An On-Chain Method for Automatic Entitlement Management Using Blockchain Smart Contracts

Timothy Nugent, Fabio Petroni, Benedict Whittam Smith, Jochen L. Leidner

Abstract: Managing the entitlements for the compliant use of digital assets is a complex and labour-intensive task. As a consequence, implemented processes tend to be slow and inconsistent. Automated approaches have been proposed, including systems using distributed ledger technology (blockchains), but to date these require additional off-chain sub-systems to function. In this paper, we present the first approach to entitlement management that is entirely on-chain, i.e. the functionality for matching the digitally encoded rights of content owners (expressed in ODRL) and the request for use by a customer are checked for compliance in a smart contract. We describe the matching algorithm and our experimental implementation for the Ethereum platform.