Who Stores the Private Key? An Exploratory Study about User Preferences of Key Management for Blockchain-based Applications

Clemens Brunner; Günther Eibl; Peter Fröhlich; Andreas Sackl; Dominik Engel

doi:10.5220/0010173200230032

Who Stores the Private Key? An Exploratory Study about User Preferences of Key Management for Blockchain-based Applications

Clemens Brunner (Speaker), Günther Eibl, Peter Fröhlich, Andreas Sackl, Dominik Engel

Experience Contexts & Tools

Salzburg University of Applied Sciences

Research output: Chapter in Book or Conference Proceedings › Conference Proceedings with Oral Presentation › peer-review

Abstract

Applications based on blockchain technology have become popular. While these applications have clear benefits, users are not yet familiar with their usage, which could hinder further applications of this technology. In this paper, an online survey with 110 potential users, as a representative of an average citizen, was conducted. The focus of this survey is to explore their preferences concerning the interaction with blockchain-based applications by mainly focusing on how to handle private keys. To best of our knowledge this is the first study where average citizens are asked about the preferred management of a private key, which is necessary when interacting with blockchain-based applications. One of the main results was that about 80% of the participants would like to have the benefit of data sovereignty despite the cost of being fully responsible to backup their credentials.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - ICISSP
Pages	23-32
Number of pages	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5220/0010173200230032
Publication status	Published - 2021
Event	ICISSP 2021 - 7th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Duration: 11 Feb 2021 → 13 Feb 2021

Conference

Conference	ICISSP 2021 - 7th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy
Period	11/02/21 → 13/02/21

Research Field

Former Research Field - Capturing Experience

Keywords

Blockchain
Trust
Key management
User study

Access to Document

10.5220/0010173200230032Licence: Unspecified

Cite this

@inproceedings{1e9d2f846f5545b5bd3f2ce2eb153fbd,

title = "Who Stores the Private Key? An Exploratory Study about User Preferences of Key Management for Blockchain-based Applications",

abstract = "Applications based on blockchain technology have become popular. While these applications have clear benefits, users are not yet familiar with their usage, which could hinder further applications of this technology. In this paper, an online survey with 110 potential users, as a representative of an average citizen, was conducted. The focus of this survey is to explore their preferences concerning the interaction with blockchain-based applications by mainly focusing on how to handle private keys. To best of our knowledge this is the first study where average citizens are asked about the preferred management of a private key, which is necessary when interacting with blockchain-based applications. One of the main results was that about 80% of the participants would like to have the benefit of data sovereignty despite the cost of being fully responsible to backup their credentials.",

keywords = "Blockchain, Trust, Key management, User study, Blockchain, Trust, Key management, User study",

author = "Clemens Brunner and G{\"u}nther Eibl and Peter Fr{\"o}hlich and Andreas Sackl and Dominik Engel",

year = "2021",

doi = "10.5220/0010173200230032",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-989-758-491-6",

pages = "23--32",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - ICISSP",

note = "ICISSP 2021 - 7th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy ; Conference date: 11-02-2021 Through 13-02-2021",

}

Brunner, C, Eibl, G, Fröhlich, P, Sackl, A & Engel, D 2021, Who Stores the Private Key? An Exploratory Study about User Preferences of Key Management for Blockchain-based Applications. in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - ICISSP. pp. 23-32, ICISSP 2021 - 7th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy, 11/02/21. https://doi.org/10.5220/0010173200230032

Who Stores the Private Key? An Exploratory Study about User Preferences of Key Management for Blockchain-based Applications. / Brunner, Clemens (Speaker); Eibl, Günther; Fröhlich, Peter et al.
Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - ICISSP. 2021. p. 23-32.

Research output: Chapter in Book or Conference Proceedings › Conference Proceedings with Oral Presentation › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Who Stores the Private Key? An Exploratory Study about User Preferences of Key Management for Blockchain-based Applications

AU - Eibl, Günther

AU - Fröhlich, Peter

AU - Sackl, Andreas

AU - Engel, Dominik

A2 - Brunner, Clemens

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Applications based on blockchain technology have become popular. While these applications have clear benefits, users are not yet familiar with their usage, which could hinder further applications of this technology. In this paper, an online survey with 110 potential users, as a representative of an average citizen, was conducted. The focus of this survey is to explore their preferences concerning the interaction with blockchain-based applications by mainly focusing on how to handle private keys. To best of our knowledge this is the first study where average citizens are asked about the preferred management of a private key, which is necessary when interacting with blockchain-based applications. One of the main results was that about 80% of the participants would like to have the benefit of data sovereignty despite the cost of being fully responsible to backup their credentials.

AB - Applications based on blockchain technology have become popular. While these applications have clear benefits, users are not yet familiar with their usage, which could hinder further applications of this technology. In this paper, an online survey with 110 potential users, as a representative of an average citizen, was conducted. The focus of this survey is to explore their preferences concerning the interaction with blockchain-based applications by mainly focusing on how to handle private keys. To best of our knowledge this is the first study where average citizens are asked about the preferred management of a private key, which is necessary when interacting with blockchain-based applications. One of the main results was that about 80% of the participants would like to have the benefit of data sovereignty despite the cost of being fully responsible to backup their credentials.

KW - Blockchain

KW - Trust

KW - Key management

KW - User study

KW - Blockchain

KW - Trust

KW - Key management

KW - User study

U2 - 10.5220/0010173200230032

DO - 10.5220/0010173200230032

M3 - Conference Proceedings with Oral Presentation

SN - 978-989-758-491-6

SP - 23

EP - 32

BT - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - ICISSP

T2 - ICISSP 2021 - 7th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy

Y2 - 11 February 2021 through 13 February 2021

ER -

Who Stores the Private Key? An Exploratory Study about User Preferences of Key Management for Blockchain-based Applications

Abstract

Conference

Research Field

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this