Blockchain Application for Verification of Passports

Abstract

Passports are essential traveling documents and are used to verify the credentials of passport holder and verify the authenticity of visas. Pakistan and many other countries have started the use of Machine Readable Passports (MRP). The reason behind moving from traditional passports to MRP was to not only enhance the security of passports, but also to speed up the process of passport verification. There are security mechanisms implemented by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for passport verification and these mechanisms are standardized and implemented in all over the world. But despite of these security measurements in place, hackers can still retrieve sensitive credentials from passports by exploiting vulnerabilities in security mechanisms. The blockchain is considered as a futuristic infrastructure, as no other technology provides functionalities and decentralization parallel to it. Furthermore, it is designed to be distributed and synchronized across networks. In this research, a blockchain application, Cryptopassports, has been designed and implemented to verify the legitimacy of passports. Furthermore, it will enable the participants on the network to verify the passport instantly. Due to the immutable aspect of data stored on the blockchain, it will be almost impossible for hackers to hack or alter data. Sensitive information about the passport holder will only be accessible to the participant on the network. In addition, the application has been tested on a physical network by creating three different participants and granting them access to the blockchain according to their roles in the network. Participants can only access information and carry out operations that they are given access to. For example, a network administrator will not be able to carry out any operations on passports because his/her responsibility will only be to maintain network and its participants. Furthermore, cryptopassport has been tested by using data set of twenty passports and now it is ready for real world deployment.