiality, we present a confidential licensing and tracking system which works on any publicly verifiable, token-based blockchain that supports tokens of different types representing licenses or attributes of parts. Together with the secure integration of a unique eID in each part, our system provides an efficient, immutable and authenticated transaction log scalable to thousands of transactions per second. With our confidential Token-Based License Management system (cTLM), large industries such as automotive or aviation can license and trace all parts confidentially.