{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,25]],"date-time":"2026-04-25T14:46:38Z","timestamp":1777128398084,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,6]],"date-time":"2025-01-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1736121600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["2022JJ50153"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022JJ50153"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The cross-chain identity authentication method based on relay chains provides a promising solution to the issues brought by the centralized notary mechanism. Nonetheless, it continues to encounter numerous challenges regarding data privacy, security, and issues of heterogeneity. For example, there is a concern regarding the protection of identity information during the cross-chain authentication process, and the incompatibility of cryptographic components across different blockchains during cross-chain transactions. We design and propose a cross-chain identity privacy protection method based on relay chains to address these issues. In this method, the decentralized nature of relay chains ensures that the cross-chain authentication process is not subject to subjective manipulation, guaranteeing the authenticity and reliability of the data. Regarding the compatibility issue, we unify the user keys according to the identity manager organization, storing them on the relay chain and eliminating the need for users to configure identical key systems. Additionally, to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) principles, we store the user keys from the relay chain in distributed servers using the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). To address privacy concerns, we enable pseudonym updates based on the user\u2019s public key during cross-chain transactions. This method ensures full compatibility while protecting user privacy. Moreover, we introduce Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology, ensuring that audit nodes cannot trace the user\u2019s identity information with malicious intent. Our method offers compatibility while ensuring unlinkability and anonymity through thorough security analysis. More importantly, comparative analysis and experimental results show that our proposed method achieves lower computational cost, reduced storage cost, lower latency, and higher throughput. Therefore, our method demonstrates superior security and performance in cross-chain privacy protection.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/info16010027","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,6]],"date-time":"2025-01-06T06:43:04Z","timestamp":1736145784000},"page":"27","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Cross-Chain Identity Authentication Method Based on Relay Chain"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Qipeng","family":"Huang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Minsheng","family":"Tan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3177-9099","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wenlong","family":"Tian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2409","DOI":"10.1109\/TNSM.2022.3146929","article-title":"A cross-domain authentication scheme based on cooperative blockchains functioning with revocation for medical consortiums","volume":"19","author":"Xue","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. 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