Critical Chains Key Objectives
The Critical-Chains project aims to tackle illicit transactions by creating a holistic and adaptable framework, including end users (customers) and financial authorities in an innovative triangular accountability model that integrates the underlying technologies and presents a novel “as-a-service” (XaaS) platform aiming to protect financial infrastructures against illegal money trafficking and fraud on FinTech e-operations. The proposed framework solves not only security and privacy problems but also accountability problems by adding the financial authorities (F) as the 3rd tier between two end nodes (Customer A and B). The targeted groups are financial authorities including banks, financial market infrastructures (i.e. Central CounterParty clearing -CCPs), stock markets, insurance companies and customers (individuals, enterprises), who have the need for secure, easily-accessible, privacy-preserving, fast, effective and low-cost contracting and transaction services.
Unlike the current blockchain services or stock markets which still rely on primitive authentication, weak cyber-infrastructure, slow transaction and insecure pseudo-crypto schemes, the novel idea behind this is to integrate the following services within an “X-as-a-service (XaaS)” model by realising a hardware-based cyber-physical security scheme over Security-Privacy Contexts Semantic Modelling. The final product will be the Critical-Chains framework that works over cloud and includes the following main building blocks
Key Objective 1 Critical-Chains MAIN FRAMEWORK which is a cloud-based data transmission, communication and financial transactions horizontal Framework (baseline system)
Key Objective 2 Cyber-Physical Security as-a-Service (CPSaaS) that is composed of:
- Blockchain Core Data Integrity layer → Blockchain-as-a-Service (BCaaS)
- AUTHenticaton and Authorisation services strengthened through hardware-based secure IoT sticks (realized at chip level enabling mini-USB and Bluetooth authentication) and biometric authentication → AUTH-as-a-Service (AUTHaaS)
- Cryptographic backend enabling symmetric cryptography, hashing, truly random number generation, prime number and key generation “as-a-Service” → Cryptography-as-a-Service (CRYPTaaS)
- Data and information Security and privacy preservation at all layers of cloud through Hardware (HW) Security Module (HSM) and effective IoT connectivity enhanced with beyond Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 chip combined within “as-a-Service” model (HwSaaS)
Key Objective3 Data flows and information modelling and regarding mining tools (for Inter-banks, Internet Banking and Financial Markets Infrastructure flows) → Flow Modelling-as-a-Service (FMaaS)