Approaching decentralized non-repudiation

Securing data exchanges is a major preoccupation, and several techniques have been developed to reach that aim. The predominant model for such exchange is that which relies on trusted third-parties. Meanwhile, emerging technologies such as IoT are set to broadcast growing amounts of sensitive data, thereby making centralized architectures problematic for privacy and performance reasons and making decentralized networks ever more relevant. However, these third-parties play an important role in securing brokered communications and are essential in providing Authentication and Non-Repudiation according to current models, and cannot be used in peer-to-peer networks. Hence there is need for a simple model applicable in fully decentralized networks to provide Non-Repudiation. This document proposes such a model, presents an implementation and discusses its application, particularly in implementing irrefutable trustless transaction mechanisms – similar to blockchain – with limited resources.