Securing Digital Public Infrastructure in India Through Decentralized Identity Models

Abstract

The immense Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) landscapes, such as Aadhaar, Digi Locker, and UPI, built by India’s rapid digitization, promote large-scale Identity, document, and finance services. However, centralised identity systems are very risky, such as a single point of failure, privacy violations, identity theft, lack of user control over their personal data. This increasing reliance on centralised frameworks underlines an acute need for more secure, private, and citizens-centric identity solutions. This research introduces a decentralized identity model that is based on both the principles of blockchain and the Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI). In the proposed system, the individuals are in control of their credentials since they use secure digital wallets to employ these credentials, while verifiable credentials are stored in an immutable blockchain network. The system relies on public-key cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs, and decentralized identifiers (DIDs) in authenticating users without revealing sensitive personal details. A layered architecture is proposed and connected to the existing government DPI platform by way of a permissioned blockchain network to support a scalable and aligned system with the decentralized identity model. Simulation parameters involved are transaction throughput, latency, resistance, and privacy leakage metrics under changing network conditions, as well as identity usage volumes. The presented algorithms for registration, verification, and identity revocation are robust, efficient, and immune to tampering of data or spoofing an identity. Simulation results validate enhanced security, privacy, scalability, and user empowerment compared to the traditional centralized systems. The bottom line is that the decentralized identity framework is not only capable of strengthening India’s DPI from cyber threats, systemic weaknesses but also guarantees that of an inclusive, user-controlled, and future-ready digital identity management system for more than a billion citizens amidst an ever-expanding digital ecosystem.