Blockchain-based fair and secure certified electronic mail without a TTP

Abstract

Certified mail is a special postal service that provides the sender with a proof that the mail was successfully received by the other party. However, when it comes to certified electronic mail (CEM), there has not been a widely accepted protocol yet. Most of the existing solutions rely on a Trusted Third Party (TTP) in order to achieve fairness, which can become a bottleneck and lead to more charges and computations. Other solutions that do not rely on a TTP have a relatively high computation and communication overhead. Blockchains have allowed the creation of TTP-free protocols for fair exchange; however, the existing Blockchain-based protocols are either too expensive or do not meet the necessary fairness and confidentiality guarantees. In this work, we have developed two TTP-free Blockchain-based protocols for certified electronic mail that achieve the required security properties of strong fairness, non-repudiation, timeliness, and confidentiality. The first protocol uses simple bitcoin transactions for a single receiver, whereas the second one implements smart contracts for one or multiple receivers. We have analyzed and compared both protocols to existing TTP-free Blockchain solutions and have demonstrated their superior properties and cost. Furthermore, we have implemented the two protocols in a realistic testbed, demonstrating the viability of our approach.