BIOMETRIC ELECTRONIC WALLET FOR DIGITAL CURRENCY

Suhas M S, Abhilash C B, Vikas K C, Amit Pareek

Abstract: Bitcoin is an experimental, decentralized digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority. Wallet is the place where Bitcoins are stored. Once Bitcoin wallet is installed on a computer or mobile phone, it will generate initial Bitcoin address and then the user can create an address for each transaction. Wallet first generates a private key and next it will converts private key to Bitcoin address. Wallet keeps track of private keys, usually by storing them in an encrypted wallet file, either on hard drive, on a server on the Internet, or elsewhere. If the private key to an address is lost (for example, in a hard drive crash, fire or other natural disaster), any associated Bitcoins are effectively lost forever. Existing solutions in the market use simple encryption mechanism to access sensitive information in electronic wallets. There is a need for a high security wallet that uses advanced encryption (AES) a nd unique access control (like finger print or facial recognition technology) as there is a high chance of security breach where hackers can steal sensitive information or electronic cash. The overall objective of this paper is to propose a biometric ele ctronic wallet to store and transfer digital currencies with high security/encryption using Biometric External USB Sensor. All client side data in mobile Bitcoin wallets will be stored in a file in mobile device only. So, anybody can access that file. Therefore, the main objective is to provide a security for client side file by using Biometric External USB Sensor and AES algorithm.

Keywords: Bitcoins, Bitcoin wallet, Biometric External USB Sensor.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0305053